"Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning": A Love Letter to Old School Action Blockbusters

If our lives are the sum of our choices, than Mission Impossible-The Final Reckoning is certainly the sum of its predecessors. After a bland Dead Reckoning, it all leads up to this film. Perhaps a love letter to big action blockbusters and cinema itself, Tom Cruise doesn’t hold back on stunts and action set pieces. In a franchise that’s all about the journey to an end, this entry doesn’t disappoint!

We get put right back into the action after the events of the last film. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is still wrestling with the loss of Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson). Luther (Ving Rhames) is somewhere underground building a weapon that will defeat the Entity. Gabriel (Esai Morales), having failed The Entity by losing the cruciform key, is now on the outs but still desires proximity to the digital AI virus. The world is in chaos and on the brink of nuclear destruction. Only with the help of Grace (Hayley Atwell), Benji (Simon Pegg), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) and a few friends he doesn’t know yet can Ethan try to pull off the impossible. 

So that’s it. That’s the race against time. It’s understanding the race to extend time and the lives of billions that  becomes heavy after a long exposition of the stakes in the first thirty minutes. The theme of loss and perseverance through obstacles is hammered home as Ethan must once again sacrifice his feelings and perhaps life for the greater good. As soon as you start to think this proselytizing is becoming annoying, the movie is off and the magic sets in. Suddenly the dark themes and pressure laid on Ethan and his team turns into gigantic action set piece after gigantic action set piece that forces you to hold your breath in anxiety laced stunts that you’re enthralled in. 

If this is the last hoorah for Tom Cruise in the shoes of Ethan Hunt (although he’s alluded to it not being over) Cruise and co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie decide to take us on a thrill ride on land, air and under the sea. Major stunts happen in places and ways that take something we’ve seen before but elevate it in unique ways. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart lights his subjects with an old school glow. It’s this nod to Indiana Jones and other old school blockbusters that used a splash of light across the eyes or to highlight the McMuffin in a scene that makes a moment important. It’s Cruise’s desire to entertain audiences by pushing his own body in stunt after stunt that gives a nod to the trailblazers who performed their own stunts in the early days of cinema.

The Final Reckoning feels is a broken mirror that slowly comes together, shard by shard. Occasionally we get glimpses of other shards that haven’t been placed on the board yet, but when has Mission Impossible not done that? It’s the fun of trying to put the pieces together and watching the one in a million chance opportunities work to create the suspense that makes a movie like this worth seeing in theaters! Grounded in a space of reality, I couldn’t help but think at one point, maybe this is what the world on the brink of nuclear extinction would look like.? It may not have all the memorable feats and set pieces of MI past, but it pays off. It’s definitely worth the ticket, popcorn and snacks this Memorial Day weekend.

Rating: B

Top Gun: Maverick Review- Definition of A Must See!

This is why we go to the movies! It’s a cliche phrase that may be tossed around on some movie trailers or posters, but it’s not cliche when it’s true. Top Gun: Maverick is why we go to the movies! We want to be entertained, yes, but we also want emotional storytelling that tells us something about ourselves and the world around us. We want the thrill of suspense, to root for characters, to be in awe of cinematography, and to share the collective experience of unity in watching a film with strangers.This movie gives you that and more!

We catch up with Captain Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) in present day. He’s a captain when he should be an admiral. The navy looks at him as a problem, but judging by the leather jacket he dawned over 30 years ago that’s now full of patches, he’s likely done more good than bad in his service. He’s still pushing the limits as he tests an expensive aircraft for the US Pacific Fleet. This film’s premise is simple and something we’ve seen before, but in the hands of a team of skilled writers (Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie) it somehow feels original.

Maverick is the best of the best and thus is called in to train the best of the best in the next generation of Top Gun pilots. There is a dangerous mission that anyone in their right mind would call a suicide mission. For the sake of space, the new recruits go by the call signs Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), Bob (Lewis Pullman), Payback (Jay Ellis), Fanboy (Danny Ramirez), and Hangman (Glen Powell). Perhaps the most important recruit is Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller); he’s Goose’s (Maverick’s former wingman) son and there’s obvious history between Rooster and Maverick.

