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#449 - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Edward Zwick, 2016
A former soldier must come to the aid of a military acquaintance who has been framed for espionage.
To paraphrase my recent post about the original Jack Reacher, movies of this kind can rise above their outwardly mediocre appearances just fine if they manage to bring the right amount of craft and personality to the proceedings. Even Mission: Impossible II - which, as of writing, is the only other immediate sequel to feature Tom Cruise - arguably benefited from having a distinctive action auteur like John Woo behind the camera to help make its action-packed tale of corporate espionage work. Jack Reacher definitely benefited from relying on an unlikely auteur in the form of Christopher McQuarrie (who not only directed but personally adapted the source material), but follow-up Never Go Back has no such authorial voice and it shows to a rather regrettable extent. Instead of truly embracing the pulpiness of its source, Never Go Back plays out in a manner that seems even more pedestrian than one might expect from a movie of this caliber.
In fairness, Never Go Back doesn't do everything wrong. There is a sub-plot where Reacher has to contend with the fact that he may or may not have an illegitimate teenage daughter and is subsequently forced to keep her safe from harm anyway. While Danika Yarosh does not do too badly as the delinquent youth in question (insofar as her presence does not become severely grating and does not feel completely without purpose), it reflects badly on the rest of the cast that can barely create much of an impression (let alone a positive one). This is especially true of the dynamic (or lack thereof) between Cruise's lone-wanderer anti-hero and Cobie Smulders' career-driven major, which may have the benefit of having lone-wolf Reacher dealing with an equally capable military figure but often results in chemistry-free diatribes. The action itself is similarly underwhelming - there's little in the way of tension or excitement or even humour to any of the moments where the movie runs through some exceedingly generic set-pieces and becomes what may just be the most flat-out boring movie of 2016.
Edward Zwick, 2016
A former soldier must come to the aid of a military acquaintance who has been framed for espionage.
To paraphrase my recent post about the original Jack Reacher, movies of this kind can rise above their outwardly mediocre appearances just fine if they manage to bring the right amount of craft and personality to the proceedings. Even Mission: Impossible II - which, as of writing, is the only other immediate sequel to feature Tom Cruise - arguably benefited from having a distinctive action auteur like John Woo behind the camera to help make its action-packed tale of corporate espionage work. Jack Reacher definitely benefited from relying on an unlikely auteur in the form of Christopher McQuarrie (who not only directed but personally adapted the source material), but follow-up Never Go Back has no such authorial voice and it shows to a rather regrettable extent. Instead of truly embracing the pulpiness of its source, Never Go Back plays out in a manner that seems even more pedestrian than one might expect from a movie of this caliber.
In fairness, Never Go Back doesn't do everything wrong. There is a sub-plot where Reacher has to contend with the fact that he may or may not have an illegitimate teenage daughter and is subsequently forced to keep her safe from harm anyway. While Danika Yarosh does not do too badly as the delinquent youth in question (insofar as her presence does not become severely grating and does not feel completely without purpose), it reflects badly on the rest of the cast that can barely create much of an impression (let alone a positive one). This is especially true of the dynamic (or lack thereof) between Cruise's lone-wanderer anti-hero and Cobie Smulders' career-driven major, which may have the benefit of having lone-wolf Reacher dealing with an equally capable military figure but often results in chemistry-free diatribes. The action itself is similarly underwhelming - there's little in the way of tension or excitement or even humour to any of the moments where the movie runs through some exceedingly generic set-pieces and becomes what may just be the most flat-out boring movie of 2016.