Jack Reacher [Blu-Ray]

Jack Reacher is a serious contender for the year's most adequate film. Never bad, but rarely more than totally fine, the first big screen adaptation of Lee Childs's popular series featuring the no-nonsense, roving vigilante investigator is the poster child for serviceability. Diminutive Scientologist Tom Cruise as a hulking badass? He's totally fine. Cruise's eagerness to please and obsessive work ethic translate well into the personality of a highly trained tactician full of steely, unwavering confidence that can mentally and physically dismantle any opponent. As creator Childs mentions in a totally decent special feature, the story of One Shot is as solid an introduction to Reacher as any for a series that is mostly composed of one-offs. In this testosterone-filled adventure, a military sniper is accused of killing five random people (the visual conception of the shooting, which serves as the opening, is the film's best sequence). Before he slips into a custody-induced coma, he writes down the name Jack Reacher. Right on cue, Reacher arrives as the prosecution (Richard Jenkins and David Oyelowo) is wrapping up a review of the slim information they have on the mysterious Good Samaritan. Pushing an anti-death penalty agenda, a pushy defence attorney (Rosamund Pike), who is also the lead prosecutor's daughter, takes a special interest in the case, eagerly cooperating with Reacher in the hopes that his disciplined methodology will uncover the evidence needed to keep her client from the electric chair. There's a bit of sexual tension between Reacher and Helen (Pike), but it's minimized, to the point where an entire music cue was scrapped for implying too much romance, according to composer Joe Kramer, in his very informative but frequently silent commentary track. In addition to that unusual but very welcome form of special feature, there is an absolutely okay behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get the film into production, an extraordinarily alright bit on our gruff hero's street brawler fighting style and a phenomenally fine talk with author Lee Childs on his methods, the history of the character and how he views the public response to his thought baby. Oh, there's also a commentary track with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise. It's technically detailed, to the point of nearly wearing its interest out. In other words, it's fine too.