mission impossible fallout

There's a general sentiment floating around that the Mission: Impossible films is the best action movie franchise of this generation, or any generation for that matter. The series has a lot of proof to back up that notion as well, and under the Direction and Writing by Christopher McQuarrie with "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," it's making a statement challenging others to just try and take that crown away from it. 

"M:I - Fallout" is simply put, one of the best action film's I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure that even at a run-time of 147 minutes, it felt like there were over 2 hours worth of action sequences crammed into this film. Scene after scene after scene, of stunts, car chases, foot chases, physical combat, gun fights, to thrilling heist scenes, and situations where the are running against the clock. Then add in all the spy vs spy scenarios, infiltration, betrayals, gadgets, impersonations, and just plain tricks, and we've got ourselves what might just be the perfect espionage action thriller. 

James Bond's got nothing on Ethan Hunt at this point. A lot of that has to do with Tom Cruise himself in the role, doing his own legitimately dangerous stunts, and earnestly looking like a real human showing an expression of fear or concern in his face, right before he leaps into a death defying act. Rebecca Ferguson plays the action star quite well herself as Ilsa Faust, and shout out to Henry Cavill in his role as CIA agent Walker. To complete the excellent ensemble cast here, are Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, playing the respective roles of Benji and Luther the way you want them to. 

So far, I've said things that could easily have described the previous three Mission: Impossible films, and that's because I don't really want to spoil the plot of this installment, by talking about specific favorite scenes; which there are many. With that said, I admit that this is also a very straight forward story that verges on being a little derivative, and in some cases also has some convenient plot devices as well. While the main reason to watch this movie is for the action sequences, it's hard not to already be invested with the characters at this point, which helps keeps your attention until the end. I also have to admire how efficiently the plot is laid out to us, while being effortlessly crammed in between those action set pieces. 

With "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," it's easy to accept this as the final installment. I'm pretty sure it's not though, but it makes me wonder how the next movie in this franchise is going to possibly top what went on here. Until then, just be glad that this franchise exists, because it continues to be as awesome as you expect it to be. 

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unfriended dark web

Right from the get-go, there will be people who will have huge issues with "Unfriended: Dark Web." Similar to the previous installment, the whole movie is seen through the desktop of a laptop, with a combination of browsers, windows, chat-boxes, and videos, providing the narrative of this story. It's easy to dismiss this because of the "gimmick," and marginalize the people involved in this production; like the actors. While there are moments when I felt like they "cheated" with what happens on that laptop screen just to get the plot moving, I will legitimately say that they were overall successful in telling this story. 

The other huge issue that might be brought up, is that this movie is not "fun" in the same vein as a lot of mainstream audience friendly horror scary movies can be. Those movies tend to have those "enjoyable" jump scares that will get people laughing embarrassingly, or give people entertaining reasons to root for either the protagonists or even the antagonists. You're not going to get that here. At best you'll be quietly rooting for the protagonists to survive the experience, because you should be genuinely concerned with what's happening to them. I don't think there's even a chance you're going to root for the antagonists, because they've done absolutely deplorable things like human trafficking, and violence against women; and the movie doesn't even need to be gratuitous to make you scared of what they can do. 

Some people will say that this feels "too real" to be entertaining, but that's part of what makes this a genuinely effective horror movie. Some people will say that this is too nihilistic and too depressing, but that is also what makes this a genuinely effective horror movie. Some people will say that this is unbelievable and that this couldn't possibly happen this way, and while there is definitely some exaggeration going on here, this horror movie is giving us a genuinely frightening scenario that could potentially happen to you.

It goes without saying, that this movie isn't for everybody. It may be more disturbing and creepy than what you expect a fun night out at the movies to be. it doesn't even go super far showing gore or death scenes, but it makes it really easy for you to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps, and will likely make you say "that's really messed up." Avoid illicit websites that could compromise your security, cover your webcam that might give people access to spy on you, and definitely don't pick up tech gadgets that don't belong to you. If there's a theme or lesson to be had here with "Unfriended: Dark Web," it's all that. 

