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.***