CLAatWisfy actiSon fans,
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TOM Cruise’s former military policeman has a lot on his hands in his second big screen adventure.
In Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, the supertough sleuth has to unearth his paternal instincts as he goes on the run with 15-year-old Sam (Danika Yarosh) while trying to uncover a sinister conspiracy at the heart of the US army.
With the movie now out on DVD, Cruise reveals what drew him to British novelist Lee Child’s most famous creation. A: Lee’s books are enormously entertaining and very satisfying, and I think Reacher is an iconic literary character – a guy who really thinks and fights his way out of situations. I enjoy the full body aspect of this character. He’s very WHEN a film cuts to another movie, it’s usually a sign the director has suffered a loss of nerve.
It happens most often in lowbudget horrors. After the umpteenth squirt of ketchup, the characters settle down to watch Night of the Living Dead on TV.
It’s the filmmakers getting their excuses in early – the TV scene is shorthand for “not all cheap films are rubbish”.
Logan’s TV scene comes about half way through its 135 minutes. This time the characters take a break to watch classic western Shane.
“We know this is all terribly depressing, but it’s good for you,” is the message from director James Mangold. “You’re watching another classic.”
The grim, bloody Logan – Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie – is a stylish comic book western which bravely breaks the X-Men template by heaping misery on its audience from the opening frame.
It’s the year 2029 and nearly all the mutants have been exterminated by a despotic regime. Jackman’s hero is now an alcoholic limo driver whose powers of regeneration are on the wane. When he’s not
ferrying around hen parties, he’s delivering pills to dementia stricken Professor X (Patrick Stewart) who he has stowed in a grain silo in Mexico with a cranky albino carer called Caliban (a surprisingly good Stephen Merchant).
As no new mutant has been born for 20 years, it seems the Professor’s idealistic plans are all but dead.
But the good prof isn’t done for yet. In a moment of clarity, he manages to sense the presence of a new mutant.
Laura (Dafne Keen) is an 11-yearold mute Hispanic girl who has Logan’s powers and is introduced in a great opening scene where she slices and dices a pack of goons.
With a slimy scientist (Richard E Grant) and an evil mercenary (Boyd Holbrook) on their tail, the trio embark on a road trip to a mythical mutant sanctuary.
There are some well-crafted and unusually gory fight scenes, some very moody cinematography and impressive performances from Stewart and Jackman.
But the Shane clips don’t do Grant and Holbrook any favours – their one-note villains are a far cry from Emile Meyer and Jack Palance’s baddies.
And the relationship between Jackman’s world-weary outlaw and the innocent kid already felt stale when they wheeled it out for the last Jack Reacher film. The film’s merits only underline these shaky foundations. Mangold may have copied a classic, but he hasn’t crafted
a new one.