Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Making a new franchise can be a difficult thing, especially when you announce plans to make one. Normally a movie does well and then you capitalise by making a sequel. If that does well, you try again. Before you know it, franchise. However, when you announce it in the first place, there are a lot more expectations when other movies come along. Going into this one, my expectations were high, considering how good the first one was.

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is drifting from job to job, given to him by Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). Despite Turner only being a voice at the end of the phone, Reacher bonds with her and tells her that he'll get her dinner when he's next in Washington DC. Only once he gets there, he discovers Turner has been arrested for espionage. Blocking his way in finding the truth is Colonel Morgan (Holt McCallany) who sends a mysterious ex-special forces soldier (Patrick Heusinger) to hunt him down. But Reacher also has to deal with Samantha (Danika Yarosh), a teenager who may or may not be his daughter.

The thing this movie does well with is action. The pace of the film is relentless. It moves from one set piece to the other quite well and there are quite a few of them. The final fight between Tom Cruise and Patrick Heusinger is executed well and is quite tense, despite the fact that we know Tom can't be beaten. Add the fact that he always does his own stunts makes it all the more impressive. His chemistry with Danika Yarosh is also worth noting. I've never seen Tom Cruise act in a paternal way (I won't count War of the Worlds because he was a bad dad). He carries it off really well and by the end I was hoping that Sam might actually be his daughter.

The big thing where this movie fell down was its confusing storyline. I know it's an action movie and that story is only used sparingly, but this one felt like they were making things up as they went along. Soldiers being shot changed to weapons being sold changed to drugs being smuggled, there didn't seem to be a coherent through line in the story. It seemed like whatever they needed it to be, they changed it to. I also want to comment on the lack of star power in the film. This one has Tom Cruise and Cobie Smulders and that's it. While the other actors are fantastic at what they do, it was a surprise in the last one to see a high calibre of actors in supporting roles. You had Jai Courtney, David Oyelow and Werner Herzog, all big names who could carry something on there own, but they also elevated that first movie. Beyond Robert Knepper, I didn't recognise anyone in this movie.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was supposed to be a sequel to launch a franchise, but now after two movies I feel like they've reached the limits of what the character can do. We get that he's a drifter who doesn't drive, going from adventure to adventure, but they just seem repetitive on the screen. Tom Cruise should stick to Mission: Impossible from now on. Then again, I wasn't a fan of Mission: Impossible II.

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....

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Smashing through the box office gates every few years comes the latest Mission Impossible flick, America's answer to Bond, just with less kissing and more gadgets. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation hits screens this week with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie at the wheel. Will this prove to be the latest capstone in a strong series, or is Ethan Hunt getting as tedious as a school band playing the Mission Impossible theme?

After years hunting a mysterious group known as the Syndicate, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) believes he has enough proof to confirm their existence. When reporting to a secret IMF station about his interception of a nerve gas shipment, he is captured by the Syndicate. Escaping in usual brawling fashion, he is assisted by a disavowed British agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and pursues the elusive blonde man that he saw just before he was captured, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).

After a senate committee finds their actions reckless, the IMF is dissolved, with CIA director Alan Huntley (Alec Baldwin) picking up the pieces. William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are questioned about the whereabouts of Hunt, now a rogue agent, but neither crack and Ethan continues to evade capture. He tricks Benji into flying to Vienna for the Opera, however in reality it's a ploy to get Dunn's assistance in taking down the Syndicate. The two team up with Ilsa to infiltrate a high-security server that should assist them in tracking down Lane.

I'm not our resident MI fan, but having caught up on Ghost Protocol before meandering into this fifth installment, I was ready for some tense action, and it's safe to say that I wasn't disappointed. The pace is set in the opening sequence, which sees Hunt clinging for dear life to the side of a cargo plane as it takes off. It might not quite trump the Dubai skyscraper scenes from the previous film, but the tension remains palpable, especially when you realise that this was done for real, by cruise. This is followed up by a dramatic fight at the opera, claustrophobic chase sequences through the streets of Morocco and a free-dive into a giant water-cooled computer mainframe.

It's exhilarating stuff, as you would expect from McQuarrie (writer of The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie) and regular action-cinematographer Robert Elswit. The plot can turn on it's head without warning - as is typical with the series - leaving you constantly second guessing the motives of the array of different characters, and as long as you don't over-think it then it's great fun to follow along with. Although at times you do find yourself glossing over the current story and sitting back to anticipate the next action sequence, testimony to the effectiveness of the action.

