Not since Conrad Veidt played the monstrous somnambulist Cesare in the first horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, has an actor sleepwalked through a film the way Tom Cruise does in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, an unnecessary, by-the-book sequel that’s nothing more than a pastiche of every action film cliche you’ve come to know and be bored by. 2014’s Jack Reacher was only a modest hit here in the States but did just enough business overseas to justify, at least in its actor’s mind, that a followup was necessary. When you’re one of the few movie stars that can still open a film on an international stage, I guess you can engage in whatever folly you choose.
Like a modern-day Paladin, Reacher is seen thumbing rides from town to town, righting wrongs that he encounters along the way. Eventually he winds his way back to Washington, D.C., where he hopes to finally meet in person Major Turner (Cobie Smulders), a lifer who holds the position he once did and has been a worthy ally while he’s played Knight Errant. However, Reacher is in for a surprise, as upon his arrival he’s told she’s been arrested and charged with treason, a story he doesn’t buy for a second. Not one to let laws, rules or regulations stand in his way, our hero springs Turner from the brig and suddenly they’re on the run in an effort to track down enough evidence to clear her name while a bevy of bad guys from central casting who can’t shoot straight give chase.
As if mining cliches from one genre isn’t enough, Lee Child, the author of the original novel, and the three screenwriters who adapted it throw in a subplot in which Reacher meets a rebellious teen that may be “the-daughter-henever-met.” This would be Samantha, who’s played with aplomb by big screen newcomer Danika Yarosh who displays a degree of enthusiasm Cruise simply doesn’t attempt to match here. This narrative approach reeks of desperation and results in situations that are downright silly. So obvious and overused, you can literally hear the plot devices creaking into place as they play out in their predictable fashion.
If there is a bright spot, it’s Smulders, who finally gets to shine in a big-screen role after being relegated to operating in the background of Marvel’s Avengers movies. She’s a worthy screen partner for Cruise, his equal where the action stuff is concerned, and more than capable of bringing the sort of intensity this material needs. While I’d like to think the megastar was being gracious here and simply ceded certain moments to Smulders, the fact is she steals the movie from him. There’s a hunger about the actress that’s appealing and admirable, and while I certainly don’t want to have to sit through another Jack Reacher feature, having her along for the ride would certainly make that trip much more enjoyable. Better yet, give Smulders her own spin-off film and have her Major Turner right her own share of wrongs.
As for Cruise, I think he’s feeling a bit of fatigue from simply being Tom Cruise. Love him or hate him, his work ethic has always been something no one could ever question, until now. Unlike his contemporaries, Cruise is constantly at work, cranking out at least one film a year, sometimes two (he already has two features completed for 2017 and has two planned for release in 2018). It’s obvious that this blistering pace is having an effect on him, as he’s going through the motions here, content to simply occupy the title role rather than attacking it, unlike the approach that made him the biggest movie star in the world. Cruise’s fans expect more from him than what’s on display in Never Go Back, and I think the actor expects more of himself.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at ckoplinski@usd116.org.
For a review of Keeping Up with the Joneses, go to the Cinemascoping blog at http://illinoistimes.com.
