PrimeWire

Avoided this when it came out because the trailers made it look like a mindless action flick. Well, Tom Cruise didn’t help either. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty decent crime thriller with acceptable action sequences that even manage some originality in execution.
Tom Cruise is tolerable in this role. And it’s one of several collaborations between Cruise and director/writer McQuarrie; you can tell that they like working together as they tend to produce a cohesive final product.
I do think it suffers from the common dilemma of a PG-13 rating when it clearly could’ve been a more gritty R-rated flick. The watered-down nature of the action shows during the opening shooting sequence and the final fight when people just quietly crumple to the ground without any blood or agony.
I like the way they handled the sexual tension between Cruise and Pike’s characters. It fits better with the character and keeps the movie in the same conceptual class as “First Blood,” it’s obvious ancestor.
Worth watching once.