BEFORE: I suppose I could have gone to see this film in the theater last year, I remember debating that, and if my chain had swung a little differently I probably would have, but I had my priorities, which involved getting to the film "Holes" so I could launch that chain of rock documentaries that took up more than 50 slots. So I waited until now, when I have access to a screener, since awards season is in full bloom. Yes, I know that only Academy members are supposed to watch those, but this film is now available on iTunes, and it most likely WILL be available on HBO in a couple months, and I promise to record it (and therefore pay for it via my cable bill) at that time. So it's really all just about timing, I'm watching it now and paying for it later.
So far this year it's been 9 films watched on premium cable (7 of which were dubbed to DVD before viewing, and 2 were on the DVR on channels that didn't allow me to save a copy) plus 2 films on Netflix ("A Most Violent Year" and "Promised Land") and now 1 on a screener. I'll try to update these stats at the end of each month, because there could be an indication in the future that I could drop cable and go all-streaming, but clearly I'm not there yet.
Tom Cruise carries over from "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" and I've cleared his filmography once again. But having watched two Cruise movies last year and now another two in 2019, he'll never make the year-end countdown again at this rate. Sure, big star, but I watched 11 movies last year with his ex-wife Nicole Kidman in them...
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (Movie #2,282)
THE PLOT: Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission goes wrong.
AFTER: The Impossible Mission Force is back to save the world, though if they do their jobs right, the world will never learn of their efforts - jeez, isn't that always the way? And after an opening mission goes south, they manage to lose track of some silver spheres of plutonium, so they have to worry about TWO kinds of fallout, not only the nuclear kind, but the political and professional ramifications of their little boo-boo. I suppose you could also say they're still dealing with the fallout from the previous films, too, because two characters from MI-6 (that's the British spy agency, not the 6th Mission:Impossible. film) are key players here, the rogue agent/love interest from "Ghost Protocol" and the former agent who headed up the Syndicate in "Rogue Nation".
One or two new faces, sure, but essentially it's the same old team. I've got nothing against Luther and Benji, but I kind of miss the flavor of the old TV series, when there were 5 or 6 team IMF members to choose from and Jim Phelps had to put together the perfect team for the job each week. OK, who am I kidding, he always picked the same people too, but at least they went through the motions of being picked, that was probably good for their self-esteem. But if Ethan Hunt works with Luther and Benji every single time, what's their motivation to do the best possible job? Oh, yeah, saving the world and all that. Still, I think they could do something to mix it up a bit more. But maybe today's audiences can't keep more than three characters straight at a time. (Yet weren't there like 17 Avengers in their last film?). And I maintain that if Ethan only works with Luther and Benji, then over time he's only going to pick the missions that they can accomplish with their skill-sets, instead of accepting the job and then assembling the proper team to pull it off.
Right, the new guy. Because of their slip-ups, and the air of mystery surrounding Ethan Hunt (someone floats the possibility that he might have an alias as a secret arms dealer or something, but really, how would he have the time?) they're forced to work with CIA agent August Walker on the mission to get the plutonium back, and he's not only younger, fitter and stronger than Hunt, I think he can also change the course of mighty rivers and leap tall buildings in a single bound. He might even be more powerful than a locomotive - but unlike that guy he played with the red cape, his character here is also a bit of a dick. The Big Mission starts with August and Ethan sky-diving into Paris - because who has time to wait in line for a TSA check, am I right? - and a mid-air accident forces Ethan to save August's life nearly at the expense of his own, and August not only doesn't thank him, he doesn't even acknowledge it happened. Whatever, dude, we just learned all we needed to know about your character.
I'm going to maintain this is a huge NITPICK POINT, because despite everything that happens on the way down from the plane, both agents managed to land right on top of the exact building in Paris that they need to enter, without even trying. Right. These guys are good, but nobody is THAT good. Plus, all that just to enter a nightclub without being on the list? Seems to me there had to be a much easier way to accomplish that, but then again, I haven't been to a nightclub in over 30 years.
It seems this is sort of par for the course with the IMF, do they always insist on doing things the hard way? Wasn't there a case a couple of films ago where Hunt had to access some computer databank that was stored underwater for some reason (is that even a thing?) and hold his breath underwater in that swirling tank while his team member infiltrated the compound in disguise? You can't tell me that they just coudn't have hacked that system remotely, I'm not buying it. Hanging from an airplane, climbing a tall skyscraper, if there's a hard way to do something, the IMF will find it, you can bet on it. This film features some overly complicated bomb decision, combined with a helicopter-based shootout, mixed with a simultaneous hand-to-hand fight scene in another location.
But as I said yesterday, it's extremely easy for an action film to devolve into a simple chase scene, and this does happen twice here, only there's not really anything simple about either occurence. The driving-based one looked really familiar, as if I'd seen one just like it in the last "Mission: Impossible" movie, but I figured that couldn't be right. And it's not - I was thinking of a similar chase scene set along the canals of Amsterdam instead of the streets of Paris, only it was in the film "The Hitman's Bodyguard", which I watched last September. Motorcycles, cop cars, trying to apprehend an "asset" from Interpol custody, and ending up in a boat - the two scenes do have a lot in common, only the Amsterdam canals were replaced here with the Paris sewer system, with the end result very much the same.
Of course there are always the fake-outs, with the false faces and a little bit of sleight-of-hand thrown in. Movie magic is what makes the false faces possible, I think they proved on "Mythbusters" a couple years ago that nobody has prosthetic face technology that's this good, in other words, in the real world you're always going to know that you're talking to a guy wearing a mask. MAYBE you can fool a security camera here and there, but not the human brain. And now the IMF has added this little strip of tape that they put on their throats, so the wearer can duplicate another person's voice, which, if possible, makes professional impersonators a thing of the past. Of course this doesn't exist, as soon as the agent puts on the false face they cut away, and he's replaced by another actor. We all know this is how the movie is made, doesn't this ruin the trick because we know that this whole "false face" thing is completely bogus?
It's been a gradual progression all week from the action films based on true events, like "13 Hours" to one that was semi-fictionalized ("Seam Team Six") and now one that's almost completely ridiculous, with barely one toenail in reality. But damn if it isn't also the one that's the most thrilling, where even the setbacks in the stunts will have you on the edge of your seat. For that reason, I think I'm being very lenient with my rating tonight.
Also starring Henry Cavill (last seen in "Justice League"), Ving Rhames (last seen in "Idlewild"), Simon Pegg (last seen in "Ready Player One"), Rebecca Ferguson (last seen in "Life") Sean Harris (last seen in "24 Hour Party People"), Angela Bassett (last seen in "Black Panther"), Michelle Monaghan (last seen in "North Country"), Alec Baldwin (last seen in "Rules Don't Apply"), Vanessa Kirby (last seen in "Everest"), Wes Bentley (last seen in "Pete's Dragon"), Frederick Schmidt, Kristoffer Joner (last seen in "The Revenant"), Liang Yang, Alix Benezech, with a cameo from Wolf Blitzer.
RATING: 7 out of 10 broken sinks
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