Mission Impossible III (2006)

A gigantic improvement on Mission Impossible 2, I really enjoyed Mission Impossible 3. I actually cared about the stakes, Tom Cruise and Michelle Monaghan have (some) chemistry, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a good villain, and Ving Rhames had something to do. I liked the sequence in Rome, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge attack scene would have resulted in congressional investigations had it really occurred. Keri Russell's almost cameo part is a nice foreshadowing of her in The Americans. Perhaps my reception of the film benefits unduly from being graded on a curve, but I enjoy popcorn movies if they are competently done, and if not smart, at least not dumb, and this movie passed that test for me. ***

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Having already broken the fourth wall in the original, both in terms of narrative structure and racy content, no sequel could ever quite match the transgressive quality of the first film, though Deadpool 2 certainly tries. It does an excellent job of recapturing the essence of the original film, and resurrects many of its tropes, though sometimes a little too spot on and repetitively. There is more of a plot here, in a conventional sense, then there was in the first film, and this movie in particular blurs the line between being a send up of its genera, and just another example of its genera. It's still fun though, Deadpool 2 benefits from the presence of a likable and growing cast of characters and lays the groundwork for a future X-Force film, the very idea of which is kind of meta. This of course is R-rated so not for all tastes, but you already know if this is your kind of thing or not. ***

RBG (2018)

Doing unexpectedly well at the box office right now is RBG, a new documentary about octogenarian supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Before viewing this movie I really didn't know all that much about her beyond the fact that she is Jewish, the 2nd female supreme court justice, and that I had a vague sense that I was generally for her. Though the documentary is presented in a straight forward, conventional, largely chronology manner, fitting of its being a CNN Films production, the movie transcends those confines because its subject is such a fascinating woman. She was on the Harvard Law review in the early 1950's (one of only nine women in her class of 500), while caring for a sick husband and raising a young daughter. She won 5 of the 6 cases she argued before the supreme court, all dealing with gender equality, and all argued in the 1970's. Today she is a charming, grandmotherly figure, one who has unexpected admires on the right, including Utah senator Orrin Hatch. An impressive and heartening figure in our depressing political times. I really enjoyed this movie.  ****

Hercules in New York (1970)

Hercules in New York was the feature film debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger, then only 22 years old, seemingly new to the English language, and credited as Arnold Strong. This is one of those 'so bad its kind of good'  movies, with Arnold playing a bored demigod who sneaks away from Mount Olympus to have fun in The Big Apple, become a professional wrestler and get mixed up with gangsters. It is a ridicules' movie, with silly dialogue and generally bad acting, though Michael Liptons smarmy Pluto kind of works and Arnold Strang's neurotic 'Pretzi' steels the movie (I saw part of this on TNT back in the 90's and he's what I remembered best). I would like to see The CW adapt this into a television series, it could be the best thing on the network. Filmed entirely in New York City. **1/2

Maggie (2014)

The story in Maggie has the potential makings of an interesting short novel. It's a zombie apocalypse tale only the zombie plague works slower then it does in most renderings, so government efforts to keep the crises at bay work better then they usually do, so society doesn't collapse, there are still police  and radio broadcasts ect, though it does take a big body blow. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a farmer somewhere in the American heartland (less believable then zombie apocalypse?) who takes his infected 18ish daughter Maggie (Abigial Breslin) back to the farm to say their farewells before she goes full flesh eater. Maggie is Arnold's daughter from his first marriage, that wife having passed from cancer or something when Maggie was still a child, Schwarzenegger later remarried (Joely Richardson) and had two more kids, so Maggies impending death opens more old wounds, which juxtapose interestingly with the existential crises of the current global catastrophe. Again all of this could be interesting to explore in a book, which can usually focus on internal narratives better then film, because as a movie this is pretty dual and not all that much happens. I applauded the effort, but **.

