JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016) movie

Genre              |   Action Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   119 minutes

Released         |  20 October 2016

cast

Tom Cruise ... Jack Reacher
​Cobie Smulders ... Turner
Aldis Hodge ... Espin
Danika Yarosh ... Samantha
Patrick Heusinger ... The Hunter
Holt McCallany ... Col. Morgan
Robert Knepper ... Gen. Harkness

director

Edward Zwick

writer

​​Richard Wenk ... (screenplay) and
Edward Zwick ... (screenplay) &
Marshall Herskovitz ... (screenplay)
 
Lee Child ... (book)

cinematographer

​Oliver Wood

music

Henry Jackman

film editor

​Billy Weber

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box office result

Worldwide               $​162,146,076  

Australia                 $​​​4,775,283

North America        $​​​58,697,076

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the best dialogue

Gen. Harkness: Do you know who I am, Major?
Turner: Yes, General. I do. You're the man responsible for the deaths of two of my men. Now, open up those crates before I grab you by your hair plugs and bitch slap that smug look off of your face.

​Turner: Some folks still wonder why you left.
Jack Reacher: Let's just say I woke up one morning and the uniform didn't fit.

Sheriff: Who the hell are you?
Jack Reacher: The guy you didn't count on.

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JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

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Posters

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Investigator Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) springs into action after the arrest of Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), an Army major accused of treason. Suspecting foul play, Jack embarks on a mission to prove that the head of his old unit is innocent. After crossing paths with the law, Reacher must now go on the lam to uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy that involves the death of U.S. soldiers.

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 19 October 2016
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

Tom Cruise is back as Jack Reacher in the second feature film adaptation of Lee Child’s literary creation. Think or say what you might of Tom Cruise, there’s no doubt that he is an enduring presence on movie screens. These days a Cruise film, with the exception of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise, barely registers on the pop culture scale. However, Mr. Mapother serves as a reminder that a good star, fronting solid material, is so much better than the disconnected, disjointed, overstuffed eye candy that tends to populate cinema screens between the months of April and August.

Such is the case with JACK REACHER NEVER GO BACK. While Cruise is the undisputed star of the show, this time around he’s well supported by Cobie Smulders, best known as Agent Maria Hill in the Marvel franchise. In this film, she plays Major Susan Turner, the officer now in charge of Reacher’s former military command.

​For this adventure, Director Edward Zwick and Cruise have brought in screenwriters Richard Wenk and Marshall Herkovitz to adapt Lee Child’s book of the same name into a feature film. Cruise, who is well-known for getting involved in every aspect of his films, and his trio of writers have crafted a story that Edward Zwick has been able to turn into a film that entertains as an Action Thriller, but softens the Reacher character just a touch with the introduction of young actress Danika Yarosh, playing Samantha, a girl who may have an unexpected connection to his past.

As with the first JACK REACHER film, a solid cast of character actors support Cruise in his effort to clear his and Major Turner’s names of criminal acts, including the murder of military personnel. The film’s plot is not complex, but it is fast-moving and the viewer has to stay focussed on the action to make sure they see and hear all the pieces of the puzzle.

In addition, a sub-plot runs throughout the entire course of the film that examines the relationship develops with both Turner and Samantha. While it’s fun to see Cruise’s Reacher all at sea in trying to work through communication with the fairer sex, many of the exchanges between the three central characters don’t help progress the plot and nor do they help the viewer understand any of the characters any better.

​For the most part, NEVER GO BACK is a worthy second effort and, in terms of its story, offers a greater degree of plot than the first film. This new film also offers an expanded visual scope, thanks largely to Action film cinematography specialist Oliver Wood. The Englishman cut his teeth on episodes of MIAMI VICE back in the 1980s and moved into big-time feature films in the 1990s and has sinced photographed DIE HARD 2, FACE/OFF and the first three JASON BOURNE movies.

Billy Weber’s editing of the film is not quite as impressive as its visuals. On more than one occasion, Weber and Zwick opt to cut key actions that join the logic of one scene to another. This occurs more than once, but the narrative leap made at one point toward the end of the film robs the film of an extremely suspenseful sequence and was an obvious cut made to move the action back to the film’s star at a critical point in the story. These cuts are jarring and unnecessary given the film’s 119 minute running time and the amount of padding that occurs through the movie’s Second Act.

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO ACK is a competently made film and Cobie Smulders confirms herself as a genuine female lead; easily matching it with a somewhat subdued Cruise. Fans of the Lee Child’s books will be, once again, scratching their heads as to why Cruise chose this character to create a franchise around, but mainstream cinema-goers will easily accept him second time around in a film that appeals to a broader audience with a more generic, yet more accessible action story.

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