At least Tom Cruise runs in this one! After doing his thing in the shadows with a little help from his “contact” Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) the mysterious nomad Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) resurfaces again, hoping to pay her some thanks. Maybe even take her on a date.
But once he gets to Washington, D.C., Reacher finds out that Turner has not only been removed of her post, but thrown in jail under questionable circumstances. This sends Jack on a mission to figure out exactly what’s going on. All the while, a young teenage girl, Samantha (Danika Yarosh), is somehow connected to all of this, by the simple fact that she could possibly be Reacher’s daughter.
Some films are hard to garner the desire to post thoughts about. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, is one of those films. Generic may not be the word to use, but little, if anything, is worth remembering. It honestly feels like one of the latest in novels that just don’t cut it on the big screen.
Out steps Christopher McQuarrie and in steps Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai) into directorial responsibilities in the Jack Reacher franchise. Technically, there isn’t anything wrong with Never Go Back. The action, albeit sparser than I personally would like here, is shot good enough when it happens. Composer Henry Jackson has some musical highlights that accompany a few scenes.
But, the action would be a lot more satisfying if there were a story worth even getting semi-invested in. For yours truly, an action movie doesn’t have to have the greatest of stories to be fun. Maybe the issue is I want Jack Reacher to be more of an action when it really isn’t. All of this is a long winded way of saying that Never Go Back is rather dull in its A and B plot, failing in execution to deliver emotional gravitas (tries so hard to bring some to the table), as well as compelling crime story that can be summed up as “bad organization links to corrupt officials.”
The dialogue does the feature little favors, either. Whereas the first Reacher had some cheesy amusing bits of dialogue and one-liners, Never Go Back doesn’t. More times than not, the dialogue is nondescript, (which isn’t the greatest of descriptions though worse could be had). But, there are a few moments of cringeworthiness, most notably a scene midway through where the two protagonists talk about a seedy motel and what they’d do to each other. It’s all kinds of bad and awkward.
Cruise is still a movie star, and always will be. And while more times than not, a star raises the most average of movies to good status, not unlike a good quarterback taking a bad team from bad to average or average to good. This doesn’t always work, however, as some things just can’t be elevated. Tom is in that predicament with Never Go Back. His charisma, often ever-present in most of his appearances, is pretty nonexistent. Far from a bad performance, but it isn’t a Cruise entertaining performance.
He’s paired with Cobie Smulders for much for the runtime. There’s an argument to be made that they’re not supposed to have chemistry with their respective character personalities, but pushed as potential love interests they don’t have it. The damsel in distress role is filled by Danika Yarosh, leaning more towards annoying than endearing. Couldn’t tell you anything about the villains, except that the hitman is a poor man’s rendition of any hitman found in like-minded action movies.
Never give in, never give up, never go back. That’s the tagline for the latest Jack Reacher film. Follow the first part as it pertains to viewing. If you didn’t (like me), make sure to follow the last.
C-
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MMJ 
Good review. Yeah, this movie didn’t go much for me. I read the book (book was better), but the movie’s was pretty bland / standard action movie (shootouts, chases, car chases, brawls, etc). Cruise was good and probably the best thing about the movie. And your right Yarosh was super annoying.
And I was into the trailer! This is just disappointing on all fronts. Even Cruise, who is good here, kind of looks like he’s phoning it in after a while.
Yeah, you were right, especially towards the middle part
I liked it better than you for sure but I didn’t love it. For me it delivers pretty much what I expected but has absolutely no lasting power. I doubt I’ll ever watch it again.
I guess I expected more. I didn’t love the 1st but found it fun enough. And I loved the Never Go Back trailer. So my expectations were probably higher than they needed to be.