Picked up by a sneery sheriff and his deputy from a cafeteria, hauled into the slammer and breaking free with military-precision impunity, Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) flexes his muscles and uses both his fists to telling effect. Jack Reacher 2 is an out-and-out action thriller, with the opening scenes bearing faint resemblance to Rambo: First Blood.

‘Ex- major’, as he unfailingly reminds those who wish him, arrives in Washington DC and goes to visit Lt. Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). He’s shockingly informed that she is court-martialed and detained on espionage charges. And that’s not all — there’s a paternity charge slapped on him for child support: he’s fathered a girl, now 15 – Sam Dayton (Danika Yarosh). Rescuing Turner and convincing Sam to run off with them, they make a valiant threesome as they are pursued by a contract hitman (Patrick Heusinger), working under instructions from a private military arms firm boss.

JR2 is an action-filled film, reminding one of Jason Bourne and the Bond franchise. The plot is credible, well just about, but what saves the day are the terrific performances by the two female characters; especially the 17-year Danika. It’s a wham-bam-slam (no m’am) film — the chemistry between Cruise and Smulders is sustainable. At one point in the film we are shown the two in a hotel room in a state of semi-undressing, but that apparently was only to wash their wounds.

Twenty novels and two films later, the Reacher series seems to have reached the crossroads, with Cruise’s 5’ 7” the antithesis of the 6’ 5” and 250lb protagonist created by writer Lee Childs. Will Childs pay heed to the film’s tagline ‘Never given, never give up, never go back’?