Mission Impossible: Fallout
Last Tuesday was seeing Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise aka Ethan Hunt – but really it’s Tom Cruise in his latest adventure. The high bar of expectations was set when the Ebert site (rogerebert.com) said this was “one of the best movies of the year!” High praise indeed. I did not read the review beyond that headline, as I am learning my lesson.
The MI movies have been around since 1996, and this is the sixth installment. And the last three have been the best of the series, and getting progressively better. When I first saw the very first one I mentally called it “Ending Impossible” since the whole flying a helicopter into the Chunnel and exploding forward was just ridiculous! The series ebbed into the third edition, until someone got wise and made a better film with better story (somewhat) and stunts. It also becomes a bit a travel log as well. Here we have great scenes of Paris, London and then Kashmir (never been myself). The plot really doesn’t matter much but this one ties in well with Rogue Nation, where there was a choice on what to do with the really bad guy. Here it continues. There is some politics thrown in for good measure. I attended with three people who all had never seen a previous film. It didn’t matter as this one kept them all on the edges of their seats with appropriate jumps and surprises. Mission accomplished, as all were entertained. This was fun in the same way that the last two and even films like Speed keep you going and tense. Yes, there were ridiculous aspects of this, but aside from the odd eye roll, I stayed focused on the task at hand and enjoyed the ride. Rebecca Ferguson is again really good, and certainly Tom has a look for his women – Ferguson and Monaghan could be twins, or certainly sisters. So worth seeing a worth a recommendation. I have said to both my older kids that they should see this. Youngest saw it last night and enjoyed.
I watched more Netflix including the end of Vietnam, the 10 part series by Ken Burns. I learned a lot from watching it, none the least was that any third party propping up a corrupt government is going to fail. I also hadn’t realized just how long the conflict went into 1970s (April 1975). I was 8yo. This film will impact the next viewing of Apocalypse Now, without question and the insanity of the leadership in the South both US and otherwise.
I also re-watched American Graffiti the George Lucas film, which was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and has Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford in it. Talk about a movie that launched stars for the coming decades in film!! Funny that the main leads in the film are TV icons (Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley – Ron Howard and Cindy Williams) while the other players became more movie superstars. It is a good film to watch and a classic film for the times (the ending interestingly for the time talks about Richard Dreyfuss character being a writer in Montreal. Obviously a conscientious objector who fled from going to Viet Nam.)
Mondays With Robbie 