Here’s where the film soars. Exposition, history, and where relationships stand is told as needed and without belaboring the point. The audience can fill in the gaps, but the cast carries the weight of decisions made throughout the years in their performance. The theme of time and the facets of young vs. old, wisdom vs. fearlessness, and new birth vs. extinction are analyzed here. There’s a dual message happening on screen and off screen. On one hand, we see Maverick as he tries to whip the young recruits into shape. On the other, we see an aged Tom Cruise, one of the last of the Hollywood stars who would bring audiences out simply by name. The film is a summer blockbuster by definition and the cinematography of Claudio Miranda frames these characters in a larger than life way that harkens back to the days of Hollywood stars. Even the end credits seem to tip its hat to the era of movie stars who were inaccessible due to a lack of cell phones and social media, and therefore were giants in the public eye. There’s an intimacy and love from the cast and crew that went into making this movie that is both seen on the screen and felt as you watch it.

The nostalgic call backs and cameos help create that loving feeling. Minus one seen, they all work perfectly and don’t detract from the film but add to it. This sequel is a thousand times better than its Regan era, military propaganda predecessor, but there’s beauty in the way the two are linked decades apart. There’s beauty in seeing the aging of its characters physically across the films. There’s beauty in seeing a more mature, thoughtful film with a solid story and multiple things at stake.

This is a must see film. See it on the largest screen you can with the best sound system in theaters. I haven’t clapped, yelled in excitement, and cried with an audience in a theater in a long time! You feel like you’re in the cockpit with these pilots, there’s little to no fat in the story and each beat is earned in beautiful ways. You’re still reading? Get your keys, order your ticket and get to the theater!

Rating: A

"Mission Impossible- Fallout" Review

Mission: Impossible – Fallout might just be the best film of the summer! Like a nice fine wine that has aged gracefully, this series just keeps getting better and better. In a way, this series has taken off ever since JJ Abrams came on-board to direct Mission: Impossible III (he has stayed on as producer since). This is a film that somehow manages to outdo each action sequence it builds on and with every minute, slowly shows the great madness that Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie (who returns from 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, a first for the series) has in store for us. This film goes past nourishing your cinematic needs and leaves you yearning for more! It demands you see this on the biggest IMAX screen possible.

In a nutshell, the film takes place two years after the events of Rogue Nation and the successful capture of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). After a deal goes south, the IMF team loses a case of three plutonium balls. A group called the Apostles, who spun-off from The Syndicate (the organization that we were introduced to the previous film), plan to detonate them in three cities, causing nuclear destruction. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) must find the missing plutonium case before its too late while being forced to work with CIA Agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), who has been ordered by CIA Director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) to find the case by any means necessary. As they track down the missing plutonium, Hunt and his team once again cross paths with Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who has orders that go directly against what IMF is trying to accomplish.

One of the ways that this film succeeds is that McQuarrie decided to make a more direct sequel than previous films in the franchise, while still, for the most part, having this entry stand on its own. McQuarrie does a good job in bringing in various threads from the past films together, while also having some fun nods to the first two films. For all the twists and turns that the story brings us, McQuarrie writes it so that it’s easy to understand the situation Hunt and his team are in. McQuarrie doesn’t overload you, and there’s no expositional dump, but instead he spaces it out so that you get the information when you need it. 

Character building is strong in this one. For the first time in a long time, you feel more connected with the core group of characters. The chemistry between Cruise, Rhames, and Pegg is great! The humor lands when needed. In a sense, the subtitle has both a literal and figurative meaning, in that the threat of nuclear fallout, and figuratively, the fallout of the choices and past actions Ethan has made throughout the course of this series.

Acting wise, Cruise continues to bring his all to the series. There’s no doubt that with this franchise, he has found his groove. Even more so with his facial expressions and body language, you can see the wear and tear that Ethan has endured for all these years, including some of the choices he had to choose. While not as charming as he was in 2015’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I liked what Cavill brought to the table as Walker. The dynamic of how Ethan and Walker approach what needs to be accomplished is noteworthy. (While I will say, Cavill is certainly more memorable in this than most of his appearances as Clark Kent/Superman in the DC films). Rhames has more to do this time, and Ferguson still delivers emotionally on what Ilsa has to deal with throughout the course of the film. 

For being the longest film in the series at 147 minutes, the pacing was quite good. We’re talking not look at your watch good! With each passing minute, you’re waiting to see what’s next. The real reason you’re reading this is get a feel for the action sequences, and let me tell you this: just when you think the action can’t top itself, it does. The practical stunts in the films are amazing to watch, and you can’t believe how much they were able to pull off. There are no over-edits on the action, and McQuarrie and his editor, Joe Hamilton, make the action easy to follow! The geographical location of the action scenes are well staged. Some of the action scenes, particularly the bathroom scene, are particularly brutal (and for how committed Cruise is, they left the take in of him breaking his ankle and the aftermath of what happened). 

