Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Every five years or so, Tom Cruise turns out another Mission: Impossible film, which reminds us why he’s a movie star, and why movie stars matter. Now two deep into movie adaptations of the Lee Child book series about an ex-soldier turned peripatetic amateur dick, the Jack Reacher franchise is becoming the anti-Mission: Impossible for Cruise—both movies are serviceable but forgettable, and they only remind us that star power has its limits. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie helmed the first Jack Reacher film, but Edward Zwick (Glory) takes over here. An awkward fit for the genre, Zwick is more at home with awards-grubbing message pictures, and compared to McQuarrie, his approach to the material is less gritty and more traditional. The resulting film is a little less distinctive and a little more digestible than McQuarrie’s grim take—Zwick gets the job done, but it’s thankless work. D.B.