JACK REACHER NEVER GO BACK – Tom Cruise is back as the loner ex-military guy in the second Reacher film adapted from the 18th book in the hugely successful literary series.
Nutshell – Jack Reacher, the ultimate loner with skills, has to go on the run with a female military officer as they are both in the frame for some murders in a Government conspiracy. Jack finds out he has had a daughter all along, and then all hell breaks lose from Washington to New Orleans and the body count goes up.
Running Time – 118 minutes; Certificate – 12A
Tagline – ‘Never Give In, Never Give Up, Never Go Back.’
The Gay UK Factor – Patrick Heusinger is an out and out f***able stud muffin. This Florida-born hunk would not be kicked out of bed by any gay man anywhere in the World, but he does not show as much flesh here as he did in Oscar-winning Black Swan… shame.
Cast – Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders who if we were straight would be our ideal woman, Aldis Hodge reprising from Jack Reacher One and Heusinger who has shot to poll position in our crowded wank bank.
Key Player – Lee Child who writes these books and delivers fully on the intrigue with regular doses of believable action and dialogue that would put Tarantino to shame. He even has a cameo here in the airport scene.
Budget – $60 Million which is cheap for a Cruise movie and a sequel at that, so it was in profit after just the first week and racing over the $100 million mark, so on with Jack Reacher 3. That is if Tom can be arsed to do it as he is not big on sequels this being the only one he has ever done outside of the Mission Impossibles.
Best Bit – 0.01 mins; So don’t be late as the opening unconnected set-up scene has such great dialogue it will settle you perfectly into a fun night at the flicks. You may have already seen this diner scene as it is one of the trailers put out for the movie.
Worst Bit – 1.38 mins; The big Afghanistan reveal is pretty predictable with some serious bloopers, but what is worse it is largely underwhelming. Next time let’s have a bigger back plot or story, please.
Little Secret – Cobie Smulders spent eight weeks learning several new martial arts so as she could and did do all her stunts in the film; she is one real feisty bitch. Cruise who always claims to do all his own stunts didn’t here, so that’s one for the girls. In the books, Reacher is 6.5″ of pure man muscle Tom Cruise is 5’7″ on a good day so nearer to a Hobbit than a US military tough guy and in his 50s too.
Further Viewing – Jack Reacher 1, The A-Team, Incredible Hulk, Dirty Harry, Law Abiding Citizen, Man on Fire, Deathwish’s 1 to 5 and basically anything featuring lone vigilantes a true Hollywood staple.
Any Good – This is so much better than the first film which we can hardly remember tbh, and there is a great prison escape scene which is pure Ethan Hunt . A lot is squeezed in here and there are a few scenes that are wasted we just wished the baddies’ story and plot could have been a bit bigger but it was made up for by casting such a f*ckable chief bad guy with hot henchmen too – we bet they get it on balls deep down the thug gym.
Rating – 66 %
