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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ is exhilarating assignment

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“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (PG-13)

Tom Cruise raises the stakes to even more dizzying heights in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” the sixth film in the actor’s thrilling “Mission: Impossible” franchise. Featuring Cruise’s usual brand of marquee stunts, intense action sequences and a sprawling story line loaded with twists and turns, the film ranks among the series’ best, and is only hampered by its nearly 2 1/2 hour run time.

Unlike previous installments in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, “Fallout” has direct ties to its previous installment (“Rogue Nation”), where the chief villain, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and undercover MI: 6 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) remain a core part of the narrative. The film begins with a thwarted attempt by IMF (Impossible Mission Force) Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) to recover three plutonium cores which could annihilate three major cities, leading him on a dangerous mission to unearth the mysterious identity of the person behind the planned attacks.


AUDIO: Click to hear Tim’s review of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”

However, due to the botched recovery of the plutonium in the first place, CIA Director Erica Sloan (Angela Bassett) requires Hunt to add CIA operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) to the team, which still includes computer hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and tech expert Benji Dunn (the always amusing Simon Pegg).  Complicating matters, though, is Walker’s differences in philosophy, as well as the reemergence of Faust, whose identity and purpose in the matter remains ambiguous. Pivotal to the recovery of the plutonium, though, is the now-imprisoned Lane — who still very much remains a vital part of the crime organization The Syndicate — and he’s hell-bent on making Ethan witness the destruction he’s planning on causing with the nuclear material.

While Cruise continues to push the envelope with mind-blowing stunt work throughout the film (he trained for a year to do a 25,000-foot HALO jump out of a plane — and did a reported 109 takes to get it just right — and put a year and a half in learning to fly a helicopter), equally as impressive is the thrills that emerge from tried-and-true devices like foot pursuits and motorcycle chases throughout Paris and London. It’s great to see that Cruise and his frequent collaborator, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, still find ways to not only make these sequences exciting, but have them rival the all-time great chase sequences like Gene Hackman’s frantic romp through New York City in “The French Connection.”

Better yet, despite the gloriously-staged action, “Fallout” never loses track of the story, even if its stretched to the point of ridiculousness (a 15-minute timer that’s running on a bomb that needs to be diffused seems to go on forever, hence the film’s overlong run-time). Thanks to some well-plotted twists, perhaps the greatest feat of “Fallout” is that it staves off any hint of predictability, apart, maybe from its ultimate outcome.


VIDEO: Click to see Tim’s review of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” with Adrienne Broaddus on KARE-TV.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise is how it continues to improve as the it grows. True, “Fallout” probably falls short of the greatness of the fourth film, “Ghost Protocol” and last one, “Rogue Nation,” but it’s still a top-notch thriller. Even though Cruise broke his ankle leaping from one building to the next during filming (the footage of which remains in the film), there’s clearly no sign of the actor slowing down. And with the perfect team of McQuarrie and the film’s supporting players in place, it will be interesting what impossible mission the adrenaline-fueled actor takes on next.

Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)


AUDIO: Click to hear Tim’s review of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on WCCO’s Radio’s “Paul and Joranda.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie reviews: ‘Jack Reacher’ sequel stalls; ‘Keeping Up With the Joneses’ lags

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“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” (PG-13)

Tom Cruise’s action movie career is beginning to feel far out of reach with “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” the not-so-hotly-anticipated follow-up to the 2012 original.

Even though his 2015 blockbuster franchise entry “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” felt fresh, you begin to feel with the unnecessary  “Jack Reacher” sequel that if you strip away all the gadgets and disguises from Cruise’s “Impossible” films, you’ll find a tired, old formula movie like “Never Go Back” – and in this case, it’s a substandard formula movie.

Also new on Direct Conversations.com — Interview: Tim Burton, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”

Cruise begins “Never Go Back” in entertaining fashion, as he exposes a corrupt Texas border town for its human trafficking ways with relative ease. The reason the opening scene works is because Reacher uses his wit and intelligence to power the scene, rather than the over-exaggerated physical wherewithal the 54-year-old actor puts into play to dispatch groups of bad guys — four or more — at a time. From there, “Never Go Back” downshifts into action movie overdrive as it rolls through one ridiculous scene after the next.

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“Never Go Back” becomes a convoluted mess after its promising opening, as Reacher ventures to Washington, D.C., to meet up with Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), a decorated Army major who is railroaded with a trumped-up charge of espionage after two soldiers under her command turn up dead in Afghanistan. Busting Turner out of custody and becoming fugitives from the law, Turner, Reacher and a teen girl – who may be his daughter from a relationship 15 years earlier – find themselves targets of a corrupt military contracting conglomerate (gasp!) that is behind the ruse.

