 I just got back from watching the latest Mission Impossible, so my thoughts are fresh.
Ugh. What a disappointment. The series peaked with number 5 (Rogue Nation), and they’ve been getting progressively worse since then, culminating in what is being touted as the last Mission Impossible movie. Disclaimer: I am a big fan of Tom Cruise. The guy is a living legend, and I really wanted to like this movie, but it was just bad on a very basic level, despite how impressive Tom Cruise’s stunts were (and they were very impressive!). The entire movie is a series of set-pieces, where the stakes are so high, that failure results in the end of the world! There’s absolutely no levity in this film, whatsoever, it’s just purely fatalistic! Scene after scene of ‘life or death’ situations gets pretty tiresome; proof that a movie made up entirely of ‘third act climaxes’ is dull as dishwater. I mean, there’s literally no arc or development for any of the characters, and each character, apart from the protagonist and his sidekick ‘Benjy’, is an inferior version of characters from the previous movies. They are completely devoid of any traits or personality. When you don’t care about the characters, then you don’t care about the story. Then there’s the editing. They should have called this film ‘Cut To: Flashback – The Movie’ I swear, they must have set a record for the number of callbacks and flashbacks in a single movie! It was so annoying! A character can’t speak without the film inserting a flashback of whatever they’re referring to, as if this film is made for an audience of amnesiacs who watch movies while they’re doom-scrolling! The film begins and ends with characters delivering long monologues to the audience, telling us about how great Ethan Hunt (and thus, Tom Cruise) is, and how the world would be better if we were as self-less as him, etc etc. Because, the world is so divided right now. Er, no it’s not! The entire planet can agree on one thing: politicians and the wealthy elite are the problem. Speaking of villains, the mysterious A.I. ‘Entity’ and its lackey ‘Gabriel’ were SO fcuking sh!t! The equivalent would be a boomer writing a story about how Tik Tok is going to end the world! The fact that they tarnished the other films in the franchise, to somehow coalesce the story into some grand arc, like it was Avengers Endgame or something, was desperate and unnecessary. The whole thing was just a shame. The biggest shame being that the filmmakers, McQuarrie and Cruise, are so far removed from objectivity, that they’re convinced that this film, as well as the last one, are actually good! Sigh. With Hollywood churning out expensive crap, after expensive crap, and A.I. generating life like video in minutes, so audiences can create their own custom-made slop, maybe cinema really is dead. Ah well, at least we still have each other.
0 Comments
 With Tom Cruise in publicity overdrive at the moment, I seem to have a strange, completely unrelated urge to watch his movies!
I’d never seen ‘Days of Thunder’, because frankly, it looked sh!t. I mean who, apart from Americans, even watched Nascar in the early 90s? So anyway, I wasn’t missing anything. The film ain’t great. Throughout most of the film, there’s no character development, and no stakes, other than the Team owner potentially losing money. Who cares? Then, in the final third, they introduce some character development and some stakes, but it’s too little too late, and basically just echoes Top Gun, a vastly superior film in the same mould. Not much more to say really.  With all the publicity and promotion regarding the latest Mission Impossible movie (‘The Final Reckoning’), I figured I’d revisit number four in the franchise, as I’d only seen it once, when it came out.
Back then, I thought it was okay, but nothing special. It’s actually a lot better than I remembered! It’s a bit more light-hearted and tongue in cheek; the whole climbing, running, and falling off the tallest building in the world, is as impressive as ever, and with the banter from the other characters, it’s also quite humorous; a quality lacking in subsequent films. Yeah, it’s gone up in my estimation, I must admit. Good film!  As a creative, one needs to take an interest in everything; the greater and more varied your input, the greater and more varied your output.. in theory anyway.
