Movie Review: Mission: Impossible Catch-Up Part II

Seeing that the (maybe) final installment of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series is coming out today (as I publish), I thought I would rewatch the series. Frankly, after the third film my viewing (and memory) is spotty. I am sure I watched at least one of the subsequent films in its entirety and parts of the other films but it is all a jumble in my head. To unjumble things, I am doing this series. See my reviews of the first three here! 

Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) directed by Brad Bird

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is busted out of a Moscow prison by an IMF team to help with a new mission. Someone is trying to steal missile launch codes from the Kremlin and the IMF director wants Hunt to stop it. Hunt naturally accepts with the help of Benjy (Simon Pegg) and Jane (Paula Patton). The Kremlin job literally blows up in their faces, causing high tension between Russia and the U.S.A., along with the disavowal of the entire IMF force. That won't stop Hunt from continuing the mission, which gets bigger and more outlandish as the plot moves along at a breakneck pace, traveling from Europe to Dubai to India, with plenty of amazing stunts, fights, and chases.

The movie is a big fun summer action entertainer. Sadly, they immediately dump Ethan's wife from the last film at the beginning, though that change becomes more plot-relevant later in the film at several moments. So the humanistic bent introduced by J. J. Abrams in the last film hangs on, raising this above just a dumb action film. The story is fun and much easier to follow. Having the whole IMF disavowed amps things up, but can they amp things up further? The spectacular set-pieces, including Tom Cruise climbing on the windows of a skyscraper, are amazing and fun.

Recommended--not as good as the last one, but in the same ballpark.

Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Ethan Hunt is sure that a new threat, The Syndicate, is out there ready to go from individual acts of terrorism to a full-out war of terrorism. The Syndicate uses rogue agents from countries all over the world, presumed dead but now working as the bad guys. Unfortunately, no one else is convinced and the CIA director (Alec Baldwin) gets the IMF Agency shut down by Congress. Hunt is still in the field and continues his pursuit of The Syndicate. He's helped by his usual crew (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremey Renner) while also working with a British mole named Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) in The Syndicate. The chase is world-wide and full of danger and intrigue at every step.

The plot really strains at the edge of believability but the movie moves so quickly along that it's hard to keep up, as if the holes in the story are part of the fabric the filmmakers are weaving. The action is amazing and still more over the top, though CGI is starting to infiltrate the purer stunt work. The cast is charming and enjoyable with characters that play to their strengths (Baldwin as the bit of smarminess and self-obsessed; Renner as the bit of reasonableness in an otherwise chaotic and over-the-top group, etc.). It is a fun ride that both demands and tries to avoid thinking it through too much.

Recommended--better than the last one, but number 3 is still number 1.

Mission: Impossible: Fallout (2018) written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Hunt's team loses three plutonium cores when Ethan has to choose between saving teammate Luther (Ving Rhames) and protecting the cores. Things start to spiral out of control as recovering the cores gets complicated. Ethan tries to imitate the buyer who is meeting the White Queen (Vanessa Kirby), though the buyer is both the head of the remains of The Syndicate from the last film and is targeted by Ilsa who is trying to prove her loyalty to MI-6. If that was not enough trouble, the CIA, who has been mopping up Syndicate remnants, saddles Hunt's team with one of their own operatives (Henry Cavill) to make sure the mission does not get messed up.

This is another stunt-and-chase extravaganza. The movie clocks in at almost two and a half hours, which is mostly excitement and action. There are human moments and comic moments to balance things out but I did find myself (1) watching this in two parts and (2) thinking at some points, "how much longer is this?" I wasn't really bored but I did feel like things were taking longer than they should have, squeezing in one more fight or obstacle that maybe didn't need to be there. Of course, if you are watching this for fights and obstacles, that's a plus.

Mildly recommended.

Here's my previous review of the penultimate movie, so you don't have to click through a link...

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has a new mission--he needs to track down half of a special key that is part of a larger conspiracy that threatens the whole world, though his employer doesn't know what the key unlocks. Just it is a big threat. Viewers have seen where the key goes in a pre-credits sequence--a new AI system on a stealth Russian submarine goes rogue and scuppers the sub. The AI has been infiltrating many intelligence agencies from many countries, making it a valuable weapon for whichever country can get control of it. Ethan's mission is to find the key and return it to HQ. Ethan, who has had a problem with going rogue before, decides he needs to destroy the AI if he can find the original source code. A lot of action and hijinks follows with an unresolved cliffhanger ending (not a spoiler since the movie's title ends with "Part One").

