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JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

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Joyce and I are Jack Reacher fans, having read most of Lee Child’s novels about the iconic, ex-military loner who wanders the country saving people and beating up bad guys.

While we enjoyed the second movie starring Tom Cruise as Reacher, we had to erase our image of this tall, muscular man and accept the fact that Cruise is Reacher.

This time around Reacher has to fight corrupt military leaders, businessmen and their thugs to clear the name of Commanding Officer Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), who has been accused of espionage. He breaks her out of military prison and the two go on the run from the bad guys who are trying to kill them and the military guys who are trying to catch them, making for an exciting chase movie.

To muddy the waters, Jack has been charged in a paternity suit by a woman claiming that he is the father of her teenage daughter, Samantha (Danika Yarosh), who has many of Jack’s good and bad qualities.

The three characters end up together, fighting their way, narrowly escaping capture and death from both sides, uncovering the plot to steal arms (and something even more valuable), catching the bad guys, exonerating Susan, and solving the paternity question.

We last see Reacher hitchhiking down a lonely road, assuring us that more adventures will follow.

While we like the novels better (Child is a good writer who gets inside the heads of his characters), Cruise does make a believable hero. In this story, Reacher, the self-proclaimed loner, is forced to deal with two independent women who are as big a challenge to him as the enemies he is fighting.

While not a great movie, it does hold your interest, gives you a few laughs as the characters clash, and will keep you guessing as to the outcome.

Rated PG-13, with some profanity and lots of violence.

movies, Jack Reacher, Lee Child,

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