During a recent coast-to-coast flight, I read my first book by Lee Child ("Jack Reacher: One Shot") and was pleasantly surprised (my reading is usually non-fiction these days). Of course I smiled when I realized that Tom Cruise would be playing a 6'5" former military investigator, but he plays TALL! As is always the case, two characters were melded into one, two characters disappeared altogether and I was surprised by the dump trucks, but the movie is as diverting as the book.

In this PG-13 action-filled thriller, a sniper kills five people and escapes. Based on forensic evidence at the scene, police track down the perpetrator, arrest him and obtain a signed confession in record time. Problem is, he says "Get Jack Reacher" right after he signs his confession. No one has heard of the guy.

Let's take a look at this cast:

• Tom Cruise ("Mission Impossible") is our eponymous anti-hero, a loner, very smart, a man who is arrested only when he wants to be; but he's beginning to think this case looks a little too perfect.
• Rosamund Pike ("The Big Year") is a newly graduated attorney who has taken a hopeless case that appears to be open and shut. She just wants to keep him off Death Row.
• Richard Jenkins ("Liberal Arts") is the District Attorney whose daughter has taken this case over his objections; he intends to wrap it up right away.
• David Oyelowo ("The Help") is the Police Commissioner who is only too happy to close a case this quickly...and with incontrovertible evidence. (His name is pronounced "O-Yellow.")
• Alexia Fast ("Blackbird") is the sweetie sent to seduce our skeptical hero.
• Joseph Sikora ("Safe") is the trained military sniper accused of shooting five random victims. 
• Lee Child (Author) is the Desk Sergeant; a sharp-eyed JayFlix person spotted him making his debut cameo appearance.

The tag line is "Six shots. Five dead." So expect wit, fisticuffs, cold-blooded brutality, vehicular mayhem and lots of gunfire but no blowie uppie stuff or sweaty bodies. In other words, this is a movie made for a target audience who wants action and entertainment. And that's what we get!