The plot is the usual over-the-top nonsense that comes from this franchise. The execution is so much fun, it makes up for the daftness of the story's core. Ethan has to get the old band back together, so Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are back. Grace (Hayley Atwell) is an exceptional thief who is also after the key for a mysterious employer (guess who?). Ethan crosses swords with her before he winds up working with her and recruiting her for the Impossible Missions Force. The action sequences are fun and over-the-top, so fitting with the story and the series as a whole. Cruise is his usual charming self and the rest of the cast also shines. The movie is an entertaining popcorn romp. Even though it is only half the story, it is still almost three hours long. I never found myself bored watching it, so it is like the Peter Jackson King Kong, which was way too long but I find it hard to recommend what to cut out.

Recommended.

It's probable that I will wait till home video for the final installment of this franchise. The three-hour running time is a bit daunting. Time will tell...

Movie Review: The Iron Giant (1999)

The Iron Giant (1999) co-written and directed by Brad Bird

Hogarth Hughes is a young boy living in 1950s Rockwell, Maine. He's a smart kid who loves comic books, scary movies on TV, and his mom. She works at the local diner and loves him too, though she has a hard time putting up with all the pets he brings home (usually animals from the forest). Things change when a seeming asteroid crashes into the ocean. One sea captain at the diner claims there was a hundred-foot monster. Everyone else laughs except Dean, a beatnik-ish artist who runs the local scrap yard (and makes his art from the scraps). One night, Hogarth loses his TV reception and discovers the rooftop antenna is missing. He sees a trail of destruction leading off into the woods. He follows the trail and winds up at the local power plant where a giant robot (the titular Iron Giant) is eating metal. The robot gets caught in the power lines and Hogarth shuts down the electricity, causing a blackout. He befriends the alien robot and starts to teach it. Meanwhile, some locals have called Washington and a federal agent who is consumed with Cold War paranoia comes to investigate. Hiding a hundred-foot robot is not easy, so lots of comedy and some drama ensues.

The story is fairly straightforward and follows a familiar arc. The execution is so well done, it's hard not to love the film. Hogarth is very sympathetic and easy to identify with. The Iron Giant is mostly friendly though it does turn to violence to protect itself. It seems like some sort of weapon but Hogarth encourages it to be a hero like Superman. The Iron Giant can and does use its abilities for good. It becomes a threat when the federal agent convinces the military to fight it (because anything unfamiliar must be evil, right?). The artist is cautious about the robot but much more sympathetic as he sees its genial nature. The general who comes to town with the military follows the bad intel from the agent at the beginning. He switches once he sees the cravenly nature of the agent and that the robot only acts in defense. The robot rises to the occasion at the end, sacrificing itself for Hogarth and the town. The whole package is a very touching, well-executed, boy's adventure tale. We just listened to an audiobook version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Hogarth is very much like Jim Hawkins, and their stories follow a similar pattern of action, comedy, and drama. The robot reminds me of Babe, the pig who rose above his porcine nature to be a sheep dog through his love and kindness for the other animals on the farm. What's not to like about this film?

Highly recommended.

There's a great commentary on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #280. 

Movie Review: Incredibles 2 (2018)

Incredibles 2 (2018) written and directed by Brad Bird

Incredibles 2 picks up right where the last movie left off--the Parr family (Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig Nelson), Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), and their children Dash, Violet, and Jack-Jack) suits up and uses their superpowers to fight The Underminer. After an exciting battle, The Underminer escapes and the city takes a bunch of damage. The Parrs are sent packing. Frozone (Samuel Jackson), who helped in the fight and ducked out in time not to be caught by the police, is invited by a mysterious company to fight against the law forbidding supers to use their powers. Frozone approaches Bob and Helen to join the meeting. Everything seems legit: They are meeting a brother-sister team who run a major telecomm company and want to fight the anti-superhero law. The siblings have a plan to make the supers more relatable--install cameras in their costumes so that everyone can see what the heroes really go through to protect the public. Of the three heroes, they select Helen's Elasticgirl to be the first to make supers look good. Their reasoning--she's historically caused the least damage (i.e. the least expense) in her crime fighting. She reluctantly accepts and Bob becomes a stay-at-home dad dealing with the baby, the new way kids do math in school, and the social drama of his teenage daughter. A new villain called Screenslaver uses hypnosis to control others. Can Elastigirl find and defeat Screenslaver, thereby restoring the reputation of superheroes?

The movie is an exciting blend of action, comedy, and family drama. Pixar has a mixed record with sequels. The Toy Story sequels are great; the Cars sequels and Finding Dory are unimpressive. While this movie is not as great as the first Incredibles, or as great as the Toy Story sequels, it's still a solid movie and very entertaining. Some of the surprise twists are predictable and a key part of the final battle is so obvious that I wondered why they hadn't done it twenty minutes earlier. Even so, the movie is enjoyable.

Also, it was the first trip for our youngest to the movie theater. He loved it and was well behaved during the movie (he did do a lot of talking out loud during the trailers but quieted up for the feature).

Waiting patiently for the movie

The other kids came too!

Recommended.