Jack's Thoughts - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

My face after leaving this movie

While Ed praised the latest Mission: Impossible instalment, he admitted that he wasn't the resident fan of the series. That's where I come in.

I said in my review of the first Mission: Impossible film that the franchise began as Hollywood's response to James Bond. Five movies in and they have cemented that fact, whilst becoming their own thing entirely.

I'm not going to go into plot details because you can read those on our official review. This is just going to be me explaining how much I love this movie and the reasons why. The first being the plot. I know, I know, I wasn't going to go into it and I'm not. But this movie's plot works really well. The franchise is known for its twists and turns, some you see coming and some you don't. All in all though, it's one hell of a roller coaster ride that will keep the adrenaline running throughout the entire film.

Secondly, Tom Cruise. Say what you will about him having an insane private life, but that doesn't distract from the fact that he is a really really good actor. And that stems from the fact that he loves what he does and it shows in his performances, but none so more than the character of Ethan Hunt. Hunt is Cruise's own character that he has perfected over the last twenty years and no one else could play him, making him the complete opposite of James Bond. What I love about Hunt in relation to Bond is that while he is almost an unstoppable machine, he is also infallible. Right from day one, the character has found himself in more dire situations than any character and Cruise puts himself in those situations for the authenticity, such as hanging off a flying plane. Insane!

Now specifically this movie is great because it is entirely self-referential to the entire series. There are overt and covert references to every movie, from a rabbits foot to a super subtle reference to chewing gum that will only appeal to die hard fans of the series. The film also throws in the famous mission giving sequence, but with a huge twist, thus throwing the entire conceit on its head. We also have a huge number of jokes about how this mission can't quite be impossible.

But what about all the other great characters in this movie. Well, as Ed said, Benji (Simon Pegg) is the stand-in for the main audience, always amazed at Ethan's complete and utter insanity as well as caring for him (although I have always found Ethan Hunt the more relatable character). Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) is the other hallmark of the series bringing his dry, but funny charm to the movie (he also represents the long standing fan of the films). Brandt (Jeremy Renner) represents the audience members who try and think about these movies from a rational point, but failing to do so and in the end coming around to see things "the only way".

That brings me to the character of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). Instead of playing the usual "Bond girl" of the Mission: Impossible series, she is presented as a female equivalent of Ethan Hunt. She is often as ruthless as he, but her motives are also the same. What I love about this movie in particular is that there is no sexual element between Ethan and Ilsa as there has been in the past movies. He truly respects her and sees her as an equal, which I think is a huge step forward for a big Hollywood movie like this.

"Your mission should you choose to accept it...." is find a bigger fan of this film series than me. Because Rogue Nation just cemented my already strong love. I might even go so far as to say I love it more than Bond....

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Having watched the trailer for Felix Herngren's Swedish adventure film, I thought it looked incredibly exciting. Unfortunately most of the best bits from the film have been cherry-picked for the trailer which leaves a hilarious, yet slightly underwhelming movie.

On his 100th birthday and after a very eventful life, Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson) is barricaded within the walls of a drab nursing home. He decides that there's still too much to experience in the outside world, so he climbs out the window. Whilst waiting for a bus, he is asked to mind a suitcase while it's owner goes to the bathroom. When the bus arrives he takes off with the suitcase, which happens to be stuffed with fifty million dollars in cash.

Whilst he undertakes his hilarious journey, we see flashbacks to his past, where he has been present at several important milestones and met some incredibly famous people, including Vice President Truman, Robert Oppenhiemer, General Franco and Stalin, among others. Sound familiar? Yes, he's also a little bit 'special' and at one stage says "Shit happens", but don't worry, this isn't a total rip-off.

Robert Gustafsson is quite good as Allan, especially considering he was often covered in plastic and makeup, but the character is quite a bland sort of person (which is where a lot a lot of the humour comes from) so there's really not a lot for him to work with. Alan Ford plays a very convincing, if not rather typecast (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch.) gangster, and Iwar Wiklander is great as Allan's travelling companion, Julius, however the rest of the cast seem to just be playing blithering idiots, which got a little bit tiresome.

The plot is a bit of a weird mix between Forrest Gump and Ferris Bueller, but it works fairly well, with hardly ever a dull moment, after all, Allan is an explosives enthusiast (don't worry, it's not a Michael Bay feature). The film is really hilarious, which is what kept me interested, and it's mainly delivered through dialogue driven gags, thanks to the great screenplay. However, as I mentioned earlier, the best jokes, the best plot points and the best explosions are all in the trailer, so if you're thinking of seeing the film, don't watch the trailer!

The overall look of the film, a bit like the effects, is nothing special. There were some interesting colour grading choices early on, such as the bland inside of the nursing home juxtaposed to the colourful flowers outside the window, but generally this is a film that lets the story speak for itself, which I quite respect. Overall, it's certainly not going to take you on a journey like Forrest Gump did, but that doesn't matter because it's a throughly entertaining movie.