Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

When the film opens, Reacher, the ex-military wrecking crew played by Tom Cruise, is seated in what looks like a Waffle House – thus the explanatory subtitle, “Never Go Back,” I’d assume! In the first film, he was a self-contained, stoically focused free-booter out to help friends in need; here he’s an elusive bone daddy in heat over a fertile flirty phone friend he’s never met who happens to be an Army major accused of selling military secrets. To make matters worse and flesh out the characterization, he gets arrested for conduct unbecoming after a paternity suit surfaces that alludes to him having a daughter he’s never met. On the lam to both clear his name and expose an internal plot to assassinate Maj. Turner (Cobie Smulders), the daddy-daughter exploits mimic one of those late ’60s Pamela Tiffin/Don DeFore romps!

[PG-13]