NEVER. GO. BACK
Sounds pretty great huh? It doesn’t really tell us anything about the movie, but the conjunction of three action words that sound vaguely like they could be verbs reads a lot better than Jack Reacher 2, or Jack Reacher: Not The First One.
Here are a few other titles that could have worked just as well.
Jack Reacher: This One’s Different
Jack Reacher: We’ve Got Tom Cruise
Jack Reacher: Ever wanted to see Robin from How I Met Your Mother kick some ass?
Jack Reacher: The Reachening
Jack Reacher: This One’s Better
The last one not by any means an unfair characterisation, this sequel, as is rarely the case, is actually better than the original. For everyone who saw it and the few who remember what happened, Jack Reacher is very much like its successor. Starring an admirably if questionably cast Tom Cruise in only the second franchise he’s lent his name to, once Major and now full time drifter Reacher uses his lightning fast moves and quick-smarts to take on a small army of mercenaries and stamp out corruption.
Joined by Avengers veteran Cobie Smulders this time around, what with Rosamund Pike having left the series very far behind her, after Smulders’ Major Turner and Reacher are framed, they both go on the run to clear their names, pursued by the system they once protected etc etc. In typical fashion, there’s the good bloke from the military caught in the middle of all this who’s neither friend nor enemy (Aldis Hodge), some painfully obvious army-types who without question are involved in some shady goings-on and, to the film’s credit, Patrick Heusinger as a superb villain and elite assassin known simply as ‘The Hunter.’
Also, in typical sequel fashion, there’s the slow-simmering will-they-won’t-they romance and, as if the nonsequitous title wasn’t enough, along for the ride is Jack’s newly-discovered daughter. Or is she? I’m not going to tell you – you’ll have to sit through this movie to find out.
With a plot only slightly more compelling than its predecessor, reveals much better handled and a ruthless villain heads above Werner Herzog’s rogue’s gallery, Never Go Back, or whatever, never tries to be anything better than a fun two hours of glancing thrills and by that measure it delivers.
Jack Reacher: The Reachening is in cinemas from October 20
FalkenScreen 