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017)

Really interesting story about how golden era Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr's wartime invention would later serve as the basis for wifi technology. Also what an interesting, tragic life overall. ***1/2

Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)

Paul, Apostle of Christ is a sort of sequel to The Passion of the Christ only Jim Caviezel has been recast as Saint Luke. Luke travels to Roman during the height of Emperor Nero's persecution of the early Church to record an imprisoned Paul's life story before his execution, material that would later be incorporated into the Book of Acts. James Faulkner, an actor I don't really know, plays Paul and he does a good, gradually charismatic job. Moments of Paul's earlier life are shown in flashback but the majority of the film is about the experience of the Christian community in Roman circa 67 AD. Besides Caviezel the only other actor in the film who I immediately recognized was Joanne Whalley, who plays Priscilla an important female figure in the early Church, who I do not recall form Sunday School, but who is probably worth learning more about.

French actor Olivier Martinez plays the prefect of Mamertine Prison, a career military man but a decent enough person who is to provide the 'outside perspective' on the events of the film, and whom Paul eventually 'almost persuades to become a Christian' after Luke (a doctor) curers his daughter of a sickness that has stumped the best Roman physicians. While it took 25 or so minutes to get going the dialogue heavy story really is quite interesting. In the LDS tradition the early Christian Church gets something of a short shift due to an understandable focus on the later gospel restoration, this movie makes me want to re-read Acts and the Pauline letters and maybe learn a little more about the 1st century Church. More intellectually hefty then the average Christian film Paul, Apostle of Christ surpassed my modest expectations.***

Red Heat (1988)

Glasnost era American buddy cop movie about a Soviet narcotics officer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who travels to Chicago to pick up an escaped Russian drug dealer (Ed O'Ross, of Irish decent, but seems to always play Russians), who escapes again, and he teams up with a smart alec American police detective (Jim Belushi) to bring him to justice. I liked this, in large part because it was so dated, though the plot is probably a little smarter then it had to be, which I appreciated. I think this is the only time that Schwarzenegger actually played a Russian, though part of me feels like he must of played one more, though that may just be some lose mental association based on Dolph Lundgren's appearance in Rocky IV. Jim Belushi has had a remarkably persistent career, he's more likable then he probably should be. Peter Boyle, Gina Gershon and Laurence Fishburne have supporting parts. Partially filmed in the USSR. Weird steam bath fight opening sequence. **1/2

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

I had seen about half of this movie in an edited for TV network showing around 25 years ago, but wasn't able to finish it, I think because the home teachers came. This is a good movie, the half I had seen held up well, and the 2nd half was perhaps better then I would have expected, and actually makes me curious about what the later films in the series did with the property, though from what I understand none of those movies are this good (I thought this movie was better then the original by the way, and also better then Total Recall, a film I recently revisited after around 25 years and another edited network TV showing in the 90's). My pet peeve with this film is lazy, and easily fixable continuity problems. 'Judgment Day' the nuclear attack that would inaugurate 'the rise of the machines' against humanity is said to occur in August of 1997, I assumed that this film was supposed to be set in August of 1997, yet some dialogue in the film indicate that Judgment Day is still around 3 1/2 years after away, which would put the main action of the film in early 1994, which would make John Conner 9 based on the February 1985 birthdate we see for him on his police record, though he is obviously around 12 or 13 years of age. This whole issue would have been solved by moving Judgment Day up to around the year 2000, I don't know why they didn't just do that. But again from what I've heard about the later films in this franchise they have near contempt for chronology, so I guess I have that to 'look forward to' in watching this series. Still T2 is at times near perfect for what it is trying to be, ***1/2.  

