"Jack Reacher" Music By Joe Kraemer

"Jack Reacher"

Music By Joe Kraemer

La-La Land Records LLLCD1240

13 Tracks/Disc Time: 61:48 Grade A-

Jack Reacher is slowly becoming a hit film after receiving positive reviews throughout the holidays and will become a cult action film once it's released on Blu Ray in the coming months. The film is based on the series of books by author Lee Child and this film is based on the book "One Shot" and stars Tom Cruise as the titular character, a former ex-military investigator who arrives at small town after five people are shot dead by a professional sniper. After a suspect is apprently caught for the crimes, Reacher is called upon after seeing a television interview with the alleged suspect and with the help of a young defense attorney Helen (Rosamund Pike), Reacher soon gets more than he bargained for as he looks deeper into these killings. The film was directed by Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) who wrote and also directed the very underrated and intoxicating action psuedo-Western, The Way Of The Gun as well as write the screenplay for Valkryre and The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.

The film has had a lot of positive things going for it aside from the film's performances' by Cruise, Pike and Robert Duvall. The real standout has to be the surprising and exciting score by composer Joe Kraemer, that should be added to the Best of 2012 plain and simple. Kraemer who had previously worked with McQuarrie on the aforementioned The Way Of The Gun, writing one the most exciting and memorable scores of the decade, along with writing the music the Cinemax TV Series, Femme Fatales; has written another brilliant piece of work here that should be a talked about score for sometime to come. The score itself is a throw back score to those pure orchestrial scores of the 1970's that were filled with suspense and drama, not like most scores of today that just get louder and louder with each year passing. The richness of the material is the score's major strong point and Kraemer really does pull this score off because of how he chose a more subtle and energetic tone than one than one that really hits you over the head with repeating brass action stingers. From the opening track "Main Titles", Kraemer introduces a grand, almost operatic theme that's pulsing and brustling with touches of action and suspense which would be the signature material of the score.

The score absolutely does not disappoint following its very solid start with a mysterious suspense laden track "Who Is Jack Reacher?", which has touches of the opening track's material stretched out in a slower, yet driven way. This would go on to inspire other solid tracks such as the "The Investigation". and the score's major set piece, "Evidence", a lengthy moody suspense piece that Kraemer really develops slowly and subtly with a great pay off at the end. Kraemer also does feature some very solid action material in "Helen In Jeopardy" and "Showdown" which are a distant cousin of Kraemer's excellent work on Way Of The Gun. "Finale & End Credits" finish off the score and the album on a great note with Kraemer reprising the score's major thematic material to a great conclusion.

La-La Land's excellent album is definitely a standout of their regular release catalog and one that should definitely award Kraemer more commerical possibilities of being rediscovered as the excellent composer that he is when he was first discovered for Way of the Gun in which fans have been wanting more from him in that essence. Jack Reacher is simply a marvellous score that really did catch me by surprise and definitely didn't disappoint as it went along. It is a terrific release that fans of throwback scores will love. I know I do. Excellent!