On Not Knowing Jacks

   Well, it's October 6 again, and you know what that means: yep, it's Tom Cruise day! A real thing. In Japan, at least. Apparently. If you can't trust what the official Mission Impossible website has to say about him, whom can you trust?

   You know what looks exciting, though? Tom Cruise IS Jack Reacher, in theaters this December. All that we know so far is the trailer:

   And the international poster:

   And the rating (PG-13 for violence, language, and some drug material.)

   Still, we can glean some things. It's based off of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Think Rambo, minus Sly, plus Tom Cruise? Sounds weird/awesome, but I think he'll do well at it. After all, it's not like this is the first time Tom Cruise has played some kind of agent from a hugely successful book series with the name of Jack R., right? He was... wait, Tom Cruise didn't play Jack Ryan, in anything? And that Jack Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck, and is being played by Chris Pine in this December's similarly-named-to-Jack Reacher film Jack Ryan? Well this is confusing.

   Both movies look good, though. Not great, or mindbreakingly awesome, certainly not going to change the genre, but worthy of existing within it. Go-see-it-in-theaters, buy the special-edition DVD/Blu Ray/Cloud combo pack when it comes out, kind of thing. Worth getting psyched up about, even. Hopefully launching new franchises, maybe. Still too early in the game to see.

   EDIT: Jack Ryan comes out next December, which makes a lot more sense. Turns out there won't be two Jack R. films competing this year. It's only going to serve to make me impatient, though. I want my Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan movie now! Well, it's been a decade since the last one already. What's one more year of wait?