Why do you need to see this above anything else? The IMAX sequences in this film are something to behold! They are absolutely jaw dropping. For sequences alone, and not counting films that basically used IMAX cameras for their entire shoot, they are some of the best usage of the IMAX format to date that I’ve seen since the Burj Khalifa sequence from 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. I implore you, you have to see this on the biggest IMAX screen you can find! The music from Lorne Balfe was certainly memorable in places, with it being more emotional than the past couple of the films, while still employing and updating the classic theme we all know.

Some of the plot twists and revelations in the film are easy to predict, with just a tad too much plot convenience. I’d suggest going into this movie cold outside of this review. While the practical effects soar, some of the visual effects looked a little wonky, particularly during the third act.

Overall, Mission: Impossible – Fallout certainly ranks as one of the best films of the series, if not the best when it’s all said and done. This is one of the best action films ever assembled during this decade and deservedly needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. It’s a blast from the first minute onward, and leaves you ready to watch the next film immediately. I could watch a new M:I film for the rest of my life so thank you Tom Cruise for putting your life on the line to continually bring us entertainment for our disposal. This entry was one heck of a ride!

Rating: A-

"American Made" Review

American Made is one of the surprises of the fall season. It’s one of the better Tom Cruise films to have come out during this decade, and it’s definitely better then this summer’s The Mummy. With this film, Cruise reunites with director Doug Liman, who previously directed him in 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, a highly underrated film. 

In this film, based on a true story, Barry Seal (Cruise) is a commercial airline pilot who gets employed by CIA Agent Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleason) to do reconnaissance missions for the CIA by flying over locations in South America and taking photos. As Seal starts to do more jobs for the CIA, like becoming a courier for General Noriega in Panama and running guns to the Contras, he comes into contact with the Medellin Cartel, who asks him to smuggle cocaine back into the US. Within a few short years, Seal makes more money than he’s ever dreamed of since he works for both the CIA and the drug cartel, but as things slowly start to collapse, Seal will do anything to save his own skin.

For the subject matter at hand, Liman and screenwriter Gary Spinelli play with it fast and loose. Just when you think the story can’t get crazier, it does. I enjoyed how it didn’t take itself too seriously, and the tone, for the most part being light-hearted, stayed consistent. Cruise seems like he hasn’t had this much fun in ages, and this film shows that if you pair him with the right material, he’s still got it. It’s also no surprise that teaming up with Liman brings out the best in Cruise. Charismatic and charming, Cruise does make you root for a slimeball of a guy. The visual style that Liman and his DP Cesar Charlone bring to the film is unique, and they do a good job in visually highlighting the locations in the film with a distinctly different color. Like with this month’s It, that was also set in the 80s, Liman doesn’t bash you over the head that this is a film that takes place in the 80s. Also, the film does make concepts that seem complicated easier to understand, with map animations and documentary footage mixed in. 

There are a few drawbacks that I had with this film. Since the film primarily focuses on Cruise’s Barry, other then him, the other characters felt underdeveloped. I wanted to learn more about certain people, like for example, the people who made up his Snow Birds team. There were also story threads that didn’t bring much to the table, like a subplot involving Barry’s brother-in-law JB (Caleb Landry Jones) that they could have cut out completely. There are also characters in the film, that after a scene or two, completely disappear from the film. It makes you wonder if there was a much longer cut that Liman and his editors cut down from. Finally, the score from Christophe Beck (also reuniting with Liman after Edge of Tomorrow) was okay, as well as the music selections. They could have done a better job with that.

Overall, American Made won’t win any awards, but I think you will have fun with it. Between this and Edge of Tomorrow, hopefully Cruise and Liman continue to work with one another and this is a start of a long-term collaboration. I dug it, and it’s a breezy film. As I said before, this is one of the better films that Cruise has made in the last few years. If you’re looking for something to watch in the theater, you won’t go wrong with this.  

Rating: B

"The Mummy" Review

The Mummy is Universal’s second attempt in the past couple of years to relaunch their Universal Monsters series, now called the Dark Universe. Their first attempt, 2014’s Dracula Untold, was a bit of a misfire. This one is better then that. It’s also a step up from the last Mummy film, 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. A good analogy would be that this was Universal’s Man of Steel to their Green Lantern (when that film was supposed to launch their DCEU). Now dubbed the first in a new franchise, The Mummy had to tell a story while at the same time launch the universe around the dealings of an organization known as Prodigium. For the most part, it’s a fun popcorn film.

