Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back videos

Cast & Crew

Tom Cruise

Jack Reacher

Cobie Smulders

Major Susan Turner

Aldis Hodge

Lt. Espin

Danika Yarosh

Samantha

Patrick Heusinger

The Hunter

Holt McCallany

Colonel Morgan

Robert Knepper

General Harkness

Austin Hébert

Prudhomme

Madalyn Horcher

Sgt. Leach

Robert Catrini

Colonel Moorcroft

Judd Lormand

Local Deputy

Jason Douglas

Sheriff

Edward Zwick

Director

Richard Wenk

Writer

Edward Zwick

Screenwriter

Marshall Herskovitz

Screenwriter

Paula Wagner

Executive Producer

Herb Gains

Executive Producer

David Ellison

Executive Producer

Dana Goldberg

Executive Producer

Tom Cruise

Producer

Don Granger

Producer

Christopher McQuarrie

Producer

Oliver Wood

Cinematographer

Billy Weber

Film Editing

Henry Jackman

Original Music

Clay A. Griffith

Production Design

Lisa Lovaas

Costume Design

Show all Cast & Crew

News & Interviews for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

How Family-Friendly are The Space Between Us and Rings?

On DVD This Week: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Victoria Season 1, Gimme Danger, and More

It Follows, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and More Available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and FandangoNOW

View All

Critic Reviews for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Audience Reviews for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

• Sep 03, 2018

  Better than the first with more action and a better screenplay. as a fan of the books, I still question Tom Cruise as Reacher but I like him better in this film and Smulders holds her own. Many twists but worth a rental! 09/02/2018

