Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Starring: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, Robert Knepper, Judd Lormand
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Thriller
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) gets involved in a conspiracy when he believes a friend (Cobie Smulders) is wrongly accused of a crime.

Review:

Tim: 2012's Jack Reacher was a flawed movie, but it did so much right that I had an easy time overlooking those flaws and actually enjoyed the viewing experience quite a bit. The movie didn't exactly make waves at the box office, so it was a pleasant surprise when we got a sequel four years later. I went into this excited that this movie even existed. Unfortunately, the flaws of the original film are amplified here (and they pick up a whole host of new ones). You can say what you want about Tom Cruise, but he generally avoids making movies that aren't good. You can call this a decent film, but it's a clear drop in quality from the first movie.

There's a ton of Jack Reacher books (none of which I've ever read), so I'm scratching my head quite a bit about why they chose this one. The story truly wasn't very interesting, nor did it offer anything we haven't seen a million times before. The plot was as generic as they come. I'm shocked that this is what they chose when they knew the precarious position of this budding franchise. I never cared about the story or the characters, so this film was already in deep trouble. It's odd that there's so many different elements here. You have this potential friendship/romance (and the age difference between Cruise and Cobie Smulders made this feel quite awkward), you have a potential mystery daughter of Reacher (which was just so hard to swallow), and you have some other military-based conspiracy which was pretty dull and forgettable. All these lackluster elements don't add up to much at all.

Cruise is firmly in his wheelhouse here, so it's fun to see him back in this role. It's not a challenge in the least, but he's good at this kind of thing. I had fun watching him in this role and that's a big reason why this movie is still worth watching. He's playing to his strengths here and that's okay. I'm also a big fan of Cobie Smulders and love that she was cast in this role. She's kind of been pursuing this action bad ass type of role and that's a very positive thing. We need more women who are able to be cast in these strong roles (I mean, probably most actresses could play these kinds of roles, it's just nervous studios who won't take a chance. Still, it's good to see Smulders play several of these kinds of roles). I was so glad to see Smulders here, but as I mentioned, she doesn't have much chemistry with Cruise. Their age was odd (not that people can't start romances even though they're decades apart in age). The movie doesn't seem to know what to do with this potential relationship, which amplifies the awkwardness. It just doesn't work. I was pretty bummed to see Danika Yarosh here- I had to suffer through her bad acting on the atrocious "Heroes" and she's once again delivering a poor performance here. I don't get it. She's forced and wooden and not good. Also, speaking of the cast as a whole, was the film desperately trying to save money? Besides the two leads, the next biggest name is Robert Knepper? This movie badly needed a strong, talented actor in the supporting cast. The film suffers because of the all C-level talent here.

Edward Zwick is a competent director and his star has made dozens of these kinds of movies, so of course there's going to be some solid sequences throughout the film. This is a decent movie and I did have some fun watching it. However, it's a far cry from the original movie and gave no reason why we should hope this turns into a trilogy. For that reason, I was fairly disappointed. It felt like this potential franchise needed an A+ or at least an A from its second film, and we got a C level of effort.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Jack Reacher, Mission: Impossible, Knight & Day