Forum: Author Hangout

For the Jack Reacher fans

Switch Blayde 🚫

As I've said before, thrillers have influenced my writing more than any other genre. From short chapters to heavy action and suspense (even cliffhangers).

I was at a party Saturday night where I was talking to someone about the Jack Reacher movies. We both liked the way Tom Cruise played Reacher (the author didn't and didn't want Cruise to play the part). The person on my other side jumped into the conversation and sounded like Lee Child (the author). He hated Cruise as Jack Reacher.

I saw the two movies with Tom Cruise before reading any of the novels and loved how cool the Cruise Jack Reacher was. So much so that I based my Lincoln Steele character on him (with a little Dirty Harry and Rambo thrown in). If I had read the novel first with the way Lee Child portrayed Reacher, I wouldn't have done that. I don't like the Jack Reacher character the way Lee Child writes him.

So if there are any thriller fans out there like me, and you've seen the Jack Reacher movies and read at least one novel, which do you prefer? The way Tom Cruise portrays Reacher in the movies or the way Lee Child does in the novels?

Replies: helmut_meukel John Demille rkimmelerre G Younger Offkilter123 Switch Blayde KimLittle DBActive Pixy

helmut_meukel 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I haven't read any of the novels nor have I seen one of the movies.
Is the difference between both Jack Reacher portrays as big as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer?
I like Spillane's Mike Hammer from the novels but hate the dumbed down Mike Hammer portrayed by Stacy Keach in the TV series.
I've only seen the German version of the TV series, but even if they cut and somewhat changed the dialogues in the German translation, Stacy Keach wasn't the hard-boiled Mike Hammer from Spillane's novels.

HM.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Is the difference

In the novel, Reacher is 6'4" and I believe nearly 300 pounds. He isn't good looking either. He's a tough SOB.

Tom Cruise is 5'7" and good looking. In the movie he's smart and a skilled fighter, but not the bruiser the novel character is. More skill and finesse in the movie. More brute strength in the novel.

In my opinion, the Tom Cruise version is cool; the novel version a sadistic bruiser.

Replies: DBActive

DBActive 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I've read the books and seen the movies. The TV series was better than either of them.

John Demille 🚫

@Switch Blayde

So if there are any thriller fans out there like me, and you've seen the Jack Reacher movies and read at least one novel, which do you prefer? The way Tom Cruise portrays Reacher in the movies or the way Lee Child does in the novels?

Haven't read the novels, sorry. But I've seen two movies with Tom Cruise and the series.

I really liked the first movie, not so much the second with all the feminist crap in it.

The series felt more realistic having a huge guy in the role of Reacher. Before a discussion of the series, I didn't know that Jack reacher was supposed to be a huge dude. Tom Cruise's portrayal was more than good enough and made the character very likeable. The series' actor (too lazy to look him up) was very likeable too.

If I read the books and the character in them was on the sadistic side, I probably wouldn't have liked them as much as the series or movies.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@John Demille

If I read the books and the character in them was on the sadistic side

That is my opinion and one of the times the guy next to me at the party jumped in. He disagreed. He said the novel Reacher wasn't sadistic, just getting justice. I have no problem with the latter. But in one novel ("Echo Burning"), Reacher was in a bar/pool hall to get beat up by some townsfolk. He told them to call an ambulance (which is typical Reacher that I love). But after he beat the shit out of them all, he took a pool cue and smashed a guy on the floor a few more times just for the hell of it. To me that wasn't justice. It was sadistic. Outright mean. Nothing virtuous.

Replies: Pixy

Pixy 🚫

@Switch Blayde

His son was helping with the novels long before it became 'official'. So that particular scene could well have been his idea/influence rather than his father's.

Replies: Switch Blayde awnlee jawking

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Pixy

His son was helping with the novels

Never knew that.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Pixy

His son was helping with the novels

Nepo kid!

AJ

rkimmelerre 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I thought the Cruise movies were pretty good, but he wasn't playing Jack Reacher. I've heard good things about the Amazon series but haven't seen it. At least they got a big sumbitch to play the part.

Reacher fascinates me as a character. He's absolutely perfect for the life he leads and the role he plays in his books - smart, capable investigator who also happens to be big and tough and skilled enough to beat the shit out of just about anyone. He's essentially a cheat character, a Mary Sue if you know the term, but only for the stories we see him in. He's pretty much incapable of living in polite society and is completely ignorant of a lot of things that even very different segments of society all know. But that doesn't matter, to us or to him, because he just wanders around and minds his own business until a book starts.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@rkimmelerre

He's essentially a cheat character, a Mary Sue

Lee Child said he wanted him to always win.

G Younger 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Personally, I liked the TV show. I felt it was more in line with the books. Reacher needs to be a big guy.

Replies: Switch Blayde awnlee jawking

Switch Blayde 🚫

@G Younger

Personally, I liked the TV show. I felt it was more in line with the books. Reacher needs to be a big guy.

That seems to be the general opinion here. My wife told me today they're making another one.

Replies: Pixy

Pixy 🚫

@Switch Blayde

My wife told me today they're making another one.

It's already made. Scheduled for release in about five weeks.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Pixy

It's already made. Scheduled for release in about five weeks.

Did they say where? Netflix? Amazon Prime? I don't remember where I watched the first one.

ETA: Never mind. Googled it. Amazon Prime.