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the equalizer 2

Positives... 
- Can't deny this, but it's always entertaining seeing Denzel Washington be this badass that kicks so much ass. 
- Denzel's portrayal of his character Robert McCall is great, and is the kind of action movie hero that is worth rooting for. 
- The action sequence involving a car was fun to watch, as well as this scene involving a bookcase. 
- It's not afraid to take it's time, and isn't an action-fest extravaganza. 

Negavites... 
- It takes it's time way too much, and I'd rather have an action-fest extravaganza. 
- Kinda meanders around a little too much for my taste. 
- The antagonist is technically interesting on paper, but they aren't really that interesting on screen. 
- Movie ended up generally generic and forgettable

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leave no trace

"Leave No Trace" opens up with scenes of a Father and Daughter in a forest. Sleeping in a tent. Cooking mushrooms they found there. Making fire. They're camping right? Of course if you've seen the trailer or have read up on it, then you know that's not exactly the case. These extended generally quaint scenes sets the tone and pacing for the rest of the film. A bit meditative. A bit contemplative. A bit like a slice of life. It's definitely not a movie that moves fast, but there are still some small bits of excitement in rare moments. 

Based on the novel "My Abandonment" by Peter Rock, this movie asks you to think and consider what you are seeing take place in this story. This is the idea of non-conforming Americans, living life like the old "primitive" days, without over-reaching rules, and without the comforts plus conveniences of modern times. As it goes, that way of life can't completely escape the grasp of our current civilization. The situation gets complicated when it catches up to our main protagonists. Of course that only leads to the movie presenting us with even more things to consider and think about. 

Ben Foster continues to prove to us as to why he is one of the best actors we have today. As Will, Ben Foster gives us Father who really loves his Daughter, but is stubbornly set in his mind to how they should live their lives. Agree or disagree with his decisions in this movie, but this story doesn't make it easy on you to properly judge him for his actions. 

Thomasin McKenzie as the Daughter of Will; "Tom," is the break out role to watch here. Tom is absolutely the main character we are suppose to feel the most connected with, because a lot of the events are seen through her perspective. As a Daughter who really loves her Father, and as a young lady who has to experience both sides of their situation, we get to see her put in difficult positions of how she should live her life. McKenzie is amazing in the role, and performs some powerful scenes in this movie, as well as have great chemistry with Ben Foster. 

While the subject matter of "Leave No Trace" is fascinating to me, it's honestly not for everybody's taste. Director Debra Granik does a fantastic job telling us this story, but it does require a bit of patience and understanding to watch through the whole thing. I encourage everybody to check it out, but if you feel like it's not for you, then I acknowledge you not conforming with my recommendation. 

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skyscraper

Positives 
- It's a decently made generally familiar action thriller
- There's some legitimately good thriller moments
- Dwayne Johnson is good as always, plus so is Neve Campbell

Negatives 
- It's like "The Towering Inferno" meets "Die Hard," except it's not as good as either one of those two
- Several plot conveniences were really killing my suspension of disbelief
- Under-developed supporting characters makes me care less about having them on screen
- There's this one plot development that occurs at the end of this movie that is so ridiculous and unbelievably stupid, that it makes me want to hate on the whole thing. I'm shaking my head just thinking about it. 

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how it ends

POSITIVES 
- Forest Whitaker gets to play a grouchy man who can be a badass when needed. 
- This road trip story through an America experiencing societal collapse after a cataclysmic event is a solid premise. 
- The oil and water chemistry between Whitaker and James can be fun to watch. 
- There's a scene involving Whitaker trying to teach Theo James how to use a gun during an action scene that I found amusing, because I admittedly hardly see that addressed much in these kinds of films. 
- They surprisingly say F**K a lot of times in this movie, that you can make a drinking game out of it. 

NEGATIVES 
- The oil and water chemistry between Whitaker and James can be annoying to watch. 
- As a movie idea, we've seen this multiple times over, and just makes the whole thing feel overly derivative. 
- The plot and character progression with Whitaker and James are so very cliche. 
- Plot conveniences and lame plot developments are definitely here. 
- Action or Thriller sequences aren't that exciting either. 
- Bland and mediocre is the biggest problem with this film. 
- Dull and boring is the other issue people might have with it. 

