Jack Reacher (2012)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog, David Oyelow, Robert Duvall

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Rating: B+

I am not a Jack Reacher fan.  I've never read the books, had never even heard of them before the movie caught my interest.  As such, I have no clue just how wrong for this role Tom Cruise is or just how much they messed up the book.  And, in all honesty, I don't really care - while I am all for trying to be true to the books as much as possible, not knowing the books I can say that this was a good movie and Tom Cruise was great in this role.

In Pittsburgh a man goes to a parking garage, pulls out a sniper rifle, and kills five people.  The case, headed by Detective Emerson (Oyelow), appears to be quickly solved, with all the evidence being linked to former U.S. Army sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora).  When interrogated by the Detective and the District Attorney Alex Rodin (Jenkins), Barr is given a choice between confessing and facing the death penalty - and instead instructs them to find Jack Reacher (Cruise).  Reacher is a former U.S. Army Military Police Corps Officer who now exists as a drifter and has a history with Barr.  The question is, can Reacher prove Barr's innocence - and does Reacher even want to do so?  Rounding out the case is Barr's defence attorney, and the D.A.'s daughter, Helen Rodin (Pike), who believes that if the case goes to court Barr will not get a fair trial, owing to her father's tactics.  Oh, and then Barr is brutally attacked by fellow inmates and put into a coma, the question now being whether or not he'll be considered fit for trial at all.

I really liked this movie.  The action is great - I particularly loved the car chases which did away with a lot of the jumpy confusion typical of the genre - the humour is snappy, the suspense is sound.  I like how you know whether or not Barr's innocent from the get go, but you still get to watch Reacher and Helen put things together - and see as their opponents try to prevent them from being able to do so.  Pieces start to be put together, but it isn't until closer to the end of the movie that you have it all, and you're liable to be surprised by the picture that you end up seeing - it's not necessarily the one on the box.

I'm not going to comment too much on the book-to-movie transition, because as I've already mentioned, I haven't read the books.  I will say, for those who are unsure of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher because of the books, the casting came with the support of the author.  In the books, Reacher is a giant of a man and Tom Cruise... well, Tom Cruise is not (although, credit goes to the way they chose to film this, which kind of hides how short he really is... granted, that's a common theme in Tom Cruise movies).   Lee Child has said "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way" and that "With another actor you might get 100% of the height but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height."  Yes, Tom Cruise is short, but there was never a moment in this movie when I thought that he was really anything less than intimidating and a very viable threat.  He definitely portrays an unstoppable force, regardless of how tall he is (or is not).

My final note here is regarding the potential sequel.  There are something like 17 stories written about Jack Reacher, the bulk of which are novels.  It's being reported that a sequel is unlikely due to the film's box-office performance (while it's done well and made more than double what it cost to make, it's about $100 million short of what they wanted if they were to do a sequel), I do hope that they go for it.  This seems like it could be a fun franchise; it's up Tom Cruise's alley, and really I don't need to see another Mission Impossible.  It'd be nice to see Tom Cruise embark on a new franchise.  That being said, I'm also still hoping that Christopher Nolan decides to do another Batman movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Nightwing.  I can't be the only one.

Top Gun (1986)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Meg Ryan, Rick Rossovich, Whip Hubley, James Tolkan

Director: Tony Scott

Genre: Action, Drama, Romance

Rating: B

This has long been a favourite movie of mine, and is in my opinion probably one of the best Tony Scott films there is (which is either saying a lot or not much at all, depending on your overall opinion of Tony Scott movies).  Top Gun is ridiculously cheesy at points and really kind of bad, but at the same time it’s so good it’s easy to forgive the cheese.   It’s not exactly a mindless action film, but it definitely has a lot of the characteristics of one – if you don’t spend too much time thinking about the movie and just enjoy the ride then it’s a good one.

Top Gun follows US Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) and his wingman Radar Intercept Officer Lieutenant Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards) after they essentially luck out and get a ticket to the Top Gun school at NAS Miramar, despite the fact that Maverick is considered to be a rather reckless fighter.  There, Maverick competes with fellow pilot LT Tom “Iceman” Kasansky (Kilmer) for the position of top pilot – with Iceman considering Maverick to be dangerous – while also wooing civilian instructor Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (McGillis).  Oh, and there’s the music.  I love the soundtrack to Top Gun, which is furthered by the fact that my three favourite songs on the soundtrack are all original songs for the movie itself – “Danger Zone,” “Take My Breath Away” and “Top Gun Anthem.”  If you don’t like the first two, you might want to skip this movie as they’re both played a lot.

Okay, so the premise of the movie is a bit ridiculous and in many ways rather typical of the armed forces (in whatever variation) type movie, especially when an outright war isn’t actually used.  The acting, however is good – whatever you might feel about Tom Cruise’s personal life, you can usually count on him to bring in a good performance.  I’m not sure if you can say as much about the rest of the cast, with the exception of Tom Skerritt and Anthony Edwards, who I either don’t know from anything else or can be a bit unpredictable in the roles they pick.  Granted, Tom Cruise has become a bit unpredictable as of late too.  I enjoy the chemistry between Maverick and Charlie, even if I do question just how quickly their relationship progresses – we don’t really get to see it develop, it just happens.  The film’s a bit bogged down by the whole search for why Maverick is the way he is; the daddy issues are both over used and unnecessary.  I would have completely bought the whole “Maverick is reckless because he’s a young guy who’s flying a fucking jet” storyline.  More depth wasn’t really necessary.

