I realize I'm about a year late to this party, but when I fired up Amazon Prime today I noticed the movie is now included in Prime, free. I am an old Lee Child fan, having read most of his Reacher books at least 3 or 4 times. When seeing the casting of Tom Cruise, I thought "no way", but he carried it off very well. I think he took a little more beating in the movie than the book, but it was a good 2 hours, nonetheless. Very entertaining, even though it departed from the book's plot somewhat. Nice touch was the cameo appearance by Lee Child.
 
I am ready to start The Midnight Line, which I picked up from the Library of Congress just yesterday. Have to finish my current Kindle book first.
 
 

I try hard not to bring Hollywood's politics into my entertainment. It's served me well. Both Reacher movies were very good.

I thought the first one was fairly decent.

The second one (also watched on Amazon prime) was an absolute stinker.

Never Go Back wasn't as well received here as the first one was. I thought it was okay.

I've read most of the Reacher books and when the first movie was announced with Tom Cruise as Reacher I about choked. The books continually describe Reacher as a big, intimidating guy so the casting decision came across as WTF. I skipped it in the theaters and finally watched when it hit HBO. I was surprised that I liked it and beyond the physical size disconnect thought the movie was well done and entertaining.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back didn't have the same effect on me, it was lacking something and didn't hold my interest like the first movie. Not bad but kinda mediocre in comparison. For some strange reason I started associating the title "Never Go Back" with the "Never go full retard" quote from Tropic Thunder. In my warped brain the movie's title is now Jack Reacher: Never Go Full Retard.

I thought it was literally one of the worst hunks of dog shit I have ever seen. Predictable garbage

I wouldn't recommend the movie. The book is good. Just noticed the new Reacher novel (#22) The Midnight Line is out.

Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo from the Rome series) would have been the perfect choice for the Jack Reacher charater.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo from the Rome series) would have been the perfect choice for the Jack Reacher charater.

^^^^^^ YES YES YES

First one is better. Second one is just okay but really enjoy the first.

 
I just watched the first (2012) movie. Incredibly, Amazon charges you for the older movie but gives you the new one for free.
 
First movie was better. Reacher still gets beat a bit harder than he does in the books. It is closer to the book. Another great Lee Child cameo.
 

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo from the Rome series) would have been the perfect choice for the Jack Reacher charater.

Ray Stevenson doesn't sell tickets.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
I just watched the first (2012) movie. Incredibly, Amazon charges you for the older movie but gives you the new one for free.
 

 

Sounds about right, the first one is worth paying for.

That said, I finally saw the 2nd one this week since it was free. I went in expecting nothing due to it getting trashed here. Since I was expecting garbage, I thought it was decent. Had I gone into it blind expecting it to be as good as the 1st, I'd have been pissed.

I've read every Reacher novel (Sigforum instant karma got me started reading the series) and I've seen both movies. Movies were better than expected, but still had a hard time getting past Cruise's size. I watched the first one with my Dad and he didn't get the bad ass persona until I shared Reacher's real physical dimensions (6'5", 250 lbs, hands the size of dinner plates).

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo from the Rome series) would have been the perfect choice for the Jack Reacher charater.

Ray Stevenson doesn't sell tickets.

Frankly, Cruise didn't sell many tickets in the two Reacher movies - $80M gross and $58M gross according to IMDB.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is certainly the right size for Reacher, and he has starred in several movies that grossed 2 to 4 times more than either Reacher movie.

Chris Hemsworth is the also right size and he also has starred in several movies (e.g. the 2 Thor movies) that grossed 2 to 4 times more than either Reacher movie.