Jack Reacher

Starts out strong but becomes more and more silly as the running time goes by.

A sniper decides to take down five people in the middle of a city. After being quickly apprehended, the suspect asks for the ghost, ex-military police officer Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) . This is a pretty odd move considering Reacher actually is predisposed to leaving said sniper to his guilt, but is eventually persuaded by the sniper's somewhat dumb defense attorney (Rosamund Pike) to help her investigate the case impartially. Why does he choose to help?

*sarcastic* No idea at all.

This flick starts out super strong for me. I especially like that it is very long before a single word is even uttered, and the way they film their panning shots makes for interesting viewing. It's also very entertaining to watch Reacher use his Sherlock skills and close quarter combat throughout the piece, yet still have a number of humorous pieces throughout a supposedly serious movie. There's also little computer generated stuff here, relying on stunt drivers and people which makes it pretty grounded: thumbs up for me there.

Unfortunately the great start is undone somewhat by the really dumb bad guys. I can forgive the lower level fools for screwing up but when the big bad "boogeyman" (who is actually quite a cripple when you think about it) starts screwing up big time by being too jumpy it lessens the tension somewhat. Off the top of my head I could think of a few alternatives he could have done to prevent his whole ploy falling like a house of cards but nope - he's a moron. I guess they couldn't think of any other way to fit the action pieces in there and to let Reacher actually win. Anywho, it's a good enough film to watch once - but not really any more than that. I give Jack Reacher two and a half bullets out of five.

Tales of the Blight: The Solution to Everything

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

We found ourselves infiltrating the Redcliffe dungeon underneath the castle proper and immediately encounter Loghain's imprisoned man, some blood mage tutor Isolde had secretly hired to teach her son, Connor. Already knowing where this is going I decide to execute him on the spot, much to Morrigan's disdain. Then begins the arduous room by room clearing of various undead and rescuing of still trapped civilians. We also open the castle gates to let in Ser Perth and his handful of knights to assist in the rest of the cleanup though only the named knight actually survives.

In the main hall we find the possesed Connor having turned Ban Teagan into a crazed fool while his mother helplessly looks on. It's not long before he turns all the remaining guards on us before fleeing himself and in the end it is my team, Ser Perth, and Lady Isolde still standing. Ban Teagan while downed, actually survived and was back to normal. The "hard" discussion of what to do came next.

Roll against Paralyzation!

I already knew what I wanted to do. Besides the only other option according to Morrigan required a Circle of Magi - just like the one I had purged. Up the stairs we went killing off more scum and finally facing the demon in combat. When it came time to finally kill it (and the child) Isolde interrupted again, asking for another way.

I reminded her that this was her fault for hiding him from the Circle of Magi to begin with then punched her as strong as I could in the face. Lucky for her I knocked her out. She might have gone insane watching me dismembering the demon child. Alistair certainly lost it. I asked him what he would have done, and how many others would have had to die for the life of one. That shut him up, but he was definitely not happy.