  Show Less Show More
  

  Super Reviewer
• Jun 16, 2018

  Say what you will about the man, but Tom Cruise has been one of the most bankable box office draws for the longest time. Realistically speaking, he's been bankable for over 35 years now, if you start counting when he hit it big with Risky Business in 1983, which was a full five years before I was born. Obviously, not every Tom Cruise movie is a winner, commercially speaking at least. Rock of Ages and The Mummy anyone. Not every movie can be a winner. And there's also that weird period in 2005-ish, where he went crazy, jumped on Oprah's couch declaring his love for Katie Holmes and embraced the cult of Scientology. That was the roughest period his career has been in and, even then, he still managed to recover and his career has been very steady. I don't think any single one of his movies is ever gonna break box office records, but at least with him in the lead role, you're guaranteed extra eyeballs. As far as the quality of his performances is concerned. Honestly, it varies. I felt that he was tremendous in Collateral, quite possibly his best performance ever, but he's spent so many years playing the hero that, honestly, there's no real depth to that anymore. There's no interesting stories to be told, because he's done it all. Not saying that he doesn't put in the effort to give a good performance, but it's just a thing of been there, done that far too many times for it to really mean anything to me anymore. Again, he's a good actor, but I just wish I could see him do something a little more different. He doesn't have a varied filmography, to say the least. Having said that, let's move on to this flick, shall we? This, obviously, a sequel to the original Jack Reacher. I was complimentary to the movie in my review, but I wasn't blown away by it or felt that it brought anything new to the table. It was a fairly generic action-thriller. One that I'd still say was pretty good, but nothing that you really needed to see. This film, being based on a series of books (22 of them, with a 23rd to be released this year) featuring the same character, honestly didn't really need to exist. While the original was certainly successful, perhaps more modestly than something like, say, an Infinity War. Though, to be fair, there's not many films that wreck records the way Infinity War has and, really, a generic action-thriller staring Tom Cruise wasn't gonna cut it. But, in spite of the original's success, it's not like anyone, at least outside of the fans of the books (maybe), was really clamoring for more Jack Reacher films. I'm certain there's a few people out there that really loved the original, but was it enough to warrant a sequel? The movie certainly was commercially successful, for sure, but that isn't always indicative of people actually wanting more. Then again, this movie, compared to its budget, was successful, though not as much as the original, so what do I know? The problem that I have with this movie and, in hindsight, the original, is the fact that this feels like the film equivalent of an episode of Law and Order. What I mean is that this is, pretty much, a police procedural. Jack Reacher investigates something, uncovers a large conspiracy involving stolen military weaponry, helps save a military Major from being wrongfully convicted of a crime she did not commit, and 'connects' with a teen who may or may not be his daughter. The problem with this set-up is, however, that there's no real danger or threat to anything that's going on. You know Jack is gonna save the day and everything is gonna go back to normal at the end of the day. There's no far-reaching consequences that may play out in another movie. This tells a self-contained story through and through. And, obviously, most movies are self-contained stories, but, also, most movies aren't sequels. What happened in the original Jack Reacher is never once mentioned and Reacher is, really, only known by his reputation. That's not really that exciting to watch, in my opinion. For all I know, the book series has a more serialized approach with, say, one villain hunting Reacher throughout more than one book, like Alex Cross had the Wolf or something. And that's the problem I have with shows like Law and Order, the reset button was hit by the time a new episode aired the next week. Nothing carries over and, therefore, because of that, it felt like nothing mattered. You could make the argument that Marvel movies, really, follow a similar approach. You wouldn't be wrong about that. But, the thing about Marvel is that they have worlds where, literally, anything can happen. So it's more exciting to watch just from a visual perspective. Not to mention the fact that, while it may be small, the movies also attempt to play into the larger MCU as a whole. So it's not just a one-and-done as these types of movies seem to be. Having said that, it also does not help one bit that this movie is really generic and bland as hell. There's no personality, no life to anything that you're seeing. They attempt to give Reacher, who's cold and stoic, a more emotional attachment with Samantha who, again, may or may not be his daughter. But, honestly, it just doesn't work. The problem is, as I mentioned, that Reacher is way too stoic for his own good. I realize that he's meant to be someone who's calm under pressure and who assesses the situation before he springs into action. He's not a man that's prone to emotional reactions, that's for sure, but it doesn't play out that way. It just plays out that this man really isn't that interesting of a character and, to disguise the fact that there's no depth to the character, they have him act as stoic as humanly possible. And, this is something I mentioned in my review for the original Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise just seems to be trying way too hard to be some sort of badass. I think he knows that there's nothing to the character and he's overcompensating for that lack of depth by trying too hard to be an ass kicker. I've only ever noticed that in BOTH Jack Reacher films. I've never felt that for any of the Mission Impossible movies or Edge of Tomorrow. Cruise is able to focus on his performance being as natural as he can possibly make it because the scripts for the aforementioned films are strong and full of personality and wit, when it's needed. This movie, however, lacks a strong script. And, if I'm being honest with you, I just zoned out of this for chunks at a time. I mean, I was certainly looking at what was going on on-screen, but nothing was registering with me. Nothing really grabbed me about this movie. And the sad thing is that, relatively speaking, this is a competently made movie. There's nothing actually wrong with this. It's just that the lack of personality and energy is noticeable from here to Jupiter. This is obviously better than a movie like Transformers, but at the very least that movie tries to have SOME personality. That personality might end up being racially insensitive with a shit-ton of explosions for literally no reason whatsoever, but at least it's something. This exists just for the sake of existing and you can tell that the effort, honestly, wasn't there. Perhaps that's not fair to say, it's just that everything is so bland and uninteresting that it comes across that way. Struggling with whether to give this 2 or 2.5 stars. Either way it's not a movie that you should go out of your way to see, particularly if you're able to watch Thor: Ragnarok on Netflix. That movie is so much fun with a vibrant world and a lot of personality. If you can watch that instead, why would you ever bother with this? Two stars it is. It's watchable, but I can't get over how bland everything is. I may not be the biggest Cruise fan in the world, but even he deserves better than this. And this is coming from someone that hasn't seen The Mummy. Think about THAT for a second.

  Show Less Show More
  

  jesse o Super Reviewer
• Sep 29, 2017

  Very solid and entertaining follow up to Reacher's first action adventure. Interesting minor characters and a steady pace make this almost as satisfying as the first film. The New Orleans showdown is particularly strong, but days later you may actually not remember more of the film than that.

  Show Less Show More
  

  Super Reviewer
• Sep 22, 2017

  https://cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/jack-reacher-nevergo-back-dir-edward.html

  Show Less Show More
  

  Super Reviewer