Jack Reacher

A truly odd hybrid of thoughtful and clever with obvious and dumb, with giant head-scratching plot holes.
Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher, a vigilante fascist: a genius detective in the Army MPs, gifted and unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat, and an ace sniper too. He quits the Army, disposes of all his possessions, and lives simply, wandering the world, with only the clothes on his back. Kind of like David Banner on The Incredible Hulk TV show, he strolls into town when he's needed, the loner and epitome of self-reliance.
Reacher gets drawn into a horrible sniper shooting, where there's more to this seemingly random violence than it appears. Rosamund Pike (whom I love) is solid as the crusading defense lawyer who prods Reacher's humanity; David Oyelowo is great as a suspicious homicide detective; Jai Courtney is creepy as a wholesome, middle-America murderer.

"Is that a Blackberry?"

The clues and puzzles that Reacher solves are interesting, so the mystery-solving is satisfying, and the car chases are terrific; I read that Cruise did his own driving, and it sure looks like it. Also, the cars look, feel, and sound like real cars in real chase conditions- a real treat.
While solving the mystery is very satisfying, the solution is a conspiracy that doesn't make any damn sense, and the motivation of the villains is such small potatoes to make the whole movie seem, well, pointless.
The movie begins with an intimate perspective on a sniper killing five innocent civilians. This was very disturbing, and it would take a lot to win back the trust of a shocked audience. In the end, I found the whole enterprise a little disjointed. My grade: C-plus (Amazon Prime Instant Video)