Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher? Please.

Longtime readers of this blog know I'm a big fan of the Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. Needless to say I was thrilled to learn last that a Jack Reacher movie is coming out this December. Sadly, my euphoria was short lived because moments later I realized some idiot cast Tom Cruise as Reacher. For those who are unfamiliar with the Jack Reacher, he's 6' 5" tall, has a 50-inch chest, weighs about 250 pounds,  has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. Oh and he has a natural muscular physique. Does that sound anything remotely close to the 5' 7", 170 pound Tom Cruise?

Yeah, I know that movies are made to make money and Tom Cruise usually does a good job selling tickets, but were the movie makers that hard up that they to pick Cruise? Was there no one else that could play a more credible Reacher that could also help sell tickets?

For those familiar with the book, the trailer below will make you laugh when you realize Tom Cruise can't pull off Jack Reacher worth beans. Then you'll cry when you realize the Movie Gods really blew a chance to get this one right.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o54dMG8TTFs

Even Lee Child Messes Up Occasionally

One of the more difficult things about writing fiction is making sure that the settings you write about seem real to those who’ve been to the places you’re writing about. For example, if your book takes place in Los Angeles and your character lives on the city, you need to make sure readers who are familiar with the city feel like your charter lives in L.A. too. That means he/she needs to know the best way to get around the city and what different places look like. This can be tricky to pull off if you’ve never been to the places you’re writing about.

Over the weekend I was reading Lee Child’s Without Fail. Near the end of the novel the protagonist, Jack Reacher and a colleague Frances Neagley, are on his way to the fictional town of Grace, Wyoming which is a couple hours north of Casper – a town I lived in for two years. Reacher and Neagley take a plane to Denver and decide to drive to Grace.

Child describes the drive as thus:

They entered Wyoming after dark, driving north on I-25. They turned left on Cheyenne and picked up I-80. They rolled west to Laramie and headed north. The town called Grace was still five hours away, well beyond Casper. The map showed it nestled in the middle of nowhere between towering mountains on one side and infinite grasslands on the other.

“We’ll stop in Medicine Bow,” Reacher said. “Sounds like a cool place. We’ll aim to get to Grace at dawn tomorrow.”

Here’s the problem with the above section. I’ve done the drive from Denver to Casper dozens of times. There is no logical reason to take that route. The fastest way to Casper and areas north is to stay on I-25. Any map as well as all freeway signs will bear that out. There are plenty of small towns along I-25 that Reacher could have stopped at if he was too tired to make it to Casper. And the next day Reacher and Neagley drive thought Casper and get back on I-25 anyway. And it wasn’t like the page or two of text about their stay in Medicine Bow was vital to the story. It could have just as easily taken place in Wheatland, Douglas, or any of the other small towns along I-25.

I don’t know what Child was trying to accomplish with this but that above section really ruined the last 60 or so pages what was a very exciting novel. All I could think about was that if he didn’t know the fastest way from Denver to Casper, what else in the book did he not adequately research?

Don't get me wrong. I love Child's books. This error just really bugged me.

The Best and Worst of 2008

Best Blog: Land of Laura Lot. Honest. Insightful. Funny. Great storyteller. Give her a read. Best Movie: Gran Torino. This Clint Eastwood picture just edged out The Dark Knight for my best movie of the year. This movie isn’t in wide release until January 2009 but I got a sneak peek at it over the holidays and I really liked it. Both movies had themes of sacrifice, redemption, and salvation but Eastwood’s pick did it on a more intimate, personal level. Look for my review sometime next week.

Worst Movie: The X-Files: I Want to Believe. I loved this TV show – except for the final episode. This movie however, had none of the magic that made the show so popular. How can you have a true X-File movie without aliens or true paranormal stuff going on. This movie didn’t have any of that. Just a pedophile priest. Yuck!

Best Book: Discovered two great writers this year: Lee Child and Robert Crais. All their novels are wonderfully written with great plots and characters. It came down to Crais’ The Watchman and Child’s Echo Burning. I’ll give the edge to Echo Burning simply because Reacher’s a more intriguing character. Both books, however, are great reads.

Worst Book: Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love that Survived by Herman Rosenblat. Don’t call it a memoir if you’re going to make it up. (Read more about it here.)

Best TV Show: LOST. If this comes at a surprise, you haven’t been reading my blog very long.

Worst TV Show: Don’t watch enough TV to give an award here. (Thank goodness.) Best Political Moment: Seeing Barack Obama elected. I didn’t vote for the guy, but it was cool to see that anyone can become president regardless of their race.

Best Political Moment: Seeing Barack Obama elected. I didn’t vote for the guy, but it was cool to see that anyone can become president regardless of their race.

Worst Political Moment: Endless choices here. I’ll give it to Utah state senator Chris Buttars who wanted to pass a resolution that would require retailers to say “Merry Christmas” to their customers. Uh, that kind of goes against the spirit of the holiday. Can you say Bah Humbug, senator?

Best Personal Moment: Finishing my first novel five months ago.

Worst Personal Moment: After finishing it realizing I could do better. A lot better and deciding not to do anything with it for the time being. On the bright side, I’m just about done with a novel that is publishable.

Best Person Ever to Live: Marathon Girl. I'd be lost without her. Great wife, mom, editor, and runner. Can't imagine life without her.

2008 was great. Here’s to hoping 2009 is even better!

Happy New Year everyone!