Cruise continues to cheat his way through the ageing process, seemingly still in peak physical condition. He punches, kicks, dodges and flips his way through his enemies and of coarse, still does his own stunts. Benji and Ethan work closer than ever here as the IMF struggles to find solid ground yet again, and Pegg continues to be the most likable character in the series. Benji is ultimately the nerdy kid's channel into this world, operating his vast array of gadgets with occasional precision. Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa is fast and nimble, taking down any enemy brute thrown at her, and Renner's Brandt....well he's sometimes useful. This seems to be a common issue with a lot of the supporting cast, namely that they really don't do that much. Alec Baldwin cracks open his 'annoying useless obstacle' persona which I haven't personally seen him do since the awful The Cat in the Hat film, and Sean Harris transforms into the stock-standard turtle-necked bad guy. His character develops less as a man who you expect to be foiled by his own heinous ambitions, and more as a lemming lining up waiting to be thrown off the cliff.

But the character assassinations are just nit-picking for an action film like this. Ultimately, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a solid and visceral addition to the franchise that will keep you thoroughly entertained.

Classic Movie Review: Mission: Impossible (1996)

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it..."

I really love the first Mission: Impossible movie, like really love it. All the action movie franchises of the 90s were sequels from the 80s, like Die Harder, Lethal Weapon 3 and Predator 2. But Mission: Impossible came along and made an original and exciting splash.

On a quiet night in Prague, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) is leading his deep cover team of IMF (Impossible Missions Force, a secret team within the CIA) agents to entrap a terrorist who wishes to steal and sell a list of every known deep cover agent of the CIA. After this goes wrong and nearly every team member dies, the lone survivor of the group, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) comes in for a debrief with IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). Little does he know, that the mission was just to find out who the mole was in the organisation and he is now the prime suspect. Now a disavowed agent, Hunt must clear his name by finding the actual mole and is joined by disavowed agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), as well as Phelps wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart).

I don't think I can explain how much I love this movie. I love it even more than that other ultimate 90s action movie Goldeneye. That's an even more blasphemous claim when you learn how much I love James Bond (just you wait for the 48 hour/24 Bond challenge). But the reason I love it is that it is so exciting. The pacing is so fast and it is well written. Brian De Palma (who also directed another of my favourites, Scarface) makes the story semi-believable, which is important for a blockbuster action movie because none of the action movies of today make much sense.

The film also employs tension perfectly. Take for example the famous vault scene, which uses no sound. This is because the vault that they are breaking into has sound sensors (it makes sense if you watch the whole movie, trust me). Other tense scenes are when Ethan figures out the mole and when the mole is finally revealed.

But that's the one problem I have with this movie. If you've seen it before (like I have, many times since it came out), is that if you know who the bad guy is, the opening sequence kind of ruins the revelation at the end. But this is one tiny problem I have because this movie is all about the journey to get to the end and the action climax at the end is still pretty exciting to watch. But then again, if you're not a fan of old school CGI, it might feel a tiny bit cheesy (it still works for me!).

I think the reason I like this movie so much is due to Ethan Hunt being such a likeable character and that is something that Tom Cruise really has going for him. His boyish charm comes through in this movie (even if you think he's weird because of the Scientology). All the actors in this movie give top notch performances though. Vanessa Redgrave has just the right amount of menace as international arms dealer Max, Emmanuelle Béart is good as Hunt's sidekick (although as the movies progress the characters turn into the same idea as a Bond girl). Both Ving Rhames and Jean Reno are fantastic as the disavowed agents. But the real star is Emilio Estevez at the start of the film, who I am so disappointed isn't in any of the others.

Now I've mentioned James Bond a couple of times in this review and thats because Mission: Impossible is sort of a mid-90s Hollywood response to the dominance of Bond in the thirty years prior to this film. And while it doesn't knock James Bond of his throne, it is still a super exciting movie. If I would give this movie five stars if I could.

War Movie Month: Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

The second film in Oliver Stone's trilogy of Vietnam War films focuses more on the rhetoric of why and how people get caught up in fighting them and the affects that this fighting has. Not only on the mind, but the body too.

Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) is a teenager who grew up in a small town in Long Island. After seeing JFK's "Ask not what your country can do" speech as a young boy, he has grown up with an intense love for his country. As soon as he is able to do so, Ron joins the Marines and is shipped off to fight in Vietnam, where he is made a paraplegic from being shot in the neck. Once he returns home, he realises that not everyone the same die hard patriotism.

While this is far from being a great movie (I have some minor problems with its pacing), Stone does make a great statement about how young men get caught up in the fervour of war. Kovic grew up with the patriotism that pervaded Cold War-era America and after hearing the tales of his father and how the indoctrination of "The Greatest Generation" being so because they fought in the Second World War, it only makes sense that he wishes to enlist in the Marines and fight for his country. It is only after he is severely injured that he comes to realise that the Vietnam War was a wrong war to be fighting.

