Movie and a Mani: Jack Reacher

The weekend's coming up.  Time to plan a date night.  Are you interested in renting Jack Reacher to watch with your honey...well let's find out.

Cast
I hadn't really heard anything about this film, but when you go look at Redbox and see a new Tom Cruise movie, your interests are peaked...at least mine were.  Other cast mates include Rosamund Pike(Wrath of the Titans, Surrogates, Pride and Prejudice), Richard Jenkins(Eat Pray Love, Dear John, Fun With Dick and Jane), and Robert Duvall has a great part in this film.  No let downs in the casting department; the film was filled with great actors, nothing standout for me though where I just wanted to go out and pick up another piece of  their work immediately.

Overview
Quick rundown of the film- there's a dangerous assassin who's shot 5 people on the waterfront in Pittsburgh with a long-range sniper rifle.  The crime has been pinned on a man known to have killed in the same manner during his deployment in the military, but the audience knows he's being framed although the mystery remains as to why.  Tom Cruise's character makes his debut as an ex-military ghost who was acquainted with the accused man during the time of his war crimes.  As it turns out, Cruise is there to attest that the man being framed could not possibly be capable of the murders and what ensues is how he proves that to the lawyers and police investigating the case.  It is an action film, bordering on an R rating in my opinion at parts, with sleepy moments mixed in(literally, I fell asleep for a few minutes).  Even though the two main forces in this film are a man and woman, there really isn't any romantic aspect to this film.  Mostly just lone ranger fighting-for-justice type of movie

Manicure
Here's what inspired me in the film:

So I knew I wanted to feature both the distressed leather jacket Reacher picks up in the beginning of the film and the scope of the rifle.  The gradient technique allowed me to really feature the beautiful nature of the well-loved jacket that Reacher finds at a thrift store, as he never wears the same thing as he moves from place to place in his life as a ghost.  The scope just seemed very visually stimulating and intriguing.  Really whenever we paint a piece of art, we already have a scope over whatever it is that we have as our focal point.  We're drawing our scope of vision in on that small piece of life around us or within us for that small moment of time.  I really liked that idea and the gradient within the scope is just meant to be a general landscape you might see if you were the man behind the weapon.  The colors I used for the brown gradient were Pure Ice Gift of Gold, Magic, and China Glaze Desert Sun.  For the scope accent I used China Glaze Desert Sun, OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me and No Room for the Blues.  The black is acrylic paint.

Additional Review of the Film
"To start this review, I must first clarify that I am not a Tom Cruise fan.  Ever since his apparent bout with insanity I have been unable to appreciate him as an actor.  Having said that, this was one of the few movies of his that I have enjoyed in a really long time.  In this film, Cruise genuinely seemed believable.  While this movie could have used more action, it did have nice drama to it.  However, the plot line was fairly predictable, as I predicted every twist and turn to my wife as it happened, to the point where she turned to me and said 'did you write this screenplay?'  It is an enjoyable film, however, don't expect any major surprises.  I give Jack Reacher 3 out of 5 stars.  It was a good movie, but not enough originality for my taste." -The Tdawg

Conclusion
I suppose this was a semi-acceptable film for a date night.  It had action for your man, but really it didn't have enough character development and drama to keep me interested all the way through to the end of the movie. I also didn't really like that some portions of the movie I actually had to cover my eyes.  I have to admit that I am a bit squeamish in the first place, but not so much that I worry about that before I go see an action film.  I did encounter that problem with Jack Reacher though, and thought the movie was definitely bordering an R rating for that reason.  I did like the acting from Cruise in this film.  He wasn't as neurotically humorous as in Knight and Day (which I did enjoy quite a bit), but he was still slightly comical and I appreciated that alongside his dangerous/manyly-man character.  Overall, I don't think I'd watch this movie again.  Even with the addition of Rosamund Pike and Robert Duvall bringing great fullness to the cast, I just couldn't say I really enjoyed this film.  I don't whole-heartedly recommend this to you.  Watch Knight and Day instead ;)

Song of the Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUFYm9q62jc&list=UUXIyz409s7bNWVcM-vjfdVA

Have a great weekend and see you tomorrow for more nails, or next Thursday for another movie and a mani.

Over and out.