Tag: mission impossible

My 2018 movie rundown

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Even though I watch a couple of movies a week, I don’t watch enough of them. Lemme explain that. The movies I tend to watch are ones I’ve already seen and fall under the same umbrella; sci-fi, horror and action-adventure. So while I might stop and watch Suicide Squad on TNT if I’m flipping around the dial, that also means that I’m not watching other movies of different genres I haven’t seen yet. Other people might go out to the theater and expand their filmic horizons every week, but at best I might venture out to checkout The Predator or stay at home and watch Star Wars for the 900th time.

Regardless, here’s every new movie I saw in 2018.

The Cloverfield Paradox ⭐⭐

Cloverfiend Paradox
Cloverfiend Paradox

In an era when surprise in pop-culture is practically impossible because of the internet and social media, the release of The Cloverfield Paradox on Netflix was a pretty big surprise as the movie was first advertised on the Super Bowl last winter and premiered on the streaming service immediately afterwards.

Mute ⭐

Mute
Mute

Mute, by writer/director Duncan Jones, takes place in the same cinematic universe as his wonderful Moon film. But whereas I greatly enjoyed Moon, I thought Mute was a bit long and overly serious.

Black Panther ⭐⭐

Black Panther
Black Panther

I dug Black Panther if I didn’t see what all the hype was about. It seemed to me Black Panther was a well-constructed Marvel film that I enjoyed, but I didn’t think it was much different then what had come before. But I was in the minority as the film went onto become one of the most successful movies ever earning more than $1.5 billion at the box office.

Avengers: Infinity War ⭐⭐

Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War

I liked Avengers: Infinity War but found it hard to take seriously. I mean the movie (spoilers) features half of the universe being wiped out when evil villain Thanos get all the power in the universe, snaps his fingers and literally makes it so. But does anyone really believe that when the sequel is released next summer in theaters, that by the end of that movie all of this will be undone with order restored with the good-guys winning?

Deadpool 2 ⭐⭐⭐

Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2

The movie I had the most fun at last summer was Deadpool 2. While I didn’t think it was as good as the first one, I really dug this sequel that introduced a few of my favorite characters to the Deadpool universe, namely Cable and Domino.

Solo: A Star Wars Story ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story

My favorite movie of 2018 had to be Solo: A Star Wars Story. Derided before it was even released, this movie that follows a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he goes from street urchin to intergalactic smuggler is a lot fo fun. Solo is the one movie this year that I’ve actually seen more than once.

Ant-Man and the Wasp ⭐

Ant Man and the Wasp
Ant Man and the Wasp

I really liked the first Ant Man movie, but I really disliked the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp. There were so many plot-holes here that things started to get to MST3K territory. In fact, I got so sick of this one that towards the end I started fast forwarding just to get through it.

Annihilation ⭐

Annihilation
Annihilation

The movie I was most disappointed with this year was Annihilation. It was written and directed by Alex Garland who also wrote the brilliant 28 Days Later and both wrote and directed Ex Machina, as well as being based on a series of interesting novels by Jeff VanderMeer, I found Annihilation to be dull and confusing. So much so that I didn’t even bother fast forwarding through this one, I turned it off before making it to the end.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout ⭐⭐

Mission: Impossible: Fallout
Mission: Impossible: Fallout

Another fun movie was the sixth, and so far most successful, Mission: Impossible – Fallout. I’ll admit this one doesn’t have much going on in the story department, I saw it in the theater and four months later can’t remember the story, but the action scenes in Mission: Impossible – Fallout are worth the price of admission alone.

The Predator ⭐⭐

The Predator
The Predator

Here’s what I tell anyone thinking about seeing the latest movie in the Predator franchise — if you’re into sci-fi and movies that feature the Predator, you’re probably going to dig The Predator. If you’re not, then you might want to steer clear of this one.

Your Mission: Impossible, should you choose to accept…

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At this point, the Mission: Impossible movie franchise is more than 20 years old. While there are older film franchises out there, Star Wars and the Planet of the Apes spring to mind, what’s different with Mission: Impossible is that over the decades while some actors have come and gone the lead is still played by the same actor — Tom Cruise.

