Well, that's usually how fights go
You'd feel cocky too if you were full of myself.

I don't understand why people frequently ask other viewers why the director or author does/doesn't do or not explain certain things, eg "What do you think Jack Reacher did when he got home?".
"If Mad Max Fury Road is an 8 (I gave it a 1). Then I'll use 8 for OK, 9 is better, 10 is best."

Hey man, leave Stiffler alone! lol . He can fight, he was a good scrapper in GOON .

trained vs untrained

The whole speech was because they wanted to translate the book to the screen and didn't know how to do it. Very dumb.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

he disarms their aggressiveness by talking about how he's gonna do it everybody is a little hesitant at that point. Often like that in packs a few that really DONT wanna fight or are only there to add a few cowardly kicks once someone is down.

They weren't looking for Jimmy Reese, they were looking for Jack Reacher.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

First the crew thought they were dealing with an old second baseman (Jimmie Reese) and on average they were physically larger than Reacher while all were younger. They likely felt the leader would thrash Jack easily and if not it would be no problem for the rest of them. They were also following orders which likely dictated no weapons. In addition the
the cops were in on it
thus wrenches and bats could complicate the matter. Jack also said he was "being gentle" after the fight suggesting that even if the clowns had some tools they would still have lost. Imagine an angry Reacher going beserk after grabbing an assailant's baseball bat.
http://imgur.com/itoHofq
"He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator."

It was, actually. Jeb was a meth dealer, who gathered some of his junky buddies to beat up Reacher. Not much loyalty there.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

Which would be perfectly plausible in a spontaneous bar fight with people who have little loyalty to each other. Which this wasn't.

If not Ray Stevenson then a younger Liam Neeson. Not that Ray is a spring chicken anymore..

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I always imagined Ray Stevenson as Reacher
That would be BADASS
From the little I've read, I thought David Morse would be good (along the lines of the monomaniacal fed he played in "Bait")
But Stevenson would be the best, I agree. He even struck me as almost too hardcore to play "The Punisher"

I found it odd that Reacher would quickly act in such hostile fashion to both Sandy and then the thug boys, considering how adept he is at "disappearing" and "blending in", etc. (especially if he's running around behind the scenes of a murder investigation that he may not, technically, be authorized to engage in).
Wouldn't a guy like that want to avoid all risk of meaningless "exposure", for instance, having the cops called in to break up / clean up after a bar fight, especially if he was essentially certain he would win?
He gave the "Jimmie Reese" name to Sandy. When she seemed confused, he realized she'd probably been expecting "Jack Reacher."
That meant he was likely being set up. So he purposely aggravated the situation to see who was involved.
That was how I took it, anyway.

He knew something was up and wanted to see where it went.

LMAO!
In an actual fight, you could count the seconds it would take for Josh Helman to knock out Tommy Boy. Perhaps the most ridiculous fight scene ever. It's like buying into Sylvester Stallone actually kicking Steve Austin's butt. Helman drove the stolen Interceptor in Mad Max: Fury Road.

I found it odd that Reacher would quickly act in such hostile fashion to both Sandy and then the thug boys, considering how adept he is at "disappearing" and "blending in", etc. (especially if he's running around behind the scenes of a murder investigation that he may not, technically, be authorized to engage in).
Wouldn't a guy like that want to avoid all risk of meaningless "exposure", for instance, having the cops called in to break up / clean up after a bar fight, especially if he was essentially certain he would win?

I always imagined Ray Stevenson as Reacher

You missed that uproar, huh? I don't even read the books but I remember hearing all sorts of whining about that.
You'd feel cocky too if you were full of myself.

Damn, big contrast to Mr. Cruise then.
Must have surprised (disappointed?) a few readers when they found out Tom was playing Reacher, just on that aspect alone.
then whoa, differences

6'5", 250 pounds, all muscle
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

Is Jack a big guy in the books?
then whoa, differences

This fight did look interesting, but I would really like to see some of real Reacher fights - no fancy moves, pure strength. One of the images that is stuck in my head is the way he breaks necks. To me it's a more grizzly image than some slasher movies.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

In the book the assailants thought it was an easy job and they were only meant to break some bones, not cause too much damage. They wanted to put Reacher off the investigation. It is explained that although they numbered five only one would be really keen on the fight and two would be uncertain but would follow the leader, and the final two would not be keen of the encounter and would scatter once they saw the leader and maybe one or two of the others get hurt.
Jack did go very light on these five compared to some of the fights he has throughout the books. In the books Reacher is a total beast in unarmed combat and he is 6ft 5inces and normally weights between 230-250lb
To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script -Alfred Hitchcock