Mission: Impossible idealizes Tom Cruise and his willingness to commit increasingly-dangerous stunts the way Mission: Impossible idealizes Ethan Hunt and his willingness to save the world. The series is a frequently-amazing vehicle for both, filled with spectacular set pieces and the perception that if those are delivered on the rest of the film can be …
Movie Review
Most sequels operate under the Law of Diminishing Returns, but not the Mission: Impossible franchise, at least, not since Ghost Protocol. I enjoyed the first three well enough, but once Ghost Protocol hit, and with each entry since, this series has strived to top itself in spectacle, story, stunts, spontaneity, and sincerity. Tom Cruise and …
Joy Ride, Adele Lim‘s extended road trip through China, is an enticing meditation on the complexity of identity within the immigrant experience that is unfortunately saddled with banal modern comedic tropes that undercut rather than enhance the journey. The phrase ‘immigrant experience’ itself seems overused at this point, a short-hand attempt to quantify a reality …
Let’s be honest and lay the cards on the table – the Indiana Jones movies are a trilogy. Yes, there are five movies in this trilogy, so the math doesn’t quite check out, but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are more epilogues than …
It’s easy to put charismatic actors in a romantic setting and let them quip at each other. It’s difficult to make anyone care for them or their plight or generate genuine charm. It’s easy to create gags that tug and pull at the edges of societal norms, aiming to shock through sheer outrageousness. It’s difficult to resist …
In 1969, Henry Jones Jr. is at a low point in his life. Well past his glory days, he now is disrespected by his younger neighbors, slowed down by aches and pains, forced into retirement by his college, and ignored by his students. Indy is a man out of time and the world moves on …
I’ll be the first to admit that, when I initially looked at Elemental in my inbox, I was hesitant. Over the years, Pixar has struggled a bit with its films, some of which suffered from being shoved onto Disney+ during peak COVID but also due to execution of ideas. From the lackluster Lightyear to the …
It seems hard to believe that everything that could be coaxed out of a world-spanning story of giant alien robots battling for supremacy has been even across seven films, but here we are. The newest attempt to revive the Transformers franchise remixes and regurgitates a lot of the pieces from the previous films, attempting to …
A couple of years after the events of Justice League, Barry Allen is starting to master his powers as The Flash. Unfortunately, not much else is going well for him. He feels like a fourth-rate member of the superhero team, he is not respected at his job as a forensic scientist, and his love life …
Halfway through Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, I wanted to snap my glasses in two. Not because I didn’t like what I was seeing, but because I wanted those rays of light to shine directly onto my brain pan. My eyes were inadequate witnesses to the sheer imagination and talent on display. This thing deserves to …