Emmanuelle Béart & Tom Cruise
Emmanuelle Béart & Tom Cruise

Released in 1996 and directed by Brian DePalma, Mission: Impossible was one of the early movies to bring classic TV series to the big screen. In the mid to late 1990s there were a spate of TV series to films like The Brady Bunch Movie and Lost in Space, some of which were successful and some of which were forgettable, but the one film series that’s still going today is Mission: Impossible.

That first movie featured Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a member of the “IMF” (Impossible Missions Force) that acts as a covert spy agency who, if they’re ever caught, their bosses will, famously, “deny all knowledge of (their) actions.” And, of course, things go wrong and Hunt, along with what’s left of his team and a few ex-IMF members have to figure out why their cover was blown and colleagues killed.

Emilio Estevez, Jon Voight & Tom Cruise
Emilio Estevez, Jon Voight & Tom Cruise

Most of the first movie deals with Hunt trying to get a list of all the active IMF agents and sell it to the bad guys, but not let the bad guys get full access to the list, to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I liked most of the Mission: Impossible sequels that followed but as I went back to do some research for writing this article was surprised to see just how different the newer movies are from the first few.

In Mission: Impossible there’s a few big action scenes. The first is when the mission goes bad at an embassy in Europe. The second is Hunt and his new team breaking into the CIA headquarters in Washington, DC to steal the list that features a stunt with Cruise suspended from the ceiling via wires since the room the list is in is so secure simply touching the ground will set off an alarm. And finally, there’s an action scene with Hunt on and on top of a high speed train inside the Chunnel as he fights the person who murdered most of his team while at the same time battling a helicopter that’s also flying inside the tunnel.

The cast of Mission Impossible: Fallout
The cast of Mission Impossible: Fallout

Honestly, the first Mission: Impossible is more of a 1990s techno-thriller in line with The Hunt for Red October than a pure action film like the series has become. The newer films, like most action movies these days, seem to instead be built around a four or five BIG action scenes that connected together with a bit of story.

For example, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) starts with Hunt hanging onto the side of a plane for dear-life as it takes off, him chasing some bad guys on a mountain road via in a motorcycle chase as well as an underwater scene with Hunt trapped inside a piece of machinery as he has to do something or other.

The craziest thing is that the most intense stunts in the film with the airplane and motorcycles were actually performed by Cruise himself and not a double.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

But as for the story of Rogue Nation? I really couldn’t tell you that. I know there was an evil Mission: Impossible force but other than the amazing action scenes that’s about all I can remember — and I own the movie and have seen it a few times.

Now comes the latest Mission: Impossible Fallout out July 27. This time too the movie features Cruise (now nearly as old as Jon Voight was when he played the senior “I stay back at the hotel while the young whipper-snappers go out and do all the dangerous things” Jim Phelps) really piloting a helicopter treacherously close to the side of a mountain and halo parachute jumping where he jumps from a great height but waits until he’s almost to the ground to open his ‘chute.

My question is will the story of Fallout be as interesting or as memorable as the original? Probably not. Will I be seeing Fallout? You bet’cha.

Direct Beam Comms #133

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TV

Yellowstone

Taylor Sheridan has had a good couple of years. Not only was he the writer of the Oscar nominated Hell or High Water film a few years back, he is also the creator of the Sicario film of which a sequel is due in theaters in a few weeks. And now comes Sheridan’s latest co-creation the TV series Yellowstone on the Paramount Network.

The cast of Yellowstone
The cast of Yellowstone

Starring Kevin Costner in his first role in a TV series, Yellowstone is about the Dutton family living in Montana of which John (Coster) is the head of. The Dutton’s own the largest ranch in the US and that’s where the problem lies. It’s so big everything around it is closing in from Indian casinos to housing developments. And while Dutton might have the land to spare he doesn’t want to part with any of it making this powerful man a target for powerful enemies.

On his side are two of his kids Jamie (Wes Bentley) a lawyer, Lee (Dave Annable) head of the ranch and Beth (Kelly Reilly) a business executive. But youngest son Kayce (Luke Grimes) is estranged from his father from something that happened in the past.

Yellowstone isn’t bad but I didn’t think it was that great either. I wasn’t quite sure who to root for? Is it the Dutton family who are trying to stop progress, even as dad flies around his ranch in a helicopter and live in a nice house, or is it the people trying to build subdivisions and expand communities that cut into the wilderness. On the one hand I can see Dutton’s point that with every winner there must be a loser, and it’s usually those who aren’t too well off who lose. But on the other hand it’s tough to take that kind’a advice from a guy who’s the biggest winner in Montana.

