MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (Malaysia, 26 Jul 2018)

Genre: Action / Thriller

Running Length: 2:27

Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Michelle Monaghan, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin

Director: Christopher McQuarrie 

Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie, based on the television series by Bruce Geller 

What’s this movie about? 

In MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker (Cavill) to race against time to prevent three nuclear warheads from being detonated by an evil organization called The Apostles.

In the process, the mission becomes complicated as the team gets entangled with a mysterious woman named “White Widow” (Kirby), former ally Ilsa Faust (Ferguson) and arch-enemy from the last movie Rogue Nation, Solomon Lane (Harris).

Highlights!

• The white-knuckle action sequences. The M:I franchise started out as a thriller and have now morphed into this full-on relentlessly-paced action adventure.  All the action scenes are meticulously planned from the halo jump to the final OMG! WTF! crazy helicopter chase scene. My favourite one is the motorcycle chase scene in Paris - I was like on the edge of my seat!
• The camera work.  The tourist location stunts especially of Tom running and jumping from one rooftop to another is clean and breathtaking. No green screen shaky camera BS. 
• Tom Cruise. You know he brought his A game and wasn’t phoning in. Every run, every leap, every punch, every fall and every climb = 100% Tom Cruise.

 

Lowlights 

• The story. It’s nothing new. We have seen this plot many times before. 
• The score. Nothing really memorable here. It was actually distracting especially the earlier action scenes. They need not dramatize it with a score where it’s already breath-taking enough. It was an overkill (except the motorcycle chase scene where a score was absent – that’s probably why that sequence was much more effective). 
• No real danger. Yes, there are suspenseful moments but at the back of my mind, I knew everything will be ok. That’s why I still preferred the first Mission: Impossible - it was designed to be a thriller first, the action came in thereafter. In that movie, there was that tensed and "quiet" iconic cable-dangling backflip moment. In Fallout, it is just loud balls-to-the-wall action. 

In summary 

The 2.5 hours of non-stop action can be exhausting and draining. If they shaved off 20 to 25 mins, the film could be a much tighter experience. Nevertheless, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT is probably the best action blockbuster this year. 

Rating: 8/10

AMERICAN MADE (2017)

Genre: Thriller / Comedy / Drama
Running Length: 1:55
Cast: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Caleb Landry Jones, Jesse Plemons
Director: Doug Liman
Screenplay: Gary Spinelli

As fun as AMERICAN MADE was, I sincerely think that Tom Cruise is miscast here. For starters, he doesn't look anything like the real Barry Seal (a chubby pilot who worked for both the CIA and the Colombian cartel in the 1980s), eventhough some critics said that Cruise channels the same "spirit" as Seal. Don't get me wrong, Mr Cruise does some fine work here. Some would even say he has return to form. But what could have been more believable is for Tom to really pack on a few pounds like what Christian Bale did in American Hustle

This biopic is about the life of Barry Seal, a hot shot maverick commercial pilot who got himself drawn into working with the CIA. The events that followed suit got more bizarre, bigger and crazier, all in the name of chasing after the American dream. I read somewhere that this movie felt like a cross between The Wolf of Wall Street and Top Gun.  

What didn't work for me is that as the turn of events got more bizarre and dangerous, Seal always "gets away". Thus, after a while I didn't feel any real tension because I know Cruise will somehow escape and still flash his signature mega-watt smile. We don't get to see Seal struggle through the moral dilemma of his actions and somehow gets the audience to feel sympathetic for him (eventhough what he does is not really nice).

What I learn from this movie is that sometimes learning when to stop and surrender - will make all the difference.

RATING: 6.5/10

THE MUMMY (2017)

Genre: Action / Horror
Running Length: 1:50
Cast: Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson
Director: Alex Kurtzman
Screenplay: David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman

Tom Cruise's THE MUMMY has a few memorable moments but the narrative is so inconsistent it feels like the writers borrowed heavily from an assortment of ideas and stitched it clumsily together. End result: a Frankenstein monster (UUUUUGGGGHHH...)

Perhaps it's a case of too many cooks spoil the broth (the writing talents here is insane), coupled with an incapable director. The soundtrack seems off. And there were unnecessary roles like Russell Crowe's character and Jake Johnson's. And don't get me started with the poor casting; a weak and irritating female protagonist who actually plays an important role to Cruise's character motivation. As for Sofia Boutella's mummy, she is not even menacing.

As for Maverick himself, Mr Cruise as we all know, is always 101% committed to the moment and the audience can feel his intensity. Whether he's acting (boggle-eyed, doing the "What.The.Hell..." expression, screaming) or running or even flashing his signature smile, he is ALWAYS ALL IN. Even so, he is totally miscast here. It would be an interesting choice though if he played a supporting role in this movie, perhaps Russell's character. Hmmm...

I supposed the main goal of The Mummy is to kickstart a Marvel MCU / DC DCEU multi-movie crossover franchise with classic monster characters like Dracula, The Wolfman and yes, Frankenstein monster but judging from the supposedly lacklustre box office taking and the horrible reviews it's currently receiving, I am not sure this would be happening anytime soon.

