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.

Review: Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol

The third installment in the Mission Impossible franchise was lost under the wave of Crazy Cruise-bashing that surrounded its release, meaning that one of the biggest movie stars of all time grabbed more headlines for being a settee jumping Scientologist rather than starring in one of the best Hollywood action films of the noughties so far.

With the likes of Valkyrie and Knight & Day being solid if unspectacular efforts, Cruise needed Mission Impossible 4 to hit the spot to show he still had the star power to open a movie, Jeremy Renner seemingly drafted into the cast in case everything went tits up again this time around.

Katie and Suri will glad to know that Tom is safe for a while as Mission Impossible 4 is the strongest film in the set so far, with a series of set pieces that make full use of the IMAX format - most action films would be pretty happy with a sequence as good as Cruise and crew breaking into the Kremlin, but they then go and top it minutes later with some thrilling stunts on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

As a result, the films finale feels a slight anti-climax as after all Ethan Hunt has been through, struggling to fight a 50 year old in a fancy car park seems a bit of a let down. Pixar's Brad Bird directs the film with flair, but the JJ Abrams influence is still prevalent and feels similar in tone to the job Joss Whedon did with Avengers Assemble - the Marvel film may be set to be the blockbuster box office hit of 2012, but MI:4 is worthy of being held in equal critical esteem.