Synopsis:

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) returns with his particular brand of justice in the highly anticipated action packed sequel JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK. The film follows Reacher as he races to uncover the truth about active duty soldiers, once under his command, who are being killed. Based upon author Lee Child’s 18th novel in the best-selling Jack Reacher series, that has seen 100 million books sold worldwide.

What We Thought:

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is very disappointing. It’s as generic as its title.

I’ve always been a fan of Tom Cruise, but even he can’t save this one. It’s as standard, prototypical, generic, and stereotypical as you can get.

It literally checks off every action movie checklist box you can think of. There’s corny one liners. There are people fighting others who would get killed by them in real life. There’s a young character who is terrible. There’s an unrealistic ending. You get my point.

I liked the first film overall, but it didn’t go gangbusters like other Cruise films so I was surprised it got a sequel. It shouldn’t have. I wouldn’t say Cruise mailed in his performance, but he could have. A movie like this is something he’s done a million times before and almost feels like a straight-to-DVD film.

The plot is something we’ve seen a thousand times before. One person (Cobie Smulders) is accused of being a traitor, but she’s innocent and a bigger power is at hand. Jack Reacher (Cruise) helps clear her name and find out the true bad guy! Snooze. Smulders at least is given more action sequences than anything she’s gotten from Marvel.

Reacher thinks the young girl in the film is a long lost daughter and must protect her from the bad guys who’s trying to kill her to get to him. Watching that character cry was painful. There’s not much to the character and Reacher didn’t know she even existed so why should we care? I didn’t.

There’s so much wrong with the film, but I don’t want to spoil it either. The ending couldn’t happen. Anyone involved would at least be court martialed for their roles in what happened. They end up in New Orleans and know their way around yet none of them seem to be from New Orleans. Drugs are involved and you can see that coming a mile away. Like I said, it’s just plain generic.

Even if you are a fan of Cruise, I don’t know if Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is even worth your time. It might be a decent watch on Netflix next year, that’s about it. I walked out with more questions than answers and really disappointed. Oh well.

Cast & Crew:

Tom Cruise

Cobie Smulders

Aldis Hodge

Recommended If You Like:

Jack Reacher

Tom Cruise (I guess)