Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Review - 3 Ups & 6 Downs

5. The Idiotic Teenager Character

The movie's trailers have largely downplayed the fact that, in addition to the central Cruise-Smulders dynamic, there's a teenage sidekick character, Samantha Dayton, played by Danika Yarosh.

While Yarosh does fine with what she has, that sadly isn't very much, and her character ultimately ends up more of an irritating affectation than a fun twist on the expected formula.

The nature of her role in the movie is probably best not mentioned, but rest assured that Samantha is obnoxious, commits a number of straight-up idiotic acts (even for the low standards of a 15-year-old), and gets a highly unsatisfactory resolution to her story...assuming you can even be compelled to care by that point.

Excising this subplot and springing for something else, anything else, would likely have improved the film significantly.