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You Can Watch It Now On NETFLIX (or don't)  

sorry to bother you

wooh! "Sorry To Bother You" has the makings of an instant cult classic. Writer-Director Boots Riley, gives us his first major motion picture, and it is a visionary treat! It has the sensibilities of an avant garde filmmaker, like what you tend to see from indie movies. It has imaginative visuals that will keep your eyes on the screen, wondering what you will see next. It moves at a kinetic pace, filled with crazy subtle touches of world building, background gags, to social-political commentary. You're going to want to keep close attention to what you see in this satirical film. 

The promotional trailer thankfully doesn't reveal all the juicy tidbits about this movie. There's a lot to unpack about what happens in the story, about what it's trying to say, about the metaphors, about the allegories, about the characters, etc... However, to say what I really think about what this movie's story is, very much means I'll have to get into spoilers territory. Which I'm not going to do in this review (the "Spoilers Pleeze" podcast perhaps?). All I can say is that the basic premise of this story takes you on a journey with generally familiar tropes, then tosses you into a variety of scenarios that are a little bit different than what you might expect. Maybe it's exactly what you expect, but perhaps not done in this style. 

Lakeith Stanfield is put to great use in this movie as Cassius Green, and proves he deserves more leading man roles. He is the character surrogate for us, and the decisions "Cash" makes in the story are going to be ones that you'll have to think hard on whether you would do exactly what he did. He goes through a lot in this, and if the story successfully puts it's magic on you, then you will definitely absolutely be invested with what happens to him, all the way until the final credits. The supporting cast are also great in this, from Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Steven Yuen, Jermaine Fowler, and several more, but this is far and away Lakeith Stanfield's movie, and you will be okay with that. 

So the visuals are fantastic, the story is captivating, the characters are quite the characters, the plot is way out there, the social-political commentary is thought provoking, and the sense of humor plus self awareness are all just spot on! One can easily argue that "Sorry To Bother You" is not for everybody's taste, as it puts a lot of faith in the audience's ability to accept what they are watching here. Thankfully, I did, and had a blast! 

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the first purge

I believe I have said before that I'm not a fan of this film series that started with 2013's "The Purge." As a horror fan I have to say that while the premise fits right in with horror films, it never really goes far enough with the genre for my taste. It's essentially just insane sociopaths stealing or killing, with only mild hints at other criminal activities. Pretty tame for what should be a balls to the wall gonzo premise. As expected "The First Purge" falls into that description as well. Action thriller second, disturbing horror third. Wait, what happened to "first?" 

Along with the action thriller and disturbing horror aspects that this franchise revolves around, the other element is the social political commentary of the premise. Unlike the previous films that only superficially plays around with the thematic commentary, this installment surprisingly does a better job at it. So yeah, social political commentary first. There's actually some world building here and scenes specifically dedicated to the reasoning behind The Purge. It's still not completely perfect, but I really appreciated the time they spent on the subject matter. 

Fans of the franchise might actually be disappointed with this installment, because it takes a while before the Purge starts in this story. If you're here just for the crazy killing, then this may not be for you. There are tons of death in this story of course, but more in the action film variety, than the horror kind. Speaking of horror, I did like the little gimmick they had involving glow in the dark contact lenses, that successfully looks creepy in the scenes they were used for. 

At this point, I'm ready to go so far and say that "The First Purge" not only acts as a nice prequel to the series, but it just may be the best installment to the franchise. Hold your horses though, because that isn't saying much. The characters are still made up of cliches and plot tropes, stupid things still happen for the sake of convenience, plus the final conclusion to the story is just so very unsatisfying. But hey, at least they showed signs of improvement here. 

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ant-man and the wasp

Remember how in 2015's "Ant-Man," the movie may not have been the epic-ness of other Marvel Studios movies, but it was a crowd-pleaser anyway? Same goes for "Ant-Man and the Wasp." Remember how part of that movie's entertainment value is that Paul Rudd and Michael Pena were funny guys? They are going to make you laugh a lot in this installment again. Remember how the power of shrinking was cool, and added some nice inventiveness to the action sequences? It's still cool on this one and still showcase some awesome action sequences, plus it's got more powers to show off here too! Remember how we were promised that Evangeline Lilly was going to finally be even more of a badass and contribute more to the action scenes? They mostly lived up to that promise, but with some caveats... 

