Reacher

He just walks the Earth–you know, like Caine from Kung Fu

Reacher (2022)

Amazon Prime; 3/5

Jack Reacher seems to be, for better or worse, a platonic ideal. The character might even shade into Mary Sue territory. He’s an ultra-masculine dude who knows everything about guns and tactics, and is a genius deductive investigator. He cares very little for the trappings of modern society (he has no internet presence and drifts around America with no permanent home, needing only a Western Union to withdraw his Army pension money, a thrift store to keep himself clothed, and whatever motels and diners he passes along the way) but has a deep sense of anti-bully decency that leads him to champion the cause of the downtrodden wherever he goes. And he’s a peak physical specimen, cut like a plowhorse, with top notch hand-to-hand combat skills. That’s a lot. 

That last bit also seems to be where the Tom Cruise portrayals of the character met with fan criticism (necessitating this “reboot”). Cruise simply doesn’t have the physicality that Lee Child writes into the character (across 40 novels and short stories). So it looks like the right call to cast Alan Ritchson in the role for this Amazon production. It’s pretty clear that one of the fundamental throughlines of the Jack Reacher character is that he doesn’t need anything from anybody. He’s entirely self-sufficient and capable of taking care of himself. In Cruise’s hands, that comes off arrogant. Ritchson isn’t as strong an actor overall, but he’s a good choice here, turning Reacher into a gentle giant who isn’t gentle when his unerring sense of morality is offended. There’s something a little weird about the way Ritchson walks (he needs more swagger) but that’s a minor quibble. 

Besides that bit of casting, though, this show is tonally identical to the earlier Cruise stuff. Reacher gets involved in a mystery (more or less inadvertently) and solves it by the end, upon which time he rides into the sunset (via a Greyhound bus). It’s pretty old-school hero stuff, where good guys and bad guys are obvious and the good guys win (with the occasional boob out because this is a streaming show). Because it’s old-school hero stuff, though, there also aren’t a lot of surprises. You might find that cliche and tired, or you might find it comfortably familiar. 

3 stars of 5: I liked it, but there’s not enough new here to merit watching it more than once.