If you dig shows like the classic Dallas but always thought there should be more modern-day cowboys in that series then you’ll probably also love Yellowstone.

In Search Of TV spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXylT6_BMLI

Movies

Mission Impossible home media art

I noticed that the artwork being used for the digital download and Blu-ray versions of the Mission Impossible movies had been updated recently. Before, those covers used things like the movie posters for the previous films while the new ones feature a unified look that ties the movies together.

I’ve noticed other franchise movies like those from Marvel do this too. I suppose when the movie studios are trying to sell the franchise as a whole and not necessarily each individual film a unified marketing approach makes sense.

Toys

Robotech

A new line of Robotech 3.75” ReAction figures are due out sometime this fall from Super7. Figures include four veritech fighters including Rick Hunter and Roy Fokker’s jets, the SDF–1 and a Zentraedi Battle Pod. The figures will retail for around $15 each.

Robotech ReAction toys

The Reading List

Cool Movie & TV Posters of the Week

Posters of the Week

Direct Beam Comms #128

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, TVPosted on

TV

Barry

The first season of the HBO series Barry ended last week and I’ll come right out and say it — Barry is the best new series of 2018 so far.

About a hitman of the same named played by Bill Hader, the character lives in Cleveland but winds up in Los Angeles to kill a wannabe actor who’s sleeping with a mob bosses wife. When the hit goes wrong and some of the bosses goons try and take out Barry but are gotten the better of, Barry ends up having to stay in L.A. to make up the hit but falls in with an acting class where he realizes he’d rather be an actor than a hit-man, even if he’s a much better hit-man than actor.

Barry
Barry

The tone of Barry is something that I don’t think I’ve seen before on TV, or even in the movies. At times the series is genuinely funny yet at other times it’s terrifying as Barry plies his trade or as others try and ply the same trade on him. The show never pulls its punches when it comes to the violence as it all feels very real, unlike what I would’ve expected Barry to be in what would seem to be a comedy. And the characters too range the gamut from mob underling NoHo (Anthony Carrigan) who’s got a man-crush on Barry but isn’t afraid to use a chainsaw in order to get his bosses way or acting class student Sally (Sarah Goldberg) who’s so self-centered she doesn’t realize how self-centered she is, even if Barry’s in love with her.

All throughout this first season I rooted for Barry. He’s a great, conflicted character who wants to move from his old murderous life but who’s uncle and manager (Stephen Root) won’t quite let him move on. But every time we think we know who Barry is he does something terrible. I don’t want to spoil things but Barry does things in the series that are so reprehensible that in any other show he’d be the bad guy. Barry is able to justify these things by telling himself that it’s all about him extracting himself from being a hit-man. Yet I think that it’s worth remembering that Barry’s a dangerous guy with a set of skills that includes murdering people and covering his tracks.

I almost feel like if Barry goes on a few more seasons, which I really hope it does, I’ll be rooting against Barry as much as I started out rooting for him.

Upfronts

Honestly, this year’s TV Upfronts was one of the most bland in memory. Coming out of the Upfronts last year there were eight network series that I was interested in checking out. This year there’s just three. For the most part, it seems as if the TV networks are going back to the old “standards” of multi-cam sitcoms, cop shows, lawyer shows and medical shows. The stuff that’s dominated TV screens for years now is going to dominate the networks even more in 2018.

The Passage
The Passage

I think the biggest thing to happen at the TV Upfronts actually happened a week before the Upfronts, with two shows Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Last Man Standing switching networks. Nine-Nine was a FOX show but next season will air on NBC and Last Man was cancelled by ABC but has found new life on FOX. This does happen with series from time time to time, the last time I remember it happening with scripted series was when Stargate moved from Showtime to The Sci-Fi Channel. It does make sense for Nine-Nine and Last Man to switch networks since in actuality even though Nine-Nine aired on FOX it was being produced by Universal Television, which is a subsidiary of NBC, and Last Man was being produced by 20th Century Fox. So by those series moving networks means a few more episodes of them for syndication and streaming which would mean a few more bucks for their production companies down the line.

