Jack Reacher

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Tom Cruise is still looking for the truth, even after Jack Nicholson has warned against it.
Jack Reacher is a former Army detective, who after serving a great portion of his life to the service disappears in America and hasn't been heard tracked down for years. He rises up out of the shadows when former Army Sniper James Barr is arrested for shooting and killing five random people in downtown Pittsburgh. Reacher has a history with Barr and wants to make sure Barr is locked up for good. (I resisted the urge to say "put Barr behind bars") Once Reacher gets to Pittsburgh, much to his surprise, he finds out that Barr asked for him by name. Unfortunately Reacher can't ask him why because of a coma, and the only thing that is keeping him from disappearing again is Barr's attorney Helen. She is fighting to give Barr a fair trial, because her dad, the district attorney, is doing everything he can to put Barr to death. Add a few plot twists, car chases, street fighting, and more Tom Cruise one-liners than Jerry Maguire, and you get Jack Reacher.

 It's easy to say that Jack Reacher tried to put more twists into this movie than a Twizzler. It's easy to get away with this in a book because there is more material to surround the twists. It's easier to add depth to the characters that these plot twists and cover ups happen to. Jack Reacher never really had any flow to its storyline. You never get to see any personal storyline for Jack Reacher, you get a nice list of his accomplishments, but that's about all you get as far as knowing who Jack Reacher is as a person. Reacher was presented more as a machine than a person. There was never any doubt that things would wrap itself up in a nice little bow throughout the movie because Reacher was presented without any weakness. The fighting and shooting scenes were nice and well choreographed and they were mainly the highlight of the movie. The car chase is  the climax point of the movie. When Jack Reacher gets set up for a murder, he gets chased down by the police while also chasing the guys that set him up. The ending of the chase is also the most memorable. Reacher turns onto a street, slows the car to a roll and steps out of the car. He slowly walks over to a group of people waiting for the bus. Suddenly cop cars and helicopters swoop in and surround the now empty car. The group of people help surround this stranger they don't know and one man even gives Reacher his baseball cap to better hide himself. Welcome to Pittsburgh! As the police surround the empty car the bus fills and drives off...... Am I the only one who doesnt see how, in any way, the police would let that bus go anywhere? Yes, its meant to be a funny scene where Reacher gets out of the grasp of the cops but could they have found a better way of doing it? Couldn't it have been a little more believable?

 Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher well. As stated before, you don't really know who Reacher is through out the movie, but Tom gave us the little emotion needed for his character. There were only two supporting actors worth mentioning in this movie, Jai Courtney and Robert Duvall. Jai Courtney plays Charlie the cold hearted killer that sets up Barr. Jai is a new face and seems to have the demeanor to really break out as the next action star. Robert Duvall is the most experienced actor in this movie and he does a great job with the little screen time he has. Duvall plays Cash, a former Marine who runs a shooting range that Barr and Charlie went to every weekend. Duvall plays this character naturally and I might be biased, but he does the best job out of everyone in the movie. Also I'd like to point out this is the first time both Robert Duvall and Tom Cruise has shared the screen since Days of Thunder. I really have nothing to add to that, I just liked that movie.

 Also Tom Cruise is known for always having one scene where he runs with with absolute no abandon. If you don't believe me I have proof. Sadly you wont see an intense running scene in this movie. If there was a scene where Tom Cruise ran  intensely, this movie would have gotten a full point higher grade from me.

 This movie had quite a bit of downfalls. If you're looking for a brainless action movie and you dont care about acting or a plot, this movie is for you. For the rest of you, look elsewhere.

Also I might be bringing in a few new reviewers to write for this site. So look for reviews to come out at a faster pace.

 Don't forget to vote for the Netflix review this week. Voting ends Wednesday night.

Warm Bodies

Follow @SMindedMovie Just your classic story of Romeo and Juliet, if Romeo was an undead lurker and Juliet thinks Romeo will try to eat her brains for half the movie.

Before now every zombie movie had one common similarity, you kill zombies and don't let them eat you. Though Warm bodies is not the first movie to do this, it was certainly the best movie I've seen that portrays the zombie apocalypse from the eyes of the zombie. It's pretty easy to pick up that this is a modern undead retelling of Romeo and Juliet. The main zombie doesn't remember his name, all he can remember is that it starts with "R" (like Romeo). Julie (very close to Juliet) is the main counterpart of this romantic comedy. If you are still not convinced this is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene removes all doubt.

