Review: Jack Reacher

The problem isn't that Tom Cruise is too small to play Jack Reacher, its that his performance as the drifter/detective is far too similar to his turn as Ethan Hunt to make the film stand out.

That said, being reminiscent of the Mission Impossible films means that what you do get from Jack Reacher is more than decent, but in place of huge action set pieces and aerial stunts you get lots of hand to hand combat and a few chase scenes thrown in, meaning this also has echoes of the Bourne series of films - and this is definitely a class above the recent Bourne Legacy reboot.

The film's trump card could've been Werner Herzog as the elusive über villain, but the problem is he's just too darn elusive - only popping up for 2 or 3 scenes. When he does appear, he oozes menace and you find it hard to believe you're watching a 12a with some of the grizzly stuff he gets up to.

The film slightly overstays its welcome with a running time over 2 hours and a story that finishes about 15 minutes before the film actually does, but Jack Reacher is worthy of another shot at starting a series, even if its managed to scale the heights of other similar films so far.