STACK November 2016 Issue 145

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When he's not hanging from the
side of a 747 as Ethan Hunt, Tom
Cruise moonlights as the hard-
as-nails hero of Lee Child's best-selling
thriller series. A former army major turned
drifter, Jack Reacher was introduced on the
big screen in 2012, but you don't need to
have seen Christopher McQuarrie's take on
the ninth Reacher novel, One Shot – Never
Go Back is an adaptation of the eighteenth
Reacher book, so continuity isn't a concern.
Cruise's Reacher is an arrogant,
nuggety human battering ram
with a gimlet eye and a
permanent scowl (some
might say the perfect fit
for Cruise); he's not really
likeable but he gets the job
done. Drop him into any
situation and he'll come out
fighting, and that's exactly
what happens when he
has to bust an old army
colleague (Cobie Smulders)
out of military prison after
she's been accused of
treason. Reacher has also
been framed for murder,
and the pair go on the run to
clear their names and expose
a conspiracy involving a big
military contractor and a pair of
murdered soldiers in Afghanistan.
Reacher also discovers he has a 15-year-
old daughter (Danika Yarosh), who will
of course be threatened or abducted for
leverage sooner rather than later.
Cobie Smulders, basically playing her
S.H.I.E.L.D agent from Avengers here, is
as tough as Reacher and a good match for
Cruise. Throw the teenager into the mix and
it's an instant dysfunctional family.
We've seen this kind of espionage/
chase thriller a million times before.
The hired goons trailing Reacher are
the generic beards-and-sunglasses
stereotypes, and there's even
a rooftop showdown during a
New Orleans Halloween parade.
There's also never a sense
that Reacher is in any real
danger, given he's capable
of overpowering any
adversary and escaping
from any lock-up, busting
heads with impunity.
Jack Reacher: Never Go
Back is enjoyable enough
in the moment, but you'll
have forgotten all about it
by the time you reach the
car park. Scott Hocking
FURTHER VIEWING: Jack Reacher
RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Nicolas
Winding Refn CAST: Elle Fanning, Christina
Hendricks, Keanu Reeves RATING: R18+
Danish provocateur Nicholas Winding Refn hit
the mainstream in 2011 with the superb L.A.
noir thriller Drive, before falling victim to his
own artistic indulgence with the tedious Only
God Forgives , leaving some to ponder whether
he'd lost the plot. His latest film, The Neon
Demon, doesn't really have one to lose – Refn
is even more focused on affectation and artifice,
bombarding the audience with hypnotic and
surreal visuals at the expense of narrative. It
also moves at a glacial pace, but at least it's a
feast for the eyeballs. This is hipster horror: a
fashion house giallo set in a sinister L.A. that's
as much an ode to Dario Argento and David
Lynch as Drive was to Michael Mann. Refn's
touchstones are Suspiria and Mulholland Drive,
with Elle Fanning as the doe-eyed ingenue who
has "that thing" required to make it big in the
cutthroat modelling business. That's if she can
survive sleazy photographers, a scumbag hotel
owner (Keanu Reeves), and her jealous peers
who want to devour her glamour – literally, given
eating disorders include cannibalism. This isn't
Zoolander, although Refn does make some valid
points about the vacuity of the industry and its
obsession with cosmetic enhancement. The Neon
Demon is as super-stylish and artificial as the
world it depicts, but like its predatory models,
needs more meat on its bones. Scott Hocking
THE NEON DEMON
Maybe it’s all down to the success of The
Conjuring or perhaps the latest wave of horror
filmmakers just love Mad Men, but retro
supernatural chillers are becoming a sub-genre in
their own right. Hot on the heels of Conjuringspin-
off Annabelle comes this prequel to the generally
unloved Ouija, which, as the title suggests, is an
origin story about the demonic mother and sisters
who wreaked havoc in the first film. It’s 1967 and
the recently widowed Alice Zander (Elisabeth
Reaser) and her two daughters, cynical teenager
Paulina (Annalise Basso) and her younger sister
Doris (Lulu Wilson), are running séance scams to
make ends meet. Paulina convinces her mother
to spice up the act by using a Ouija board, and
they are amazed to discover that Doris doesn’t
actually need any tricks to use it: she seems able
to communicate with the dead using the board.
But are her conversations with her dead father
and other souls she contacts real, or is a more
malevolent spirit at work? Ouija: Origin of Evil is
a big improvement on the first film – admittedly
that’s not saying much – with director Michael
Flanagan (Occulus, Hush) delivering some effective
jump-shocks and young Wilson is a suitably scary
possessed child. On the downside, it’s a lazily
plotted affair and the ‘60s settings can’t disguise
the fact that there's little in the way of genuine
scares or frights. John Ferguson
OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL
RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Mike
Flanagan CAST: Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson,
Annalise Basso RATING: M
Reaching for the clichés.
JACK REACHER:
NEVER GO BACK
RELEASED: Now Showing
DIRECTOR: Edward Zwick
CAST: Tom Cruise, Cobie
Smulders, Danika Yarosh
RATING: M
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20 NOVEMBER 2016
CINEMA
REVIEWS
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