This Rotten Week: Predicting Jack Reacher, This is 40, And More Reviews

After weeks of skating by with one movie here, two there, the studios saw fit to dump a full on smorgasbord on us all at once. No time or words to spare. We’ve got Jack Reacher, guilt trips, manhunts, mid-life crises, and acrobats.

Note: Won’t be doing Monsters, Inc (3D) because Rotten Tomatoes combines its reviews with the original making a prediction moot. Instead, replacing it with Zero Dark Thirty in a slippery slope effort to hit on limited releases garnering a fair amount of buzz. Started this precedent with Lincoln and in time will probably regret it. All for the greater good.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at what This Rotten Week has to offer.

Jack Reacher

Having never read any Jack Reacher books, I decided to do a little research on the guy. By research I mean reading his Wikipedia page. And by guy I mean fake book character. Reacher at 6’5” 215 pounds, is a hard-around-the-edges drifter, smart as a whip, reserved in groups, level-headed, agoraphobic, and a killing machine. The choice to play this man? The 5’7’, 170 pound, clean cut, crazy-ish, serial dating/ marrying, spotlight-seeking Scientologist, who jumps on couches to profess his love for girlfriends. Yup, seems like perfect casting.

Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher might not be exactly how Jim Grant (non de plume: Lee Child) drew it up in his head. But whatever, Cruise will be Cruise and this flick looks like the kind of action-y TC vehicle we’re used to. Think a mashup of Knight & Day (53%) and the Mission Impossible‘s with a sprinkling of War of the Worlds (74%). It’s got that kind of feel. And though Tommy might do a bit more scowling in this one than his other work (and plenty of fish-tailing in his roadster, seems to happen every third frame and replaces his signature running straight ahead move), the film at least looks entertaining. If nothing else, Cruise does entertaining flicks.

Christopher McQuarrie (wrote and produced Valkyrie-61%, directed The Way of the Gun-48%) adapts the book character into something that looks like it plays on the big screen. Early reviews are positive and point to a crime thriller that has enough fun playing to Cruise’s on screen sensibilities. But I don’t see it maintaining the 70% it has now. In fact, I think we see a drop of about fifteen percent going forward. The early reviews have that good, not great, feel that can indicate an impending dip. The Rotten Watch for Jack Reacher is 55%

Source : cinemablend