Jack Reacher the movie

Having read several of Lee Child's Reacher books over the last couple of years - they're the kind of book you pick up when your brain doesn't want to have to think too seriously but still wants to be engaged - I was interested to see how the movie Jack Reacher came off, because there was a furore from many Reacher fans when Tom Cruise was cast in the title role. 

The furore arose because Cruise is short, and Reacher is continually described in the books as around six and a half foot (around 198 centimetres for those who understand such things). Not only that, Reacher is solid and tends to knock people over if they get in his way. 

Interestingly enough, Child was okay with Cruise in the role, as he commented: "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way." Of Cruise's relatively small stature, Child said, "With another actor you might get 100% of the height but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height." [Quotes from the Wikipedia page on the film.] 

So was the movie, now three years old, worth watching? Yes, because it retained the intricacy of the original plot sufficiently to produce some surprises. It had the typical one man (Reacher) versus a bunch of baddies set pieces that occur in many of the books: Reacher confidently asserts that he can take on five or six hulks and put them in their place (which is often hospital), is scoffed at by the aforesaid hulks, and then calmly does what he says he'll do. In the books of course, Child tends to describe in some detail why he achieves what he achieves, in grisly detail. In the movie this element got a bit lost. 

It retained Reacher's confidence about himself and his ability to live with minimal resources, and even without relationships. It retained his almost autistic ability to remember details, and to see what needs to be seen but is missed by others. And more. All in all a pretty good story. 

The car chase scene - in which Cruise does the actual stunts apparently - was okay, but has been bettered in a number of other movies. Still its climax, with the empty car casually moving down the street and bumping into yet another police car was nice. And the end of the movie, though it brought all the elements together, just seemed to be a bit underpar. There was tension, but not quite the tension that the books create. 

Still it filled up its two hours plus well (some reviewers thought it was too long, but I didn't), and it had solid actors in the supporting roles, including Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo and Robert Duvall. Rosamund Pike played the female lead, a good role until the end, where's she stuck like the female lead of old: waiting for the hero. Werner Herzog, the famed German film director, turned up in a small role as the Big Baddie, but basically it was his face that was effective; the role was a bit thin otherwise. 

Cruisy

My brother-in-law and his wife are just off on another cruise - to Hawaii. Apparently they've just been on a cruise - to Hawaii - but due to storms couldn't stop off at most of the ports. So they're going again. It was cheaper than flying there!

Seems that if you book a cruise while you're still on a cruise, you get a discount cruise. In fact, that's what they did a few years ago while they were on the cruise that brought them to Dunedin, where we live. (That was the first time I'd met either of them, and the first time my wife had seen her brother in some forty years.)

They came for a day. Such is the nature of cruises. And then went onto Auckland for Christmas Day, and found everything closed...

Friends of ours recently went on a cruise around some of the Pacific Islands. One of the various cyclones that's been floating around recently decided that it would blow, and so they missed visiting several ports as well. However, they haven't rebooked...at least as far as I know. Considering the number of photos on Facebook, (some 400), they had a pretty good time - without visiting ports.

Cruises obviously appeal to a great number of people - we're having half a dozen cruise ships visiting our city this week alone. I'm not sure that I'm one of the people cruises appeal to, though I haven't been given the chance to find out, as yet.

Maybe in my retirement - if I manage to actually have one - and if someone passes on a good deal of spare cash - I'll get the chance, and see what they're really like.

Time will tell.

The photo was taken by a friend of mine, Stephen Murphy, and shows a cruise ship at Port Chalmers, our local port.

The backstories of baddies

There's been a good deal of concern over the years of the effects of violence in movies, on TV, and more recently, of video games, on young people, particularly young men. I was reminded of this while reading a brief overview of Tom Cruise's Knight and Day, where the 'the trigger-happy hero mows down just about everyone he meets.'

While I agree that the violence itself - the shooting down of random, faceless people is unhealthy - I think that something more is an issue. The issue is that the people who get mowed down aren't important because they don't have real lives, especially real lives beyond the story they're seen in.

When did you last come across an action movie or TV show where a baddie was actually connected to other real people? You might say that's not the point: they're the baddies; they're only there to act as fodder for the hero to dispose of.

But the problem is that young people can easily think the same way about real people in their lives: they're only 'extras' in the young person's life, therefore they don't count, because they don't have meaning beyond that.

I may be oversensitive, but I often think, when seeing a movie in which various bodyguards, security men, innocent bystanders are wiped off the face of the map, or innumerable cars (presumably with real drivers inside them) are blown up or tossed over the sides of cliffs and so on, that each of these people means something to someone else. Even the worst of the baddies has a family. They may not have much connection with their family, but they haven't sprung up out of nothing.

The scriptwriters may give that impression because it suits them not to think about it. What is it actually saying to the young people who watch the movies?

Lap of Luxury

After visiting so many stately mansions and large abodes on our travels around the UK, you’d think we’d have got an idea what it means to have a luxury home. But it seems we’re not really aware of what’s current.
A modern luxury home is expected to have all sorts of things included that once upon a time would barely be dreamed of. Many of them are ‘smart’ houses. They’re equipped with high-tech computers that monitor and control all manner of features in the house. Remember when Tom Cruise goes into his apartment in the film Minority Report and speaks to the lights? That’s just a very simple example. The computers in smart houses sort out not just the lighting, but the heating, the cooling, and the security. (Just don’t let there be a power cut - although no doubt many of these houses have their own generators as well.)
Modern luxury homes are also made of eco-friendly building materials, and incorporate a large number of features that make them green in the very best sense. (If we can just get computers to go green we’ll be really making progress!)
And then of course, the humans in these ultra-clever homes expect to be looked after - pampered even - by their homes. Spa pools, whirlpools, saunas, heated marble floors and towel bars are the sort of things that will keep the soft as soft humans happy. And for the woman - or her maid, more likely - the kitchens in these homes are aimed at the gourmet cook. They’re expansive (the kitchens, not the cooks) and they have smart appliances. That ‘smart’ word again. What does it mean when it comes to kitchens?
Because these luxury homes are likely to be networked electronically, kitchen items, from stoves to fridges may start ‘talking’ to each other. And may even ignore the humans!

Here be spoilers

I didn’t mention the marvellous Tom Hollander in POTC3 (he’s also in edition 2). He seems to suit historical parts very well, and has appeared in several costume dramas. Unfortunately he often gets to play rather unpleasant characters: he does a marvellously obnoxious Mr Collins in the latest version of Pride and Prejudice and the man at odds with all sorts of issues in Gosford Park. His height is always going to be an issue: leading men usually need to be a couple of inches taller (Tom Cruise isn't tall, but he’s built differently). But he has an intensity about him that conveys deep currents running beneath the smooth surface. The characters he’s played are usually not people you’d want to muck about with.
He’s given a rather ignominious end in POTC3 – of course he would have to come to some sort of nasty end, being the villain – but it’s an ending that’s almost beneath him. His sudden failure of confidence is out of character, and you get the feeling Hollander finds it a bit difficult to reconcile with the rest of his scenes, in which he’s always in control.
Still, I can understand that sudden failure of confidence: it’s something I’ve had to deal with on several occasions in my life, and even more particularly over the last months. It takes quite an effort to hoist yourself up out of loss of confidence, and some people just don’t make it, breaking down, or spiralling into depression.