Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Directed by Edward Zwick. Starring Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Danika Yarosh, Holt McCallany, Patrick Heusinger, Aldis Hodge, Jessica Stroup, Robert Catrini, Austin Hébert, Robert Knepper. [PG-13]

Cruise’s second go-around as Lee Child’s enigmatic ex-military tough guy, now a “drifter with nothing to lose,” is even more generic and by-the-numbers than the last—the banal subtitle is sort of a tip-off. The plot, which barely even registers, deals with corruption within the ranks of the military (smuggling drugs, covering up murders, etc.), but the script is more interested in non-existent romantic chemistry between Reacher and an officer (Smulders) occupying his old job back in D.C., and what passes for a pseudo-father-daughter bond between Reacher and a teenager (Yarosh) who might be his biological offspring. Not a single truly involving encounter or exciting action scene in the entire movie, with minimal effort from most participants, and a considerable void when it comes to a remotely interesting bad guy (so bleak, one almost longs for the likes of Jai Courtney!). The writer/director of the first Jack Reacher movie, Christopher McQuarrie, co-produced this one.

39/100