The cast is really what brings this undead movie to life. Nicholas Hoult play's the main zombie "R" and is very believable as a zombie with a heart. Theresa Palmer plays Julie and R's love interest. I was a little upset that John Malkovich didn't get as much screen time as Julie's father and avid zombie hunter General Grigio. The parts of the movie that Malkovich was in, were great, but I felt that in order to really understand and feel his hate for zombies we could have used just one more scene to experience his backstory. The real gold in this movie were from the other supporting actors. Analeigh plays Nora, Julie's best friend,  and does a great job in bringing a spice of life to the human side of the storyline when the focus was mainly on the zombies. Rob Corddry plays "M" the best friend of R and quite honestly steals the show with his one-liners. At first all the zombies could only grunt, but as the movie progresses so does the language of the zombies. Rob Corddry, with his comedic style and timing takes what could have been a mediocre character and made him unforgettable.

Though Warm Bodies is a zombie movie don't expect "Dawn of the Dead" or even "The Walking Dead" type of gore and violence. This movie has more of a focus on the love story than the gore. Many of the basic "rules" of zombie movies aren't kept with Warm Bodies. I was troubled with this at first then quickly realized how ridiculous I was by being upset about not following the same guidelines as everyone else does with a fictional genre.

Through the months of January and February there will be many movies coming out that will just not be that great at all. When you find a movie within that time that is actually watchable, let alone enjoyable, take advantage of it. If you are interested in a movie with a good amount of comedy and heart, this movie is for you. Follow @SMindedMovie on Twitter Like Simple Minded Movies on Facebook Also I'll be putting out a monthly Podcast all about movies starting some time next week. So keep an eye out for that as well.

Promised Land

Follow @SMindedMovie Promised Land Jason Bourne takes on Jim Halpert in a thrilling showdown where the lives of a small farming town are at stake. I go to the movie theater quite a bit; with a friend or two; with a huge group of people; even by myself. Sitting in a dark room, my soft drink awaiting my grip in the cup holder, popcorn in my lap as it slowly empties. Leaving my world behind as I get pulled into the excitement waiting for me on the other side of the screen. While I've watched so many movies this past year Promised Land has been one movie that seems to sneak in to every set of previews. At first the movie didn't seem very interesting beyond the point that Matt Damon and John Krasinski were starring in it. One thing that always caught my eye was "From the Director of Good Will Hunting." The first few times I watched this preview, Good Will Hunting was in my Netflix instant queue and had yet to be watched. Once I took the time to cross Good Will Hunting off my "you gotta see that" list, I had a new passion to see this movie. Rafer Guzman of Newsday says Promised Land was "A well-intentioned look at a fraught issue, but the Damon-Krasinski screenplay ultimately opts for Hollywood oversimplification." (full review here)  If you had to read over the word fraught a few times and thought to yourself whether that is a made up word or not, it means its loaded. I believe what Mr. Guzman is trying to say here is that for such a loaded issue such as fracking, this script, and ultimately, this movie was way too simple to really handle the grand picture of what fracking really is. Thank you, Mr. Guzman, will you be telling me that  Little Big League is too simple of a movie for me to really grasp what it's like managing a Major League Baseball team? Of course the script for Promised Land is simple, its made with the thought in mind that not everyone going to see it will have a Major in Agricultural Science. If, after watching the movie, people want to research what is really going on with fracking, they can do that on their own time. There is no need to stretch a movie that is an hour and forty six minutes long, into a two and a half hour movie so everyone watching now knows the ins and outs of fracking.  This was not the movie I was hoping it would be. There were parts that dragged, parts that made very little sense, and a final twist that with modern technology, like the internet, never should have happened. On the other hand, the characters were warm and easily relatable. My favorite part in the movie was an angry speech Damon gave to a few drunk guys at a bar when his character was at his last straw. The emotion felt real enough to actually care with how the movie would end.  I've seen better movies. I've also seen much worse. If you have already watched the many great movies out right now and are looking for something to take up a few hours of your time, this would work fine for you.