FILM REVIEW: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (12A)**
The first in the franchise, Jack Reacher (2012), was an entertaining genre piece punctuated by smartly orchestrated action sequences, including opening scenes of a sniper taking aim at innocent bystanders that unsettled after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The sequel, set four years later, keeps chilling reality at arm’s length despite a predictable plot that touches on America’s military manoeuvres in the Middle East.
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Hide AdCruise isn’t showing his years – 54 and counting – as he performs his own death-defying stunts and trades blows in breathlessly choreographed fights.
There’s an undeniable vicarious thrill, and a few unintentional giggles, watching him square off against three or four hulking assailants at the same time, and disable them in a bone-crunching blur of punches.
Jack Reacher (Cruise) is living off the grid, embracing a nomadic lifestyle that allows him to bring down men and women in uniform who abuse their position.
En route to a face-to-face meeting with his successor, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), Reacher discovers she has been accused of espionage.
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Hide AdThe film simmers pleasantly thanks to the on-screen chemistry between Cruise and Smulders, the latter rolling up her sleeves to inflict bruises in the accomplished action set pieces.
On this rather slick evidence, Reacher will be back.