Consequently, I attend as many events and talks as possible (which in London, is practically a full time job!). It was the first day of Clerkenwell Design Week, and Farringdon was abuzz with creative types, as well as exhibition spaces and networking hubs. Farringdon in general is becoming one of my favourite places, purely because it’s not full of tourists, “students” and those infernal delivery drivers on bikes, who cause mayhem on the pavements and the roads! It reminds me of London twenty years ago, when it was less congested, and more civil. I attended a talk hosted by the Italian Trade Agency, on design materials, and I was heartened to hear how the design world is focused on sustainability. I’ve been an Environmentalist since I was a child, and in that time, despite the awareness, the natural environment has only grown closer to annihilation. As a filmmkaer, I’m only too aware of the lack of sustainability within the industry, as sets are constructed and disposed of without a second thought; even the sheer number of plastic water bottles used is astounding. If only every industry was as committed to protecting the environment as they are to maximising profits, the world would be a better place. Interestingly, the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive! What I found most interesting was how mycelium is being used to bring new life to materials that have been disposed of, such fabricating new textiles from old ones. Mushrooms really will save the world! One of the speakers mentioned that wood is the rarest material in the universe; as far as we know, it can only be sourced from trees on one planet. Diamonds and precious metals are far more abundant in the universe. ..my dream is to find me a girl that would accept a wooden engagement ring, instead of a diamond one!  Love and Friendship. That is all.
That’s what the joy of life boils down to, and this mesmerising film shows us that in the most simple, yet affecting story. This was my first time watching ‘Il Postino’, and I have to admit, had I seen it as a younger man, it’s poignancy may have been lost on me. It’s only when things are scarce, do we learn to appreciate them, and seeing the humble protagonist succeed in his quest for love brought me a genuine, vicarious, pleasure. The pursuit of love, not lust, nor money, is considered by all artists to be the most worthy of all human endeavours, and any story that reinforces this belief, resonates. I felt the film would have been better served with a triumphant, fairy tale ending, leaving the audience on a high, but life doesn’t always work that way, and so the story continues past that point… Anyway, it’s worth mentioning that the star of the film, Massimo Troisi, literally died making this film, and his performance is subtle, yet brilliant. After watching it, I felt an urgent need to put the pursuit of love at the top of my agenda (I’m already blessed with the greatest of friends), but living in London, a literal playground for the superficial, I fear the only thing left for me to try, is to leave this place... That, or become rich.  I remember when this movie came out, back in ‘99, with the music video for ‘All Star’ (by Smash Mouth) tearing up the charts and featuring plenty of clips from the movie. I miss those days, back when film’s would have a tie-in with songs, and the only glimpses you’d get to see from the film were in trailers and music videos…
1999 was a vintage year in the history of cinema; there were so many amazing films to see, that I didn’t bother with Mystery Men, despite being an avid reader of comic books. To be honest, it just looked to cheesy, and reminded me of the type of comic book movies I’d rather forget, i.e. those by Joel Schumacher! Anyway, fast-forward 26 years, and I FINALLY watched it, and it was GOOD! It’s one of those movies that was waaaaay ahead of it’s time, and with the over-saturation of Super Hero movies in cinema, this comedy about that genre, and a bunch of losers masquerading as super-heroes, is more prescient and funnier than it would have been when it was released. The visuals and effects still hold up, as do the jokes! The characters are genuinely funny and endearing; juggling the real world ridiculousness of what they do, with their belief that they’re actual heroes, is jokes! Claire Forlani and Janeane Garofalo pretty much steal the show; one for her beauty, and the other for her comedy. All in all, it’s a pretty sweet film; not the funniest you’ll ever see, or the most action packed, but it is good fun, so definitely seek it out, especially if you have a fondness for the genre, but are sick of all the crap Marvel are pumping out these days.  I FINALLY got around to watching Suzume!
I’m a big fan of Makoto Shinkai (who isn’t?), but he’ll probably forever live under the shadow of ‘Your Name’, and this film, although good, isn’t going to change that. I liked the story, and the characters. It goes without saying that the artwork was amazing, and getting a kind of whistle-stop tour of different Japanese towns and cities, as the characters race to save lives, was a lot of fun. The film very much felt like an anime version of a Hollywood action movie, driven more by plot points and set-pieces, than by character, and because of that plot-driven narrative, it seemed to lack character progression. I wanted more ‘heart’ and ‘emotion’; quieter, more thoughtful moments, a bit of stillness and introspection regarding the girl’s relationship with her mother and her aunt. You can clearly see how the filmmaker’s scope has grown, and I applaud the ambition. Making a heart-warming, emotional, blockbuster action film, especially with hand drawn animation, is a monumental effort! It’s a good film, and definitely worth watching, but temper your expectations.  I love a good Western.
