Edward Zwick's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" - Bone Crackin' Adrenaline Yarn

There are modern day nomads and there's Jack Reacher.

Culled from the imagination of author Lee Child, Jack Reacher, 50's, is once again resurrected in the author's 18th novel where the former major in the U.S. military police corps finds himself a fugitive of the law. Upon his return to Washington DC, he learns that his friend Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) has been apprehended for sharing privileged information.

Heusinger hunts.

Before long, Jack uncovers a plot involving private contractor Parasource that sells used US military weapons (rocket launchers, etc.) to militants in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. He must follow the trail to exonerate himself and Susan Turner. Caught in the middle is 15 year old Samantha (Danika Yarosh) who is being pursued by an assassin called The Hunter (Patrick Heusinger). The latter is out to get Sam to get to Jack who must fly to New Orleans to follow the trail.

Unlike other Tom Cruise potboilers, "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" has a grounded narrative. The protagonist doesn't hang on mid-air planes nor is he performing seemingly insurmountable odds. Just ordinary stuff that extraordinary humans do. Reacher’s demeanor is occasionally too staged; even his supposed similarity to Samantha too orchestrated. The scenes are driven by formula but this isn't saying that it's is a bore. What we see instead are bare-knuckle fist fights and fast reflexes you can hear bones cracking. You don’t wonder. Lee Child "designed" his action hero as one proficient in the martial arts technique called Keysi Fighting Method, utilized even by the eternally brooding Dark Knight in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”. 

It isn't a stretch to root for a guy who always fights for the underprivileged, particularly if he can predict the succeeding events... like clockwork. Phone rings in 10 seconds; handcuffs in 15 minutes; jail in 30. How convenient. If he could only count those forehead lines he'll be wearing in the next five years, he might do something about it.

Edward Zwick returns to helm the sequel.  

When Tom was more beautiful than the rest of humanity. 

#jackreacher

Frenzied Sex, Prescriptions Drugs & Jake Gyllenhaal Warm The Cinematic Bed in "Love and Other Drugs"

Edward Zwick"s "Love and Other Drugs" mirrors the cutthroat peddling of prescription drugs among drug reps (drug agents), and the way rival drug companies proceed with overboard tactics to win over difficult physicians' favors! But at the heart of this competitive environment is an unusual affection between serial womanizer Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) and early-onset Parkinsons patient Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) who both pretend that what they have is just exceptional sexual chemistry and none else in matters of affection.

The flick is set at the advent of the blue pill Sildenafil (Viagra) and the rise of Zoloft as an anti-depressant and effectively takes us into the world of Jamie who badly needs to succeed (he's the blacksheep in a family of over-achievers). With lots of eye-popping nudity buoying up the cinematic canvas, the story almost wavers its focus on the more pertinent issue on relationship investments which was readily dealt with at the latter part of the story. From a very flaky, albeit charming start, Jamie and Maggie's romantic chronology soon turns into "Lorenzo's Oil" territory before briskly shifting into something hopeful and inspiring. Yes, med reps in the real world can become physicians. LOL

Gyllenhaal and Hathaway boil, crackle, fizzle and conflagrate the screen with their charm and chemistry. And if the peekaboo nudities won't have you palpitating until you're blue, you better get those beta-blockers ready. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Gyllenhaal conflagrates the screen with so much nudity, my screen had singes at the fringes.