Reacher

Amazon's streaming reboot of the Tom Cruise film franchise about a wandering ex-military badass is energetic and entertaining -- and fans will be pleased at not having a pipsqueak Reacher.

When it was announced some years back that Tom Cruise would be headlining film versions of the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child, fans were apoplectic.

Reacher, an ex-military police office who wanders the land solving crimes and defending the weak, is explicitly depicted in the book as a hulking knight-errant, 6’5” and 250 bounds, and Cruise, while certainly an enduring paragon of masculine fitness, falls somewhere far below that, his exact dimensions being a topic of some debate.

I thought the two Reacher films starring Cruise were decent enough, though clearly tweaked to be star vehicles for him rather than strictly adhering to Child’s books. Maybe the backlash worked, because the box office tapered off sharply for the second. So it makes sense that at some point the franchise might get rebooted, and Amazon has done so with an eight-episode streaming series.

It’s energetic and entertaining, with a surprisingly puckish sense of humor.

And, as you might guess, since they’re going to the trouble they might as well cast somebody who actually resembles the Reacher from the pages. Enter Alan Ritchson, who has already made a name for himself playing superheroes on television and streaming shows.