Alright, let me tackle that last part first. Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp, is indeed a badass, and a lot of the best action sequences in this sequel involves her. As a strong female character, the Wasp has got the action parts no problem, but somehow the five people credited in writing this movie couldn't completely hit the landing with Hope Van Dyne herself. I don't really want to go into spoilers of course, but let's just say that besides the obvious, certain familiar plot tropes further emphasizes why Ant-Man gets first billing in the title. Does what I'm hinting at hurt the movie? Not too much, but they still kept all that there for me to criticize either way. 

Before you get the wrong idea, I did in fact have a lot of fun watching this movie. Right from the beginning and all the way until the end, I was having a blast. The plot moves at a quick pace, and just keeps going and going. There's a lot of cat and mouse scenarios here, which leads to some nice races against the clock, as well as some fantastic chase sequences. The story may get convoluted in juggling the different characters and the multiple sub-plots, but it all flows pretty well throughout the whole thing. Kudos to Peyton Reed's fine direction for this film. At a certain point though, despite the actual premise of the movie, I start asking "what's the point of all this, besides moving a story along?" Thank Goodness it has many fun set-pieces to distract me from asking that question too much. 

This movie really does feel like it has the typical comic book tale that doesn't seem like it's trying to reach lofty goals in story telling. It tells the story well from beginning until end, but the story itself isn't telling you anything else beyond plot details or expositions. That's fine though. It's entertaining. It's enjoyable. It's a lot of fun. It's a great excuse to put together a great cast that involves Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglass, Michael Pena, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Hannah John-Kamen, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Michelle Pfeiffer, and more. All good to see on screen, and they all interact well together. 

In terms of ambition, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" doesn't seem to care that it's just trying to entertain us comic book loving movie audience, with an enjoyable story involving outlaw heroes trying to do what's right, despite the odds. It does succeed splendidly in that regards, so that in itself deserves your attention. 

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set it up

After watching different film genres from super hero action, historical dramas, to jump-scare-athon horror, sometimes you just want to watch a reliably entertaining romantic-comedy. You know, the genre that hardly gets any fanfare or excitement anymore whenever they are released in theaters? An evergreen genre that's endured throughout the decades, and have produced many well loved and well remembered classics? A so-called "underappreciated" movie genre? Enter, "Set it up." So how is this straight to Netflix rom-com? Surprisingly good. 

Did I say "surprisingly good?" Why is that a questionable answer? Is it because if you watch the promotional trailer for this, you feel like you've already seen the whole movie? Is it because just from a superficial level, it looks like a disposable movie that will be immediately forgotten? Is it because you've seen this kind of movie before and everything about it is just so predictable? Is it because all the plot turns and reveals and twists are oh so derivative? Yeah, that's all generally true. Well then, despite all that, I actually found myself really enjoying this movie anyway. So yeah, the movie was "surprisingly good." 

The movie has a lot of things going for it to further justify why you need to give this a chance. It doesn't need to try hard to be funny. It has very quotable lines that you're going to want to use in real life. It has a relatively straight forward story that's still going to make you want to keep watching until the end. It plays off as a tribute to all the people out there who have ever been an assistant that works way too hard for a horrible boss. It has nice themes and lessons to be learned. It has memorable scenes that are enjoyably executed. It has a fantastic cast. 

Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell are incredible in this! Zoey is completely adorable in her role as Harper, and Glen is just way too good at delivering his witty one-liners and comebacks as Charlie. They have great chemistry together, and they make it easy to feel invested with their characters. The supporting cast is also great here, from Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs looking like they are having fun playing the demanding bosses, Meredith Hagner as Zoey's supportive best friend, Tituss Burgess as "Creepy Tim," to many others who were able to make a positive mark on the movie despite their brief minor roles.

"Set It Up," is without a doubt, one of the more charmingly delightful and enjoyably entertaining romantic comedies this year, that you might just find the urge to champion to get other people to watch it. This film is the equivalent of comfort-food, but for movies. So despite it's obvious shortcomings as a completely unique product, it's easy for me to forgive any problems I might have had with it. After all, I did like the movie enough because of it's good qualities, and I can't deny that I love the movie despite it's flawed qualities as well. 

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Watch It On Netflix!