(btw., why isn't nevermind one word?)

Replies: Pixy

Pixy 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Going by the trailers the second season appears to be more violent and brutal than the first. Not sure that I am okay with that. It could just be the editing and they decided to make the series look more violent than it actually is.

We will see.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Pixy

Going by the trailers the second season appears to be more violent and brutal than the first.

That might be a truer representation of the Lee Child character. As I said, the novel Reacher is much more brutal than the Tom Cruise version.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@G Younger

Reacher needs to be a big guy.

If the audience likes the character as played by a girlie actor like Tom Cruise, there's nothing to stop the franchise going fully woke with the protagonist renamed Jacqui Reacher ;-)

AJ

Replies: Pixy Reluctant_Sir

Pixy 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Now I see Starfleet Carls point and understand his possible allegation... 😛

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Pixy

It's happened before.

Edward Woodward, who played the original The Equaliser was 5' 9". Now I'm seeing adverts for a TV series in which he's played by Queen Latifah ;-)

AJ

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

Edward Woodward, who played the original The Equaliser was 5' 9". Now I'm seeing adverts for a TV series in which he's played by Queen Latifah ;-)

Here, the movies starred Denzel Washington. He makes a good Equalizer.

I watched the TV show with Queen Latifah once. Only once!

Replies: Rawwbot awnlee jawking

Rawwbot 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Another Rip-Off where "Queen Latifah" played the Main Character: New York Taxi, which is a Rip-off of the French Movie "Taxi" (highly recommend watching it).

Lets just say that the Rip-off failed miserably.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I watched the TV show with Queen Latifah once. Only once!

I've just watched the first episode. Apparently it's now on its third series so surely it gets better. Queen Latifah would make a great poker player - her only expression is 'smug'.

AJ

Reluctant_Sir 🚫

@awnlee jawking

If the audience likes the character as played by a girlie actor like Tom Cruise, there's nothing to stop the franchise going fully woke with the protagonist renamed Jacqui Reacher ;-)

Jacqui Reach-Around? (Hyphen added for extra points!)

Offkilter123 🚫

@Switch Blayde

You are confusing brutal with sadistic. Reacher's propensity for violence is never violence for his own amusement. That would be sadistic. Putting someone down quickly and brutally so that particular player is off the board is not sadistic. Some of the brutality also serves as a lesson to others to stay away or be prepared to have unimaginable pain and agony visited upon themselves. That's why Cruise was such a joke in the movie. He could not sell that aspect of Reacher because nobody would buy it.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Switch Blayde

There's a new series coming called "Lawman: Bass Reeves" about a black lawman in the Oklahoma territory. He was 6'2" and towered over everyone at the time. In the series, Bass Reeves is played by David Oyelowo.

Oh, did I mention the actor is 5'9"?

Since people are taller today, he would have to be 6'5" or taller to truly represent the famous lawman's height.

KimLittle 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Amazon Reacher actually looks like the book description. Not that the movies weren't good, but I can never separate Cruise from his characters. It's always Tom Cruise is… whatever character, but really it's Tom Cruise.

Replies: solitude

solitude 🚫

@KimLittle

It's always Tom Cruise is… whatever character, but really it's Tom Cruise.

... and he's 'cast' because people like movies with him in. David Tennant's similar: popular despite seemingly unable to disappear into the part.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@solitude

David Tennant's similar

That surprises me. He seems to have no trouble getting parts (he's back in the next series of Dr Who for the first few episodes), but he's equally adept at playing evil killers, eg Bad Samaritan. I definitely wouldn't have him pegged as typecast in the same way as Tom Cruise.

AJ

Replies: solitude

solitude 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I definitely wouldn't have him pegged as typecast in the same way as Tom Cruise.

Not typecast, just Tennant. So I don't see, say Hamlet, but Tennant playing Hamlet. Whereas if Suchet is playing Poirot, I see Poirot, not Suchet.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@solitude

Whereas if Suchet is playing Poirot, I see Poirot, not Suchet.

We'll have to disagree on that. I see David Suchet playing Poirot. My definitive Poirot was Peter Ustinov, although not many will agree with me.

AJ

Replies: solitude

solitude 🚫

@awnlee jawking

not many will agree with me.

On any given topic on this site and perhaps most other sites, most people find that those who comment are not in agreement with their views!

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@solitude

On any given topic on this site and perhaps most other sites, most people find that those who comment are not in agreement with their views!

So why did you post that if you expect most people to disagree with you? ;-)

AJ

DBActive 🚫

@Switch Blayde

The second series starts Friday on Amazon.

Replies: Switch Blayde Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@DBActive

The second series starts Friday on Amazon.

Thanks, can't wait.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@DBActive

The second series starts Friday on Amazon.

They're filming Series 3 now.

Pixy 🚫

@Switch Blayde

As much as I enjoyed the first series, I still think Alan Ritchson looks a bit too young and un-scarred (physically and emotionally) for the role. He has the physical presence, I'll not deny that, but I feel his emotional gravitas is not quite there yet.

Accent aside, the late Ray Stevenson was originally high on my list of possible Reachers.

Replies: DBActive

DBActive 🚫
Updated:

@Pixy

Alan Ritchson (who plays Reacher) is 41. That's a bit older than the Reacher in the earlier books who was in his mid --30s.

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Forum: Author Hangout

For the Jack Reacher fans

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...