This movie has some extraordinary performances, but the majority of the movie is dominated by one. Cruise's Kovic is scarred by things that he did during the war and spends most of his time trying to atone for these things, but is ultimately unable to find peace. Willem Dafoe is quite extraordinary as a creepy wheelchair-bound vet that Ron meets in Mexico. The standout performance for me has always been Raymond J. Barry as Ron's father, who makes me cry without a doubt every time.

The soundtrack to this movie is probably the best part. Despite the best efforts to try and make "Moon River" the theme song (complete with a creepy drunken Tom Cruise rendition), The Temptations "My Girl" does a much better job at capturing the sound of the era. This is backed up by a great score from John Williams that follows the highs and lows of the film.

Verdict: A captivating film about the effects that war has on the people who fight in it. 

Edge of Tomorrow

It seems to me that this is a pretty equal opportunity Tom Cruise movie. By that I mean that rather than having an overabundance of DON'T YOU FORGET THIS IS A TOM CRUISE MOVIE, we get a movie where we get to see some actual acting from good actors and a hint of what Tom Cruise can be capable of when he wants to try.

The sci-fi concepts in the movie aren't shoved down your throat from the get go either. Instead the concepts are introduced gradually. First the alien invasion is presented to us in the form of news reports, which at the same time introduces the main character William Cage (Tom Cruise). He is a PR officer for the United Defence Force and gets conned by General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) to be a frontline troop in an invasion that directly mirrors the D-Day landings that happened 70 years ago.

The origin of the aliens, or mimics, is never revealed. Nor is the type of being which they are. This is a detail that is irrelevant, however. All we need to know is what they look like and that they are bad news. They tear through soldiers like tissue paper, but they can be killed, as Cage finds out soon enough. Only the one he kills, ends up killing him too.

It's at this point that Cage wakes up the day before the invasion. In killing a particular type of mimic, he now has the ability to reset the day after dying. He does this time after time until meeting Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a war hero who once killed a thousand mimics. It soon turns out that she too once had the ability to reset the day. Once Cage awakes another time, he sets out to find Rita, who can help him find a way to stop the mimics.

In recent years there seems to be a push to turn Emily Blunt into some kind of sci-fi star. She played a telekinetic in Looper and had a part in the trippy sci-fi The Adjustment Bureau. However, Blunt has some real acting talent and is much better suited for drama films. I would really recommend everyone checks out The Five Year Engagement. Whilst it's a long film, she really showcases how good she can be in a film.

There are two fantastic cameos from Bill Paxton (Aliens), as a drill sergeant, and Noah Taylor (The Life Aquatic) as the seemingly crackpot scientist.

Verdict: A decent sci-fi flick that melds Groundhog Day, Starship Troopers and the D-Day landings.

Oblivion

I think someone is going to have to face some copyright infringement charges soon and if they don't it's a damn shame. Instead of reviewing this movie, I could review about five others, but I'll keep it simple.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is a technician working on Earth sixty years after a race called Scavengers (Scavs, for short) destroyed the Moon and sent the world into disarray. Tsunamis and earthquakes wiped out most of the population, with the rest escaping to a space station (almost like the Death Star), called the Tet. He lives in a tower with his communications officer, and implied lover, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough).

Harper's main job is to maintain drones that patrol the area around massive harvesters, which turn sea water into fusion energy. Whilst out on these missions, he routinely has run ins with Scavs. One day whilst chilling out in his hideaway, he sees a crashing spaceship, where he finds human survivors. One of them is a woman from the dreams he has been having. Turns out this is his wife, Julia (Olga Kurylenko). They are then attacked by Scavs and taken back to their stronghold.

When they get there, the Scavs reveal themselves to be regular humans and that the drones are actually there to wipe out humans. We meet their leader, Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), and his lieutenant, Sykes (Nickolaj Coster-Waldau). Beech initially tries to get Jack to reprogram a drone with a bomb to destroy the Tet. After Jack refuses, Beech tells him to go into the radiation zone for an explanation. Jack and Julia go there only to find a clone of Jack. We find out that there a thousands of Jack Harper and that they really destroyed the Earth.

Jack decides to go back and help the humans destroy the Tet, but not before a big battle that claims the life of Beech. Both Beech and Jack go and destroy the Tet.

