‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ Review: Tom Cruise Hits Marks, Punches Faces in Fun, Formulaic Sequel

Tom Cruise Hits Marks, Punches Faces in Fun, Formulaic Sequel

Never Go Back pairs the character with a 15-year-old girl who, whether or not she turns out to be Reacher’s daughter, is the man’s match when it comes to thinking outside of the box and annoying authority figures.

By the time ramblin’ Jack arrives in our nation’s capital, Susan has been arrested for espionage following the death of two of her sergeants in Afghanistan under mysterious circumstances.

Never Go Back' Trailer Shows Tom Cruise Packing Punch as Lethal Vigilante

[...] since Samantha’s mother brought a paternity suit against Reacher, the bad guys are after the girl as well, which sends the three of them on the road to follow the clues and punch the villains and shoot back and forth at each other.

Never Go Back is as featureless and generic as its title, but between Cruise’s star quality and the ability of director Edward Zwick to stage coherent action sequences, the results are a palatable enough popcorn movie.

Cruise, three decades after his big breakout in “Top Gun,” remains the master of his domain, even though he’s letting his age show in subtle ways, from the lines that have started appearing on his face to his shirtless torso, which reveals him to be an exceedingly fit human being but not the carved, chiseled Greek god which so many contemporary leading men resemble.

[...] we get a bunch of generic white guys in uniform, and a grade-A assassin known only as The Hunter (Patrick Heusinger, “Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce”), whose most notable feature are his distractingly white teeth.

[...] unless you’re Richard Kiel playing “Jaws” in the 007 movies, your dental hardware really shouldn’t be the most interesting asset your character has to offer.