SYNOPSIS: Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) returns with his particular brand of justice in the highly anticipated action packed sequel JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK. The film follows Reacher as he races to uncover the truth about active duty soldiers, once under his command, who are being killed. Based upon JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK, author Lee Child’s 18th novel in the best-selling Jack Reacher series, that has seen 100 million books sold worldwide.

REVIEW: As we watched a commercial preview of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back on TV the other day, I was prompted to bring up the discussion of Tom Cruise's place in the list of all-time big screen badasses with my boys. After throwing out names like Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Jason Statham, Matt Damon, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Liam Neeson, Wesley Snipes, as well as classics like Arnold, Sylvester, Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme, we started realizing that Tom Cruise is either at the top or damn near close to it. His body of work spans decades and is chock full of badass characters that he has made his own. From Naval fighter pilot to NASCAR racer, from Last Samurai to Minority Report, from Collateral to Knight and Day, from Oblivion to the Edge of Tomorrow, and from Ethan Hunt to Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise is a true personification of action movies and a Hall of Fame icon for that genre. Mind you, those flicks mentioned above are just his action movies. Now we are treated to another episode of Jack Reacher and many of you might ask, "why the heck does this guy keep making these movies, like how many Mission Impossibles have there been already?" My answer to you is stop hating and just about all his movies do very well at the box office and lastly just about every one of his action movies are excellent, no matter how many sequels there are. I can't explain how he does it, but everytime I have thought to myself, "geez, another one?", I am pleasantly surprised at just how entertaining his action movies are. So guess what, this one is good too. This film is entertaining to say the least, it is action packed and thrilling. An added bonus is the pretty good storyline with twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It is multi-dimensional which gives it an added depth that most action movies lack.

The casting job for this film was well done. Cobie Smulders has proven to be an actress that can hold her own in action films and she does really good work in this one. Her character compliments Jack Reacher in way that he is just not accustomed to. Cobie does a good job at being direct and a no-nonsense Army Officer. And then there's relative new-comer Danika Yarosh in the role of Samantha. Without giving away too much, let's just say that Samantha fits quite well in this film's collection of characters. In addition to that, Danika has quite a future ahead of her. She is stunning and talented and she shines in just about every scene she's in. She keeps up with Cobie and Tom quite well.

Director Edward Zwick has quite the resume . . . Glory, Legends of the Fall, Courage Under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and Defiance just to name a few. Needless to say he does a fine job directing this one too, but obviously you can't claim this to be his best work. As far as comparing this one to the first, which I watched recently to brush up on the subject, well I've been pondering that since I finished watching the second one and I cannot decide. Let's just say that it is at least as good as the first and if you enjoyed the first, you won't be disappointed.