Stories about (often) lone men riding into town, defeating the bad guys, and then riding out once justice has been done, are hard to resist. There’s something primal about them; satisfying our desire to believe that heroes exist. Heroes that will defend the helpless, especially when the law seems to work in tandem with the bad guys. It’s an American myth, that is supposed to propagate the ideals that America was supposedly built on. Of course, we now know better, and ‘revisionist’ Westerns seek to redress the propaganda by showing us that the so called ‘good guys’ are no different than the ‘bad guys’. I guess High Plains Drifter falls into this revisionist category, as the truth about the ‘innocent townspeople is slowly revealed. Although the film had all the right ingredients, with a cold-hearted, sharp shooting, anti-hero as the protagonist, a story about injustice and revenge, and a brilliant Clint Eastwood pretty much playing reprising ‘the man with no name’, I just didn’t enjoy it that much. The protagonist is hard to like, and the story moved pretty slowly. There wasn’t really anyone in the story to latch on to, or care about. If you don’t care about anyone in the story, then you find yourself asking why the hell you’re watching it? The music wasn’t anything special either, and a good Western needs an iconic soundtrack! There’s a novel twist at the end, but it didn’t redeem the viewing experience for me.  I’m one of those people that think Marvel should have gone on hiatus after Avengers Endgame; it was the perfect ending to that era of films, and they should have waited, not only to build audience anticipation, but also to figure out what the hell they were going to do?!
Instead, they went the ‘cash-grab’ route and dragged the brand through the mud with sh!t film after sh!t film, as well as mediocre shows on TV. Still, as someone trying to keep the ‘movie-going’ experience alive, I feel duty-bound to go to the cinema whenever possible, and so, I watched Marvel’s latest offering, ‘Thunderbolts’. It was actually alright! Florence Pugh was by far the best thing about it! She really added likeability, as well as empathy to her character, not to mention some much needed humour! The way the rest of the characters bantered with one another was also quite fun, as well as the way they acknowledged that none of them were ‘prime’ characters or characters in their prime; especially given how Marvel has spent the past five years trying to pass off bottom tier characters as top tier material. I also appreciated that the story tackled the mental health crisis the world is currently facing. Covid was a nightmare that continues to haunt us (even if you emerged mentally/physically unscathed, you’re still paying for it through your taxes), and with the combined threat of avaricious Billionaires and Artificial Intelligence, we seem to be propelling ourselves towards a dystopia at ever increasing speed! That said, the second half of the movie seemed quite dull compared to the first half, and the climax was anti-climactic to say the least. Overall, it’s an ‘Okay’ movie, but better than anything Marvel has made in recent times. Worth checking out for some decent entertainment, but still not hitting the ‘pre-Endgame’ levels of Marvel movies.  I watched this 1960 film for the first time, primarily for research purposes, and I have to say, it was good!
I’ve said it before, but it’s depressing how the films and filmmakers from decades ago took far more risks than their modern day equivalent. Because of that, this film still, 65 years after it was released, seems innovative! Whilst it’s not ‘thrilling’ or ‘scary’ in any way, it does provide a compelling character study of someone on the fringes of society, and in the ‘incel’ scapegoating world we live in today, it’s definitely still very pertinent. It’s because we’re intrigued by the film’s protagonist, that it doesn’t matter that we know who the killer is within the first five minutes of the film; what keeps us watching is trying to find out why he behaves the way he does. In that sense, the filmmaker makes a ‘Peeping Tom’ (Voyeur) out of the audience, in the same way the protagonist of the film is one. Of course, such brilliant filmmaking comes at the hands of a master, and its sad that the film caused such notoriety when released, that the filmmaker in question, Michael Powell, found it difficult it to work again. I guess that’s partly why filmmakers nowadays are so risk-averse; they want to keep working! The irony is, when your movies are so bland, nobody in the audience wants you to! Also, I think this is probably the first of Michael Powell’s films that I’ve seen! Shock! Horror! Anyway, with a great premise, a great ending, and a brilliant examination of character (as well as a few in-jokes about filmmaking), this film should be on every filmmaker’s list of films to watch! As a Londoner, I also enjoyed catching glimpses of Rathbone Place and Newman’s Passage from back in the day! (Roads I still walk down frequently!) |
This page is...
A chronicle of films, shows, and theatre I've seen, as well as books I've read, and talks I've attended. Archives
August 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed
