SkimIt
As expected, audiences lined up for The Amazing Spider-Man during the long holiday week. But now that the summer's biggest weekend is over, trailers are starting to come in force for the big fall releases.
Jack Reacher (opening December 21)
The Details: After a mass shooting in the middle of a large city leaves five people dead, the accused sniper demands that ex-military policeman turned vigilante Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) be placed in charge of the investigation. What Reacher uncovers turns the entire city upside down. Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins and Robert Duvall fill out the cast. Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed the R-rated actioner based on the character by British crime novelist Lee Child.
The Trailer: If you haven't already read the novel One Shot, that the film is based on, this trailer isn't going to make a lot of sense. Over portentous narration introducing the character of Jack Reacher as a rogue ex-cop guided only by his own sense of right and wrong, we see glimpses of Cruise gearing up for battle, and then we see him fight a bunch of what we assume are the bad guys. Frankly, that's pretty much it.
What's The Buzz?: With the enormous amount of ink spilled over Katie Holmes' sudden divorce from Cruise, along with the discussions of what role Cruise's position as Scientology's leading Hollywood spokesman potentially had in the split, it might be a good time to re-establish Cruise's bona fides as an action superstar. Unfortunately, this flabby and ponderous trailer doesn't make the film look particularly interesting, and a large contingent of Reacher's literary fans are up in arms over the trailer, complaining that Cruise is both too short and too old to play the 6'5", blonde Reacher. This might not be the cure-all Cruise's career needs right now.
