Movie · 2016 · Action, Thriller, Drama, Crime · 1h 58m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.1/10 (316.8K ratings)
Never give in. Never give up. Never go back.
Overview
Years after resigning command of an elite military police unit, the nomadic, righter-of-wrongs Reacher is drawn back into the life he left behind when his friend and successor, Major Susan Turner is framed for espionage. Reacher will stop at nothing to prove her innocence and to expose the real perpetrators behind the killings of his former soldiers.
Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Danika Yarosh, Aldis Hodge, Patrick Heusinger, Madalyn Horcher, Holt McCallany, Robert Knepper, Robert Catrini, Jessica Stroup, Austin Hébert, M. Serrano, Nicole Barré, Judd Lormand, Christopher Berry, Hunter Burke, Jason Douglas, Lizeth Hutchings, Marisela Zumbado, Alexandra Lucchesi
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A serviceable, sometimes entertaining action-thriller that runs on Tom Cruise’s physical commitment and a few solid chase-and-brawl set pieces, but it’s also widely seen as generic and oddly flattened compared with the first film. If you want a brisk, no-frills competence machine, it delivers enough; if you want style, suspense, or a sharper Reacher identity, it falls short.
Best for
Viewers who like efficient, old-school star vehicles
Fans of hand-to-hand action and chase-heavy thrillers
People who don’t mind a familiar, procedural plot
Anyone looking for a lighter, less demanding Friday-night watch
Skip if
You want a distinctive or especially stylish thriller
You disliked the first film’s tone and want more personality here
You need strong mystery writing or memorable villains
You’re turned off by generic blockbuster sequel energy
Overview
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is the kind of sequel that keeps moving fast enough to avoid total collapse. Tom Cruise sells the role with relentless physicality, and the movie knows how to stage a punch, a pursuit, or a last-minute escape with enough clarity to keep the engine running.
Worth noting
What it lacks is texture. The plot is serviceable, but the film often feels like a stripped-down action template rather than a fully lived-in thriller. A few supporting turns and the quasi-family dynamic give it some warmth, but the overall effect is more competent than compelling.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for a straightforward, middleweight action movie with a professional lead performance, it’s fine. If you want the sharper edge, atmosphere, and tension that make the best crime thrillers stick, this one never quite gets there.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Josh Lewis (2★) · 794 likes
Sucks but I liked the part where Tom Cruise casually punches a dudes face through the driver's seat window of a car.
Matt Singer (3.5★) · 481 likes
This is a movie where Tom Cruise tells a guy he’s going to break his legs, arms, and neck, and then does it -- in that order. Movies: Not dead yet. (That one guy Tom Cruise killed by breaking his legs, arms, and neck is dead though. RIP That one guy.)
Full review at ScreenCrush.
davidehrlich (2★) · 336 likes
Less of a movie than it is a monotonous two-hour supercut of Tom Cruise elbowing people in the face, “Jack Reacher: Never Stop Never Reaching” (editor’s note: not the actual title) is a relentlessly generic star vehicle that’s been stripped down to nothing but an old engine and a rusty chassis. The jalopy still runs, of course — and not just because Cruise is now blatantly using Hollywood to subsidize his cardio routine — but it can be a pretty… more Less of a movie than it is a monotonous two-hour supercut of Tom Cruise elbowing people in the face, “Jack Reacher: Never Stop Never Reaching” (editor’s note: not the actual title) is a relentlessly generic star vehicle that’s been stripped down to nothing but an old engine and a rusty chassis. The jalopy still runs, of course — and not just because Cruise is now blatantly using Hollywood to subsidize his cardio routine — but it can be a pretty… more
matt lynch (2★) · 251 likes
So astonishingly generic it almost feels transcendent. Wouldn't have been a micron out of place on TNT in 1993 with, like, Michael Pare, but instead it cost 90 million and has one of the biggest movie stars on Earth. Bonus points for the bizarro Zwick/Herskovitz thirtysomething-ish surrogate-family interludes, entirely out of a different movie but maybe the only stuff here that actually works.
1998 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 12m · R · Curator 4.8/10 (392.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
If you like conspiracy pressure-cookers, surveillance paranoia, and a protagonist trapped by larger forces.