There are some things that you just don’t do. You don’t put it all on red. You don’t put ketchup on your hotdog. You don’t pee into the wind. You don’t eat pizza with a knife and fork; you don’t cross Jason the X. But most importantly, you never go back. And that is something that Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher knows. You never go back! And unfortunately, Tom Cruise never should’ve gone back.
Look I am not saying this is a terrible film; it is a decent enough middle of the road action film. Problem is, Tom Cruise, thanks to Mission Impossible, is one of the few Movie Stars and Action Stars left in the world. In this day and age the star doesn’t sell the film anymore, but for the most part you can bank on Tom Cruise. And with his production company behind this you wonder why he turned to this franchise to revitalize. Personally I would have rather seen Maverick make his sequel debut.
So Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is Set four years after the events of the first film, Jack Reacher (Cruise) is returning to the headquarters of his old military unit. He comes to meet Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) who has been working with him on solving cases across the country. Upon his arrival, he is informed that Turner is accused of espionage. He embarks on a mission to clear her name.
It is not all bad. The main trio in the film is all good in their roles. Tom Cruise always commits to his roles, and I for one have never seen a Tom Cruise performance that is not awesome. The movie may not be good, but the performance is always top notch. And Cobie Smulders is determined to never go back herself. Aunt Robin is no more, Smulders whether it is a bad ass SHIELD operative, or an Army Major, she is awesome. Reacher’s possible daughter, played by Danika Yarosh, was pretty cool too. I don’t know much of her work but I really liked her in this film.
The few action films that took place in this film were pretty cool. Well done, well shot, and pretty brutal. But that is pretty much where the positives end. The story is very basic, and the execution is pretty damn boring. The pacing is incredibly slow, and the action scenes are few and far in between. One of which makes no sense that it’s even in the film other than the fact that they were like “hmmm we need an action scene, let’s have a random fight in a setting that makes no sense”
All in all Jack Reacher Never Go Back is a very basic paint by numbers action film. If you are hanging out at the house on a random Tuesday afternoon and doing a little cleaning or cooking, maybe it’ll be on FX, cause they have the movies, put it on, have it on in the background, it’s decent enough for that. I gave it a Jeebus score of 2.3. But what say you Jackass Nation? Did you like the first Jack Reacher? Are you going to go back? Sound off in the comments below! And remember, It Is What It Is!
The Jeebus Score explained
The Jeebus score is out of a possible 5 points with a .5 bonus. Films are giving a max of 1 point each for Entertainment Value, Story/Writing, Performance, Direction, and Production. There is also a possible bonus up to .5. Any film between 2.5 and 4 is considered a good film. 4-5 is a great film. Anything over 5 is an incredibly amazing film. To get a perfect score of 5.5 a film will pretty much have to be The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather.
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