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BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Mission impossible dead reckoning part one (2023) in Movies

Jul 14, 2023

What A Summer Blockbuster Movie Should Be

Boy, that Tom Cruise sure knows how to make a crowd-pleasing, summer blockbuster movie.

Fresh off his cinema-saving success with TOP GUN: MAVERICK, Cruise (and Director Christopher McQuarrie) comes back with another giant summer tentpole film - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE - and they hit it out of the park again.

The 7th film in the Mission Impossible franchise (which debuted, incredibly, 27 years ago), DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE reunites Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) with his band of hero/outlaws to stop yet another world-wide crisis. It’s familiar ground but it is the journey not the destination that makes these types of films work and the journey (which, to be honest, is just an excuse to jump from action set piece to action set piece) is a fun one filled with comfortable characters/actors both old and new.

Besides Cruise (who’s got the Ethan Hunt character down), DR1 is filled with Hunt’s “regular” crew, Luther (Vingh Rhames - the only other actor besides Cruise to be in every MI film), Benji (SImon Pegg - around since MI 3) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson - on board since film 5). These are all familiar, comfortable characters and when the band gets back together about 1/2 way through the film, it felt liking sinking into your couch after a long, hard (but good) day of work to watch your favorite comfort show.

McQuarrie, wisely, populates the rest of the film with new, but comfortably familiar, faces such as Haley Atwell (Agent Carter in the MCU), Shea Wigham (ironically, he played Atwell’s boss in the Agent Carter TV Series), Pom Klementieff as Paris (the name of the character Leonard Nimoy played in the TV Series). Klementieff is also a veteran of the MCU having played Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, Esai Morales (one of the bosses in NYPD BLUE) and Cary Elwes (the Princess Bride). All bring their “A” game to the adventure and all of them acquit themselves just fine.

Oh…and Henry Czerny reprises his role as Kittridge from the first Mission Impossible film - and it was good to see him, too as was Vanessa Kirby’s re-appearance as Hunt’s “frenemie”, The White Widow (in a role that is a bit more expanded).

But, of course, all of these actors/performances takes a back seat to the action sequences and McQuarrie and Cruise are at the top of their game here. The big action set pieces are a marvel to watch - very enjoyable, exciting, nerve-wracking and easy to follow with some sense of humor rolled in. Unlike another big action flick (that leaned more towards the over-the-top comic-book type action), this Mission Impossible film relies on tension to make these action scenes pop off the screen - and McQuarrie succeeds.

Since this film is labeled as “Part One” you would expect to this film to end on a cliff-hanger and McQuarrie/Cruise were smart about that, too. It is more of “the mission isn’t finished” than a cliff-hanger, which helps this film hold together on it’s own and not just “Part One of a two-parter”.

Very smart, indeed.

A fun romp at the cinema - head out to the biggest screen possible to immerse yourself into this mission, you’ll be glad you did.

Letter Grade: A

9 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)

A fun, escapist, action film that is satisfying (and not dumb), MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD

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Nikki G. (48 KP) rated Christine (2016) in Movies

Sep 2, 2017

Christine (2016)

2016 | Drama

8.0

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Not an easy film to watch, but it should make you uncomfortable

Contains spoilers, click to show

Christine Chubbuck is a name that most people have never heard of, although her demise by her own hand was the supposed inspiration for the 1970s film Network, although that was a comedy. Anyway, she was a smart young journalist for a small local television station in Sarasota, Florida, in the early 1970s, struggling with trying to make a name for herself and the "if it bleeds, it leads" style of reportage that was starting to become de rigueur back then. She also struggled with depression and probably bipolar or borderline personality disorder, as well.

Christine tried to hang with the new style and offered to do a piece for the station on suicide. She spoke with police officers and interviewed them on what would be the best way. Ten days prior to her death, she purchased a gun. When asked why, she said to a co-worker, "Well, I had this wild idea that I would blow myself away on the air." Everyone thought she was making a crass joke, but about a week later, that is exactly what she did.

This movie details Christine's spiral downward into the morass of mental illness, exacerbated by the pressures of being female in a male-dominated world. It is fascinating and uncomfortable, not to mention heartbreaking. Rebecca Hall completely dissolves into the character of Christine and does a fantastic job of making you relate to this woman who just wanted people to like her and tell her that she was doing a good job.

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John Bradley recommended This Is Spinal Tap (1984) in Movies (curated)

"Number two is slightly different. There are similarities. It’s gotta be This Is Spinal Tap. It’s gotta be that. Just the detail of that as well. What I love about Spinal Tap is, I think it’s the first example of that; it has been carried on through things like The Office and Arrested Development, because they have quite similar qualities. It’s comedy that’s made for people with a sense of humor. You actually have to have quite an attuned sense of humor to know why things are funny in that. I think some comedy is written and performed at an audience, like,”This is it, this is funny. You are not funny, but you’re gonna watch us be funny.” The thing about a lot of that stuff — and I think Spinal Tap is the kind of crystallization of that — you have to be quite a funny person, and have quite a grasp of the work in the comedy to know why Derek Smalls saying, “David, ‘Smell the Glove’ is here. Hello, Jeanine,” over the microphone is a funny thing for him to do. And you have to know why that’s an inappropriate thing to do. And you have to have an understanding of the rules of comedy, and just the rules of everyday social graces to know why that is funny. I kind of like being part of that exclusive club. You’re kind of in on the joke. It’s a communal experience because we’re trusting you that you’re smart enough to know why this is funny without us having to describe it and spoon feed it to you. I like the elitism of being part of that club."

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