Where this film really succeeds, however, is in the jets.  The flying is cool, even if it’s reckless and possibly unrealistic.   I actually really don’t care (or know) if it’s unrealistic and the fact that it’s reckless is a huge part of why it seems so cool.  It is fun watching people do stuff that could potentially get them killed.  That’s why people like watching action flicks; it’s all about the danger that the characters appear to put themselves into.  Top Gun appears to have a lot of danger and cool stunts, which the characters are always eager to point out to us.  Where the movie fails is in its drama and romance, both of which really provides a surplus of cheese.  While there’s chemistry between Maverick and Charlie there’s nothing original, unique, or really cool about the relationship.  The music does kind of fail here too; as much as I love the soundtrack, I do have to say that the same songs are played over and over again, in a way to the detriment of the film itself.  It’s one thing to have a thematic song for a movie, it’s another thing to have a few thematic songs and to play them almost exclusively – something that’s made worse by the fact that this isn’t a movie that should need to depend on the soundtrack.  I love music based movies where the one song is sung more than a few times because it’s the song that the characters are writing or it’s part of a performance, or whatever.  But when it’s just the background music, it can get a bit stale and kind of suggests that there isn’t that much in the way of a music budget – they probably spent it all on the jets.  Which, really, was a wise choice.  I mean, it’s jets.  I can forgive a lot of cheese and a repetitive soundtrack in favour of stunts with jets, especially when I enjoy the songs themselves.

Rock of Ages (2012)

Stars: Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige, Malin Åkerman, Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise, Bryan Cranston
Director: Adam Shankman
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical
Rating: A

If you dislike musicals, cheesy romances, or 80s metal pop then Rock of Ages is not your cup of tea.  With that warning out, I have to say that Rock of Ages was absolutely awesome.  From the moment that Hough and a bus full of extras began singing “Sister Christian” I was hooked.  The music in this film is awesome – albeit a bit too dependent on “Don’t Stop Believing” for the post-Glee era – and will get you tapping your feet, nodding your head, and maybe even sing along as the film progresses.  The acting is also amazing, from the big names who are known for their acting to those who really aren’t – I suspect this is the only time I’ll ever be saying that a Russell Brand movie was epic and awesome.

Rock of Ages is a multidimensional movie; it presents itself first as being about a girl from Oklahoma, Sherrie Christian (Hough), trying to make it big and find love in Los Angeles.  On her first day in the city she meets barback and fellow singer Drew Boley (Boneta) and lands a job working with him at The Bourbon Room – a nightclub on the Sunset Strip known for being where some amazing albums were recorded.  There’s more to the film than just that though; Bourbon Room owner Dennis Dupree (Baldwin) owes taxes and is being threatened with the closure of his club, with a protest against it and the Strip in general being helmed by a group of religious, conservative mothers lead by Patricia Whitmore (Zeta-Jones), wife of Mayor Mike Whitman (Cranston).  Wrapping it all up is Stacee Jaxx (Cruise), rock legend and lead singer of the band Arsenal.  At the start of the film Arsenal is about to play their last gig ever, as Stacee is about to embark on a solo act – as encouraged by his manager Paul Gill (Giamatti) and questioned by Rolling Stones reporter Constance Sack (Åkerman).

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: the music in Rock of Ages is awesome.  For the most part the cast are all good singers, or at least had parts that related well to their vocal ranges.  When it comes to the songs of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Whitesnake Tom Cruise really can sing.  Alec Baldwin can’t, and neither can Paul Giamatti, but their singing parts were considerably less than the other members of the cast, and as already mentioned what they had to sing really did fit their voices and roles.  My one problem with the music overall was the fact that I felt that the songs didn’t go on long enough.  A lot of them were felt like very, very shortened versions of the songs that we know and love, which was a bit of a disappointment.  To really make up for this a few of the songs are also done as medleys, which I think really worked.  These songs complement each other, and by doing them as medleys the film is able to interconnect and juxtapose the different plots.  You also have to say something about the way the music is done in general.  I made a comment in my review for High School Musical 2 about how they’re singing and dancing about how singing and dancing is lame.  In Rock of Ages they sing rock songs to protest against rock music – while doing choreography that involves pelvic thrusts and gyrating hips, in a church.  While it's rather lame in High School Musical 2 it's awesome in Rock of Ages.

The story is awesome as well; a lot of it is pretty tried and tested, from the young lovers, to the old, down-on-his-luck club owner, to the religious fanatic with a past.  If you can’t identify at least five other movies that tell the basically the same stories that Rock of Ages has you’re not really trying.  The way that the film puts these stories together, however, is fun and in parts original and a bit shocking.  This movie is also funny, with my favourite character being Stacee Jaxx’s alcohol serving, violence prone baboon, Hey Man.  That’s right, there’s an alcohol serving, violence prone baboon.  What more can you ask for in a movie?