So after getting broken out of military jail by Reacher, they go on the lamb trying to prove her innocence (again, I’m not sure they even are doing that but it doesn’t really matter). Turner has been arrested for espionage despite clearly being innocent because questioning your characters isn’t part of this movie. Playing a very similar character to her Maria Hill, proving once again with her physicality and charisma that Smulders should have more to do in the Avengers films. The plot of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back concerns Reacher’s new friend, Maria Hill (from the Marvel Universe)…I mean Susan Turner played by Cobie Smulders. And thinking about plot holes in a movie like Jack Reacher, isn’t in the movie’s benefit. But in the Jack Reacher films, like James Bond, the plots are both so convoluted and predictable, that the lack of any humor weighs down the films and forces audiences to think about what is going on. There are plenty of action movies which have been a bit overly serious in tone (since the Bourne influence). The other thing making Never Go Back a drag (besides that generic title) is its severe lack of levity. Cruise plays cocky-swagger well, but Reacher’s gruff and meanness just makes Never Go Back a big of a drag. If we’re supposed to be charmed, he wasn’t winning me over the same way a character like Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies (or his performances in Rain Man or A Few Good Men).

With his glib comments throughout the movie while showing that Cruise smile, makes Reacher feel even more unlikable her0. Reacher seems like it calls for someone a little more weathered and world-weary than super shiny Cruise. Nor did it feel like a great character fit for Cruise. But the original film didn’t feel like a big success. A successful series, considering the guy sitting next to me that clearly knew this character better than I. I know the character is from a series of books by Lee Child. I was surprised to learn Reacher was even given a second film. But imagine one of those episodes being stretched out to almost two hours and costing an audience more than $10? That’s how I felt watching Jack Reacher.

Not to say that procedural TV series are bad (loved House and NCIS, and I’ve seen just about every episode of Murder She Wrote and Columbo). Even the ending of this film feels like it should be leading into a “next week, on Jack Reacher” promo. In every sense, Reacher (the name we hear over and over again in this movie) is a TV character on a procedural show.

Left to right: Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher and Gordon Alexander plays Cage Match Goon in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back from Paramount Pictures and Skydance ProductionsĪs Jack Reacher: Never Go Back came to a underwhelming ending, I realize one thing about this franchise: Jack Reacher should never have made on the big screen.

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