2012’s Jack Reacher is a film that was entertaining in the moment but nothing that stuck with me long after it was over. It was a serviceable action film with Tom Cruise playing a role he could play in his sleep. It’s not a bad film but it didn’t add much to the genre. The one smart thing about the film was that it had a relatively low budget for an action movie ($60 million) and when it tapped out at $80 million domestically, it was considered a modest hit. It also did huge business overseas so I wasn’t too surprised that a sequel was made but while watching it, I was hit with a feeling of deja vu. Much like the first film, it’s entertaining in the moment but it doesn’t offer up much else. In fact, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back suffers a bit more because it lacks a fresh approach.
The film opens by introducing the interaction between Jack, an ex-Marine major, and his current “inside” military contact, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). After the two carry on a flirtatious friendship by phone for a while, Jack decides to pay her a visit – only to discover that she has been thrown in prison for espionage. When he asks a few too many questions, he finds himself in the same situation but breaking out (and bringing Susan with him) only makes things worse. Soon, he has been framed for murder, is being tracked by an unstoppable assassin (Patrick Heusinger), and is trying to cope with the possibility that he might have a 15-year old daughter.
Over the weekend I had a talk with a friend about Tom Cruise and he felt that Cruise is the best actor of our generation. It’s hard to deny that he was once a huge movie star and has some diverse work on his filmography but as of late I feel like he’s stuck playing the same role. A character like Jack Reacher isn’t too different from his role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies. Even if you go to his roles in Oblivion or Edge of Tomorrow there is a sense that, as an actor, he’s playing it safe. He may not be the name he once was domestically but he’s still an international star and these kinds of movies are an easy sale overseas. He’s not bad in this film but it’s an easy role for him. At this point, we don’t need to be convinced he can be an action star but Cruise seems a bit stuck in a cycle of making sure we know that he can still do it.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back has a lot of overhyped action scenes that are entertaining to watch but I honestly felt that the smaller budget was more noticeable here than it was in the original film. Financially it’s smart for the sequel to maintain the $60 million budget but that leads to sequences that are serviceable but a bit underwhelming. We have seen these very same shoot-outs and chases numerous times before but with more flair. I would even dare to say that the film looks a bit cheap at times. There are Mardi Gras parade scenes in Never Go Back that when compared with the Day of the Dead carnival opening of Spectre for an example, shows that most of the budget went to paying the name above the marquee.
It sounds like I’m being totally down on the film but I say all of this because we have come to expect more from our action films and from Tom Cruise. I should be saying the film is more than entertaining in the moment. I should be telling you about this out of this world action sequence. That’s what I want to tell you but instead, all I can say is Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is worthy of a matinee showing if you have the time but there certainly isn’t a rush factor at play here.
