Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

“Reacher” (Tom Cruise) returns to Washington for a bit of dinner with his new army handler (Cobie Smulders) only to find that she has been replaced and charged with espionage and double murder. He’s a bit suspicious and so sets about trying to get to the bottom of things. No mean feat, as it happens, because it is soon clear to him (and her) that they are facing a conspiracy that goes right to the top of the military. With just about every armed agency on their tail, his problems only get worse when a fifteen year old lass appears in his life claiming to be his daughter. Having “Sam” (Danika Yarosh) in tow as they try to stay alive long enough to clear their names and identify the culprits only makes things more perilous for our intrepid duo. Perhaps the carnival in New Orleans might help them survive? It’s all perfectly watchable, this film, but it’s formulaic and predicable right from the start and Cruise appears to be very much going through the (set piece, sugar-glass) motions as the plot offers us very little we haven’t seen loads of times before - often in an action-packed edition of “The A-Team”. Neither Smulders nor the annoying Yarosh really add very much, except maybe some attitude, and though nobody could ever say Aldis Hodge doesn’t look good in an uniform, his contributions are not much livelier, either. If you like your thrillers delivered join-the-dot style, then this should pass a couple of hours without too much head-scratching but otherwise this isn’t really up to much.

It's good

Good movie. Just like a normal type of Tom Cruise movie. Where he kicks lots of butte. In this one he's like a ghost. Trying to be like the bourne identity. Still a decent movie though.