Hot Take: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Hot Take: Warning: Sequel fatigue!

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Tom Cruise is an action hero with seemingly superhuman power, endurance and pain threshold… Wait! I wasn’t even to the part where I thought you’d stop me. Let me continue! He plays Jack Reacher… Wait! Not yet! In the course of being set up by a rogue government agency… Nope! Not yet! Jack finds out the woman he might have a thing for, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) has been wrongfully arrested… Wait! We’re getting closer! He also finds out he might have a daughter (Danika Yarosh) who he feels compelled to protect… Yup! That’s the one! But wait, it’s all just a lazy carbon copy of other action films with some even being ripped from previous Cruise movies.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back isn’t just the title of the sequel. It’s a subliminal message to the audience. You’ve been warned to stay away but, based on the solid opening weekend box office of $22.9 million, you didn’t get the subliminal nudge to avoid the theater. It’s not all bad if you enjoy Cruise’s emotionless, robotic action approach which is far removed from roles early in his career. This is still a Cruise action flick so the action scenes pack a punch and there are a few stunts that impress. It’s nowhere near the level of the Mission Impossible series but it’s still pretty good.

If you’ve seen more than a dozen action movies, you’ve already seen parts of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. The predictability factor of the movie (right down to Robert Knepper appearing as the bad guy) is off the charts. There’s not much new happening here and the only thing shocking is that Cruise doesn’t have one scene featuring a motorcycle. Outside of that shocking revelation, there’s nothing new to see here.

If you’re a fan of the Jack Reacher character and the idea of Tom Cruise beating people up for roughly 2 hours without much thought put into the plot or furthering the character in any significant way, you should run out and see Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. If that description gives you pause, don’t bother.

“Spoiler Free” Pros

• If You Are Expecting A Lot of Action, This Movie Delivers
  The movie moves along quickly thanks to the level of intensity of the action in the film. The movie doesn’t like to let the plot breathe at all which actually is a good thing since it doesn’t have much of a plot you’ll care about.
• An Impressive Rooftop Scene
  The best action scene in the movie takes place on a New Orleans rooftop. It delivers some great action and is everything you’d expect from a Cruise action sequence.

“Spoiler Free” Cons

• Generic Plot
  Nothing spectacular happens in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
• Generic Twist
  I’d be surprised if you don’t see them coming.
• Generic Cruise
  The mostly emotionless action hero that Tom has played in many other movies finds its way to Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.