Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher???

[cougar14]

Back in town..

Gone to Reno for a couple of days, catching up on posts, got quite a few responses. Good to know there's lots of interest in the integrity of a character's impact as we see only in our mind's eye. Maybe Merlin Olsen could have taken it on. Also agree w/Jframe, Joe Don Baker in his day could have been JR.

Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire was cast well by Robert Taylor, an Australian actor, not so well known here, but very good.

 

[Snapping Twig]

Taking nothing away from Tom Cruise's acting abilities, he's just plain the wrong call for Jack Reacher.

The Rock would be the right idea here. Someone big, articulate and unstoppable.

The rock would be a believable former MP and have the physical presence to fulfill the requirements for the character.

Cruise on the other hand...

I suppose with ramps and forced perspective...

 

[DeadWhiteGoose]

All I know is I don't like how ridiculously cocky Cruise acts in the trailer. It's just over the top and too unbelievable. I'm 6'3 and 220lbs and pretty sure I could kick Tom Cruise's ***. Should I just play Reacher?

 

[cougar14]

All I know is I don't like how ridiculously cocky Cruise acts in the trailer. It's just over the top and too unbelievable. I'm 6'3 and 220lbs and pretty sure I could kick Tom Cruise's ***. Should I just play Reacher?

Can you lose 20 pounds, then put on 50 pounds of muscle?

 

[DeadWhiteGoose]

Haha for a big hollywood movie contract? Hell ya I can!

 

[UncleEd]

Of course, Tom Cruise without makeup and camera tricks does look like Les Grossman, bald, fat and vile.

So maybe by the time the Reacher film is generally released, he'll look to be more than six feet and over 200 pounds.

 

[guy22]

I've never read a Jack Reacher book. All I know of him is what I read here. But he seems a sort of macho chest-thumper designed to appeal to rednecks insecure about their virility.

Actually, Texas Star, There's none of that at all in these books. In the first few books, Reacher was a West Point graduate, Major, highly decorated Army veteran of many combat operations. It really is a good read.

I did not know John D. MacDonald was anti-gun. You wouldn't know it from any of his books.

What has set Lee Child's character Reacher apart from others is his size, smarts, and I'll leave tomorrow traveling ways.

Also he will kill you, if you need killing, and not blink

I can't think of anybody that can play his character now. Tom Selleck might have in the day.
JMHO
Guy22

 

[cougar14]

Maybe the real problem with casting Reacher is that there's so few roles looking for a character like this, that there's just no one entering the acting career with these physical attributes. They'd starve unless something like Reacher came along. Tom Cruise would've been better cast as James West than Will Smith, had the producers thought it might have been a blockbuster.

 

[Kanewpadle]

All I know is I don't like how ridiculously cocky Cruise acts in the trailer. It's just over the top and too unbelievable. I'm 6'3 and 220lbs and pretty sure I could kick Tom Cruise's ***. Should I just play Reacher?

Now that's funny. Size ain't everything buddy. And to assume is foolish at best.

 

[cougar14]

...you don't know Jack...

 

[WC145]

Now that's funny. Size ain't everything buddy. And to assume is foolish at best.

Size ain't everything but, in a fight, big is always a nice place to start. In this case think .45acp vs .380 when you imagine Tom Cruise @ 5' 6"/150# vs DWG @ 6'3"/220#. My moneys on the Goose. Cruise might be able to act tough but that size and weight disparity would be mighty difficult to overcome for somebody that actually knows how to fight, never mind a puny actor that is accustomed to unlimited takes and an editing team to make it look like he knows what he's doing.

 

[Kanewpadle]

...you don't know Jack...

Don't want to either.

 

[Martimus]

If Cruise does anything like he's done in previous movies, he'll probably stand on a box or wear a pair of platform boots.

Another possible actor that they could have considered for JR is Karl Urban. I'm not a big fan of his work, especially since he's just done the reboot of Judge Dredd, but he's 6-foot 1-inches tall... and he probably had to bulk up for the Dredd role.

 

[DeadWhiteGoose]

Now that's funny. Size ain't everything buddy. And to assume is foolish at best.

Haha well I know that well. But I can also say that I've trained martial arts most of my life and that there is a good reason why boxing or mma have weight classes

 

[Kanewpadle]

Just watched the trailer on IMDb.com.....

Cruise does look taller! NOT!!

 

[Texas Star]

If Cruise does anything like he's done in previous movies, he'll probably stand on a box or wear a pair of platform boots.

Another possible actor that they could have considered for JR is Karl Urban. I'm not a big fan of his work, especially since he's just done the reboot of Judge Dredd, but he's 6-foot 1-inches tall... and he probably had to bulk up for the Dredd role.

Never heard of Karl Urban, but saw Keith Urban this week with his lady, Nicole Kidman. Wow, she always picks shorter guys.

 

[mac2]

I too had never heard of Jack Reacher until the announcement of the Cruise film but, speaking as someone of the same height as TC and sometimes there are problems due to lack of height, maybe the character could be renamed Jack Cant-reach?

Also, is there a height trend in the characters TC plays - as in taller? Von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie (6' 3"), Jack Reacher (6' 5") - who's next - Jaws in a remake of the Bond movies 7' 2"?

 

[DCWilson]

If you see the actor rather than the character, the actor is not doing his job. A persuasive stony gaze can add 8-10 inches and 50 pounds of muscle to anybody. Cruise may look wimpy when he's not in character, but I suspect he can deliver the goods. Both Audie Murphy and Alan Ladd played bigger on the screen than they were in reality. Humphrey Bogart wasn't that tall either, though he had a couple of inches on Cruise.

I'm betting Cruise can deliver Jack Reacher better than Dean Martin delivered Matt Helm. I got over that horrible casting decision some 40-odd years ago, so I can get over this too. Unless the movie is a stinker, of course.

I agree Liev Schreiber could have been good. I can also see Ben Affleck in the role if he kept his tendency to sentimentality in check.

 

[627 city hunter]

LULZ at that little Napolean.

I have met him and his new ex Katie Holmes, personally before he got divorced again... can't imagine why...

He is the weirdest, most paranoid person I have ever met who is a celebrity or politician.

He rolls with FOUR bodyguards and has a chef travel with him because he is afraid to be poisoned!!! HA!

He is very self-important, demeaning towards women, and definitely wears boots with lifts.

Incredibly peculiar...
No B.S. Really.

 

[amazingflapjack]

How about Tom Selleck as Reacher? Or maybe Jim Cavezel; have you seen him on "person of interest?"