Now unless you have seen a lot of sci-fi movies you may not see the copyright problems. Lucky for you, I'm here. This is all just a big budget remake of the 2009 independent film Moon. In that, an engineer on the Moon is weeks away from coming home. His main task is the maintenance of harvesters that extract Helium 3, a clean energy power, from the surface of the Moon and send it back to an overpopulated Earth. Oblivion just reversed that to take it to a Death Star. As the film progresses, we find out that the main character is just one of many clones that gets recycled every three years. Oblivion just does this on a larger scale.

Last week, I read a funny article on HuffPost that showed the similarities between the Oblivion poster and the poster for Top Gun. I thought it was funny and it soon left my mind. The parallels didn't stop there. Jack Harper also is an ace fighter pilot, only this movie lacked Val Kilmer and a volleyball. Keen eyes will spot references to Planet of the Apes and Alien as well.

Now, the acting. Tom Cruise seemed very hollow and distracted in this movie. It's as if the Tripods took it out of him in his last sci-fi film. I am normally a big fan of Olga Kurylenko, but I wasn't too keen on her performance this time around.

Morgan Freeman did his job as an exposition teller and ended the movie in a big bad way. Nickolaj Coster-Waldau (the Kingslayer himself, Jamie Lannister), seemed to be playing future Jamie Lannister with a high power rifle and Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo wasted her talents for a couple of minutes.

This movie did look good though. Lots of great landscapes and worn down monuments we all know. I had a good debate with my friend about whether it was all green screen, but we ended in a stalemate.

Verdict: A blatant rip off of others that came before. I would only really watch for the good CGI. Not too much action.

Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher. My first movie of the new year. At the moment all I can say about it is that it was interesting. Having never read any of the books that the character is from, I didn't really have any frame of reference. I saw this movie with my uncle who is the total opposite and has read every one of the titular character's books.

I guess the first thing I should talk about is Tom Cruise. I myself have never been opposed to the man, in fact I find him to be an excellent actor. I know it's going back a few years, but his turn in Rain Man was really good and very emotionally driven. In many of his film roles since, I've found him to be quite adventurous in the roles that he picks. So in this film, I went in expecting a usual Tom Cruise experience and I wasn't disappointed.

Before I go on to the other cast members, I guess I should talk a little about the plot. The film opens to a   sniper opening fire on a street full of civilians in Pittsburgh, which I recognised from the "amazing" Taylor Lautner action flick Abduction, which is great if you want a snooze. I found this scene to be quite emotionally jarring, as you see the people running from the gunfire to no avail. The gunman then gets caught and instead of confessing his crime he asks the DA and leading detective to get Jack Reacher, who we find out is a ghost who doesn't want to be found (but at the same time comes out of hiding as this happens). As a result of the negligence of the DA, played by the masterful Richard Jenkins, the gunman ends up in a coma. Now it's up to Jack Reacher to seemingly solve the crime and keep the gunman of death row.

Now on to the casting. As I said, Tom Cruise is a great actor and when he is on screen he can do no wrong in my eyes, but I remember prior to this movie coming out, fans were up in arms about this casting. Now it's no secret that Tom Cruise is the tallest guy in Hollywood, but he isn't the shortest (that honour goes to Danny DeVito) and apparently the character is 6'7". But by using movie magic, you wouldn't be able to tell otherwise. Techniques such as not having anyone else in the frame with your actor work, as well as shooting from a low angle or having him sit down also work as well. There is only one scene where he stands in the middle of a group of people, in which the apple box would have been used.

The rest of the cast is also superb. Richard Jenkins as the DA was an excellent choice. The only other movie I have seen with him in was the Cabin in the Woods, which we all know was a horror masterpiece. Rosamund Pike, who plays the defence attorney of the gunman and Richard Jenkins' daughter, was spectacular. She was gracefully subtle, but I do find that she always has a look of surprise on her face.

David Oyelowo was captivating as the detective who is trying to chase down Reacher, as is Aussie Jai Courtney, who plays the sniper trying to get rid of Reacher for the bad guys. A couple of cameos by Robert Duvall and Werner Herzog were also surprising.

The action set pieces in this film are good, but not the best for a film of this genre. The one piece that I did like was a car chase through the streets of Pittsburgh. I've always had the utmost respect for stunt drivers and I know how difficult their job can be at times. This one had a lot of crashes because apparently Reacher is the best driver in the world.

The cinematography in this film was stunning and there was an angle in the aforementioned chase sequence where a camera was on the hood of the car shooting the reaction of the driver as well as the vehicles behind. There was some issues with the sound mix that I picked up on, but nothing to noticeable. I also found the second act to drag on just a bit too long.

Verdict: The action set pieces are amazing and it had an intriguing story. Visually it was amazing and it had some good casting choices.