The shows I’m looking forward to are, Roswell, New Mexico on The CW but only because I was a fan of the original Roswell series, Manifest on NBC that looks a whole lot like a take on Lost and the post-apocalyptic vampire drama The Passage on FOX that’s been in development for a few years but will finally make it to TV screens this fall.

And that’s about it. I was interested in checking out the Magnum P.I. reboot on CBS until I saw the trailer where apparently in the world of Thomas Magnum physics are optional, and the Murphy Brown continuation also on CBS looks interesting even if it’s been so long since the last time I’ve seen an episode of that show it feels like a lifetime ago.

I’ve been disappointed before in the past with a lot of the network TV fare and it looks like in 2018 and 2019 I’ll continue to be disappointed.

Movies

Bohemain Rhapsody movie trailer

Mission: Impossible – Fallout trailer

The Reading List

Cool Movie Posters of the Week

Posters of the Week

2018 summer movie preview

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For the first time in a decade Marvel won’t be kicking off the summer movie season by opening a movie the first Friday in May! They’ve decided to start summer a week early and will launch Avengers: Infinity War on April 27. If The Avengers was the movie that brought together all the separate heroes in the Marvel movie universe, then Avengers: Infinity War is the movie that will bring together all the teams from The Avengers, the Black Panther contingent to Guardians of the Galaxy and basically everyone else too in order to do combat with the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin) in a battle that’s been brewing in that cinematic universe for years now.

Deadpool 2

The R-rated surprise smash of 2016 Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is set to return with more superhero movie mayhem with Deadpool 2 on May 18. The movie studio has been pretty tight-lipped with this one plot-wise, other than to reveal it will introduce two fan-favorite comic characters Domino (Zazie Beetz) and Cable (once again, Josh Brolin who really is “Mr. Summer” this year).

A fourth modern Star Wars film, Solo: A Star Wars Story, is due out May 25. Right now, Solo is more well-known for what went on behind the scenes with its original directors being fired months ago and director Ron Howard being brought on to finish the film. Supposedly, Solo will feature the first meeting between the title character played by Alden Ehrenreich and his furry co-pilot Chewbacca sometime before the events of the very first Star Wars.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

The Ocean’s 11 series of movies gets a follow-up with the “don’t call it a ‘reboot’” Ocean’s 8 on June 6. This time, Sandra Bullock stars as Debbie Ocean and will lead the likes of Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Mindy Kaling in order to pull of some amazing heist at a stunning local.

Fourteen years after the original film Incredibles 2 blasts into theaters on June 15. The nice thing about this superhero family lead by Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter is that even though the first movie took place so long ago it doesn’t really matter since it’s animated and characters don’t have to age when they’re computer generated. Reportedly, this one deals with superhero pop Mr. Incredible (Nelson) playing stay-at-home dad to infant Jack-Jack while Elastigirl (Hunt) is out saving the world.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

A second film in the Jurassic World franchise entitled Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theaters June 22. If the first Jurassic World was a bigger remake of Jurassic Park then Fallen Kingdom sure seems like it’s a bigger remake of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Here, the cast of Jurassic World including Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have to venture back to the ruined, dinosaur crawling island for one reason or another that I’m sure will make sense within the confines of the movie.

Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sequel to Ant-Man, will skittle into cinemas July 6. The third Marvel movie of the summer, this time instead of having just Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) having to do battle with the bad guys he’ll also be joined with the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) forming an incredible shrinking team.

Teen Titans Go! to the Movies

A sixth (!!!!) Mission: Impossible movie, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, zooms into theaters on July 27. This film franchise might have a lot going against it from its action star Tom Cruise being in his mid–50s, nearly as old as John Voight was in the first one when he played a nearing retirement behind-the-desk Jim Phelps to none of the films in the franchise having a coherent plot. Yet I adore the Mission Impossible franchise and welcome each new one with a lot of anticipation.

One TV series that the pre-teen set is really into these days is the animated Teen Titans Go! which makes its way to theaters in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies also on July 27. This over-the-top series pokes fun at the whole superhero genera with characters like Robin, Starfire and Cyborg who crack-wise and almost never get into fights with the villains. Reportedly the plot to this one has the Teen Titans thinking they deserve a movie too after seeing all sorts of other DC heroes get movies with them stuck on TV.

I can’t wait!