The Ray Pletcher Blog

  The Jack Reacher franchise is no doubt a hit as evidenced by Lee Child’s 25 Reacher novels to date and the two blockbuster Jack Reacher movies starring none other than Tom Cruise. The character of Reacher is one of mystery and intrigue being a former Army Investigator who lives as a drifter moving from state to state and solving murders and the like along the way requiring him to call upon his investigative training and experience as danger inevitably lurks about every corner. When Tom Cruise was cast as Reacher in the first movie many fans balked at the idea of Cruise being able to believably portray Reacher as he is described as being 6’5’’ in the books while Cruise is only 5’ 7’’ in real life. This wasn’t an issue though as Cruise was able to pull off the larger-than-life presence of the character via his commanding screen presence and effectively bringing to life a powerhouse ex-army investigator you don’t want to mess with especially in close quarters. Lee Child even explain...

  Suspense thrillers like to play on your fears and take you on an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. The success of the thriller lies in the execution of the suspense and that is what the picture, What Lies Beneath (2000), directed by Robert Zemeckis does in surprising and intriguing ways. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Claire Spencer, wife of Dr. Spencer, a university research scientist played by Harrison Ford, who after becoming an empty nester begins to believe she is being haunted by a ghost in her lakeside home or at least she thinks she is much to the chagrin of her husband. What Lies Beneath opens as a slow-burning suspense thriller and then escalates into a dangerous game of cat and mouse between Claire and her supposed ghost that is a mixture of high-octane suspense and plain absurdity.      The first hour finds Claire believing she is being haunted by a ghost in her lakeside home and Zemeckis implements scare tactics such as a picture falling off t...