On the plus side, Tom Cruise still commits himself to the role. Yes, this is another movie where he can outrun or out-swim you, but he does a good job with the performance he gives as Nick Morton, a soldier who pillages antiquities in Iraq. After unearthing a giant Egyptian tomb with archaeologist, Jenny Hasley (Annabelle Wallis), the evil Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) is unleashed on Earth.

Russell Crowe seems like he's having a blast as Dr. Henry Jekyll, the head of the organization. He’ll be an interesting character they can explore later. The music from Brian Tyler is epic and seems to be better then it should have been. Whenever the film works, it’s fun, with some funny lines sprinkled in here and there. Since this is supposed to set up the new Universal Monsters universe, be on the lookout for some of the other famous monsters along with a blink and miss it reference from the previous Mummy trilogy. The film also plays with the viewers’ expectations in a few places. Finally, the action sequences throughout the film, like the airplane sequence from the trailers, were well choreographed and not overly edited so it was easy to follow.

On the negative side, Boutella doesn’t get to do much as Princess Ahmanet. Since she was a scene-stealer in 2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, this should have been a big breakthrough moment for her. Instead, it feels like she didn’t have anything to do other than stand there and try to look menacing. It’s a missed opportunity for her, and she deserved better. The film is derailed by some of its exposition scenes, especially during the opening sequence where it feels like someone is reading a book to you as they try to tell how Prodigium works. It’s also derailed by multiple, repetitive flashbacks to sequences that you saw literally a couple of minutes prior. The CGI is obvious in places and overboard in some places. You know it’s a problem when they repeat some of the same visual cues as the previous trilogy.

With an inconsistent tone, one minute the film is funny and knows what movie it’s trying to be, and then the next it takes itself way too seriously. This could be the case that this film had six credited screenwriters (screenplay from David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman from a story by Jon Spaihts and Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet). It’s easy to see which scenes were a part of the reshoots to help this film fit in to the larger universe at play. With the combination of writers and reshoots, the climax is a bit of a letdown since it feels like they ran out of money or changed the ending to fit their needs. You don’t need to see this in 3D because it didn’t really bring anything to the film, and instead make some of the night scenes look even darker. 

Overall, when it knows what movie it’s trying to be, The Mummy is a fun popcorn film. It’s better then what the trailers advertise, but it does have problems. If you turn your brain off during it, you might have some fun with this, knowing it suffers from trying to set up future installments rather than focusing on The Mummy. This universe might be DOA before it even starts, but if they work on the problems, it could potentially work. If you have to see it, go with a matinee screening. It’s not a bad film, but it’s not a great film.

Rating: B-

"Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation" Review

Finally, a summer blockbuster in which the explosions serve a point, the chase scenes are visually understandable, and it doesn’t feel too long for no reason. (Although it is a tad long.) While “Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation” follows the standard Mission Impossible layout, it certainly is popcorn chewin’ fun! Yes, Tom Cruise still has it at age 53.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is still saving the world one day at a time. In the latest installment, it’s just a matter of who he’s protecting us from! This time it’s a shadow organization called The Syndicate.  When the film starts, he disrupts a delivery of weapons in an awesome practical stunt in which Hunt mounts an airplane during takeoff. Unfortunately, the CIA has grown tired of the IMFs risky behavior, regardless of the positive outcome. 

CIA Chief Hunley (Alec Baldwin) wants the IMF disbanded, and he gets his wish. Thus, Hunt is hunting without a team, while being hunted himself. Of course, it’s only so long before Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Luther (Ving Rhames) find their way back into Hunt’s life. With a mystery agent (Rebecca Ferguson) in the mix, the film keeps us on our toes and wondering who is who. 

Cruise gives a great performance in one of his trademark roles. Typically he does a lot more running around in these films, but there is a slight feeling of wear on him. Regardless, like a seasoned dancer, Cruise makes his stunt work look easy. The supporting cast work together fluidly in their roles.

What makes the film fun is the new thrills within the action sequences. The infiltration scene in which Hunt dives into an underground, water filled, computer server (as seen in the trailer) makes you want to hold your breath. There’s an awesome fight sequence at the opera, and a motorcycle chase that makes you feel like you’re behind the wheel.

With “Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation” we get the same, proven Hollywood formula with varied ingredients, and a satisfying outcome. The beautifully choreographed stunts, comic relief, and inherent suspense makes for a great joyride.This installment won’t let you down! 

Rating: B+