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Satire on 'summer camp/sex comedy' movies of the 1980's written by veterans of the mid-90's MTV sketch comedy series The State, Michael Showalter and David Wain, and directed by Wain. The chief gag of the film is that many of the characters who are suppose to be in their late teens are obviously played by actors who are around 30. The film has a large ensemble cast, many of which are now in that just barely recognizable category, though a fair number went on to big things, most notably Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler and Elizabeth Banks. The comedy is often absurdist and exaggerated and it took me a while to get in the grove of the thing, but ultimately I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it even more when I learned that (according to Rotten Tomatoes) only about a third of critics got it. I have a feeling that this is a movie that will only improve on repeat viewing. ***

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

The Mission: Impossible sequel was the third highest grossing film at the American box office in the year 2000, it beat Gladiator which was #4*. It beat Gladiator, which is a rather strong film that even won the best picture Oscar for that year. Mission: Impossible 2 on the other hand, is bad. It is bad not in that overwhelming what were they thinking, they don't know what they are doing, how did this get made kind of way, but rather in the lazy, cocky, entitled, I'm gonna be a block buster no matter what because I've got Tom Cruise in the lead kind of way. Cruise has shockingly little chemistry with leading lady Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames is underused, and Dougray Scott's photo should show next to the term 'Forgettable Villain' in the filmmakers dictionary. While the film lacks any great set pieces, I did kind of like that the story involved a plot to unleash a deadly virus on Australia, because Australia doesn't get to get menaced enough in action movies. Also I thought that Ethan Hunt was supposed to be CIA, why is his boss the very English Anthony Hopkins (who is uncredited and in about 4 minutes of this movie). This was a slog, but I understand these get better after this. *1/2


*The most money making film of that year by the way was How The Grinch Stole Christmas which is even worse. http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/moviesofyear.mv?moviesof2000+ByTGross

Last Stand (2012)

Other then cameo roles in the first two Expendables movies Last Stand  constituted Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to film after serving 7 years as the governor of California. It's a pretty standard actioner, with Schwarzenegger as a small town Arizona sheriff whose small force assembles to stop a drug kingpin, who is escaping the FBI to Mexico in a super charged sports car. There's a lot of set up to the thing, and I would say too much time is spent with Forest Whitaker;s FBI crew. Much of the film is kind of slog until the last 30 or 40  minutes which contains a pretty entertaining standoff in the small towns main street, I would recommend watching that part and skipping the set up. **

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

This is the film that the MCU has been building up to since at least the original Thor movie in 2011, which means 15+ movies feed directly into its story line. The cast of the film is massive, which makes it even more impressive that no one (with the possible exception of Black Widow) feels like they were short changed in their amount of screen time. The disparate threads of the sprawling Marvelverse come together quite nicely in this, and the film further reinforces my assertion that you could pair any character with Rocket Raccoon and it would be entertaining. The degree of audience manipulation that the movie engages in will largely be determined by what happens in the yet to be titled sequel coming out next year, and I have little doubt that there will be some pretty major stakes muddying. Yet I forgive Infinity War because it was still pretty awesome, and I especially liked Thanos. Now I better unpack that, I am opposed to mass genocide, but what I liked about the character is that he wasn't just a power mad megalomaniac, villains in these movies have tended to be not that memorable. Thanos had a very specific mission that he set out to accomplish, and he did so because he genuinely believed it was for the greater good, and was willing to sacrifice his own interests to achieve that, however misguided the result. So with a few misgivings towards the end Infinity War was probably as good as it could have been. ***1/2

Mission Impossible (1996)

With the 6th and presumably final film in the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible franchise coming out this summer I thought it might be fun to watch the whole series in the lead up to its release. The only Mission Impossible film I had seen previously was the original movie, which I saw on a high school debate bus trip in either late 1996 or early 1997. I thought the film held up pretty well, some of the twists are pretty obvious, especially in hindsight, but as a 1990's action movie its smarter then average and has a few good set pieces, best remembered being the break in and on site data retrieval at CIA headquarters with Tom Cruise suspended from a cable and dodging various alarm systems. However I thought the high point of the film was the failed mission in Prague, nice fake out casting of some fairly big names on the team and then killing them off in the first half hour or so (sorry 22 year old spoilers). ***