Well, compared to the Brendan Fraser's 1999 The Mummy, at least that was was fun in a National Treasure / Indiana Jones-ish way.

RATING: 5.5/10

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (2016)

Genre: Action / Thriller

Running Length: 1:58

Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Danika Yarosh, Aldis Hodge, Patrick Heusinger

Director: Edward Zwick  

Screenplay: Richard Wenk and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz, based on the book by Lee Child

I went in to JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK with poor expectations because of two reasons: (1) the critics were bashing it and (2) Cobie Smulders, because I still can't get past her as 'Robin Scherbatsky' from How I Met Your Mother (Her starring role in The Avengers had that effect on me). But I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining this film turned out to be. 

Well, it's not perfect, in fact far from it. But it's well paced and it has some nice grounded action scenes with bone-crunching type of fist fights. And it has a little investigative work thrown into the plot. It kinda reminds me of the Taken movies. Predictable but engaging. 

As for the story, Cobie Smulders' character (Major Susan Turner) is framed and it's up to Reacher to clear her name and in the process, Reacher gets to beat the crap out of some mercenaries who's out to get them. Oh, and Reacher also discovers he may have a teenage daughter. 

As far as the screenplay goes, the plot holes are as big as the potholes on KL roads. And the dialogue is cheesy. And I'm not really sure of the relationship between Major Turner and Jack Reacher because they do get undressed a fair bit and sleeps in the same hotel room but never get past first base. And why would Reacher wants to risk his life to help her? 

And speaking of our hero, as I don't read the books, I'm not sure why he chose a solo life and just loves to get himself into hand-to-hand combat situations. So many questions but 1/3 into the movie, I just let it all go and went with the flow; cheering on as Tom Cruise shoots, punches, breaks many bones and runs...alot. Speaking of action, eventhough it's a PG13 rated movie, the filmmakers are really pushing the envelope on its level of violence. 

And as for Colbie Smulders, I'm glad to say that never was I reminded of her TV career throughout the course of this movie. She delivers in a big-way. Her tough as nails Major Turner can really kick some serious ass and more importantly, she's believable in this character. And Heusinger plays a very convincing villain so much so, you really want him to die brutally in the end.  

You can’t go wrong with Cruise as his movies are always at a certain standard. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is not as spectacle filled as any of his Mission Impossible movies but it's still a nice little action flick. 

Rating: 7/10

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION (2015)

Genre: Action/Thriller
Running Length: 2:11
Cast:  Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie

Watching any of the Mission: Impossible films (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION being the 5th outing from the franchise) is like watching an episode of The Road Runner cartoons. No matter how outrageous the traps are (set by The Coyote), The Road Runner will never fall into it. Similarly, no matter how dangerous the situations are thrown at Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, we know at the back of our mind he will somehow survive it. There is a sense of predictability that Ethan Hunt/The Road Runner will always win. So, the fun is actually seeing how our hero creatively overcomes each "trap" without being caught.

Just like the previous Mission, the storyline often feels insignificant as the focus is on the action set pieces. The plot checks all its trademark boxes; exotic locations, shifting alliances, megalomaniac villains, but this round, the wall to wall action sequences are amped-up to 11. The hanging Tom Cruise by the plane sequence (seen in the trailer and posters) would be the most daring stunt, but the other scenes offered are more intense; the Nessun Dorma drama, the breathtaking underwater complication, the relentless motorcycle chase and the final confrontation. What works in these sequences is its little reliance on CGI and Tom Cruise going full Jackie Chan as a one-man stunt machine. So there is a sense of real danger and tension.

What also worked in this film is Rebecca Ferguson's character. She is no damsel in distress. In fact, she does more rescuing than being rescued. And I'm glad the filmmakers did not over sexualised the relationship between Cruise and her. I'm also glad that Simon Pegg has meatier scenes this round.

Although the tone is predominantly serious, there is enough humour and silliness to keep Rogue Nation as a solid piece of popcorn entertainment. That's all folks!

Rating: 7/10

EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Genre: Science Fiction/Action
Running Length: 1:53
Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
Director: Doug Liman
 
Here's the good news for Tom Cruise haters. In his new film, EDGE OF TOMORROW, he dies! In fact, Cruise's character dies dozens of times over and over, often in creative and comical ways. The movie unfolds in a straight fashion manner where in the near future, an invading alien race threatens to wipe out humanity (just like any other sci-fi film). Cruise's character is a military PR spokesman who has never set foot on the battlefield suddenly found himself stationed in the frontline for a battle which looked like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. And here's where the plot gets smarter and sharper than one would expect. Minutes into the battle, he dies. But a funny thing happens. He wakes up to discover that he’s back at the beginning of the previous day. No matter what he does, his death returns him to that same point, forcing him to "live.die.repeat" the same period of time again and again. This is "Groundhog Day" with heavy firepower. Another good change from a typical Cruise's flick is that he doesn't dominate it but shares equal screen time with Emily Blunt's "full metal b****" character who gets all the best one-liners. If there's anything disappointing about the film, I would say it's the weak resolution because everything leading to it was smart but I felt the film makers could have been more bold with the ending. Nevertheless it's an entertaining movie as the plot keeps moving forward (albeit in circles).

Rating: 7/10