Fans of the original novel in a best-selling series by Lee Child may find more substance in “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” even though the character is dramatically different in stature from page to screen. As for  everybody else, the film is an eye-rolling by-the-numbers borefest. Cruise is a passionate actor who usually pours his all into every project, by the end you feel like he’s sleepwalking through the role and completing it out of some sort of contractual obligation.

Cruise no doubt has talent, and it’s time he starts exploring other movie genres if he wants to remain a part of Hollywood’s fabric instead of retreading into familiar territory. Personally, I’d like to see the return of the power sleaze film executive Les Grossman from “Tropic Thunder.” Now that’s a character I can’t get enough of.

Lammometer: 4.5 out of 10

“Keeping Up With the Joneses” (PG-13)

If the spy comedy “Keeping Up With the Joneses” teaches us anything, Hollywood is having a really hard time keeping up with its quest for fresh and inspiring ideas. In short, the film has a talented cast but a tired premise, and fails to wring out even the mildest of laughs even though it stars a couple of very capable screen comedians.

Zack Galifianakis and Isla Fisher play Jeff and Karen Gaffney, a boring suburban couple who are awakened by their new, hot neighbors Tim and Natalie Jones (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot), whose picture perfect life seems a bit off. Turns out the Joneses are undercover spies, and they’re on a mission that has something to do with Jeff’s ultra-secretive workplace.

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The core cast members in “Keeping Up With the Joneses” are extremely likable, but while the talent is there, the comedy – mostly delivered by Galifianakis and Fisher – is mildly amusing at best.  Hamm and Gadot are there for the action, but while  “Keeping Up With the Joneses” is billed as an action comedy, the first big action scene doesn’t even happen until halfway in. By the time it wraps up, you can’t help but feel nothing more than a tremendous waste of time and talent.

Spy comedies can be funny:  take Melissa McCarthy’s 2015 smash “Spy,” for example. But for what it is, “Keeping Up With the Joneses” lags far behind the competition.

Lammometer: 4.5 out of 10

Film, Interviews

Interview: Director Christopher McQuarrie talks ‘Rogue Nation’

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Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie has officially worked on four projects with actor-filmmaker Tom Cruise, from writing “Valkyrie” and “Edge of Tomorrow,” to directing the action superstar on “Jack Reacher.”

Yet no matter how convicted Cruise was on those projects, McQuarrie said there was something extra special watching Cruise come to life as Ethan Hunt in their latest collaboration, “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” and proving that the life of a legendary super-spy isn’t as perfect as you would expect.

“What was especially great in this one was Tom’s ability and his willingness to not only to have fun with himself, but with the character,” McQuarrie told me in a recent phone conversation. “It was fun to direct Tom in a scene where he was supposed to jump over the hood of a BMW. Your expectation is that it’s going to be this movie star hood-slide, but instead, he trips and takes a face-plant on the hood. That part was improvised. He said, ‘I got something, just roll the camera,’ and he did this great sight gag.”

Photos: Paranount Pictures

New on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday (Paramount Home Media Distribution), Cruise again embodies Hunt, a rogue agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) and bane of CIA honcho Hunley’s (Alec Baldwin) existence. Tired of the destruction Hunt continually leaves in his wake, Hunley finally manages to convince the government to absorb — and effectively, abolish — the IMF program. Apart from his past misgivings, Hunley is also fed up with Hunt’s obsession with the terrorist organization known as “The Syndicate” — a group that the CIA claims is a product of Hunt’s (Cruise) imagination.

However, a deadly encounter with The Syndicate’s head (Sean Harris) confirms Hunt’s suspicions that the group is indeed for real, and he needs to enlist the handful of his IMF colleagues (Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames) to bring the group down. The situation is so desperate that Hunt is forced to take a leap of faith and trust Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a Syndicate agent who for reasons unexplained, helps him escape torture and certain death at the hands of her employer.

“Rogue Nation,” like the previous “Mission: Impossible” installments, is chock-full of death-defying stunts, not the least of which Cruise’s heart-pounding scene as he clings to the outside of a cargo plane. Despite all of the planning that went into the scene, McQuarrie doesn’t deny that it’s the stuff nightmares are made of, especially for the guy directing the film.

“His falling off the plane was actually the least of my concerns,” McQuarrie said. “It was the debris on the runway and potential bird strikes that made me worry about him being torn off of the plane rather than falling. We realized as we got closer and closer to that stunt that there was really nothing we could do about it. You were really doing something that had never been done before, and you had to go with a ‘Let’s see what happens’ approach. It was pretty terrifying.”

The interesting thing about the shot is that the cat was let out of bag early about it. Not only was the sequence heavily featured in the film’s trailer and TV spots, it was depicted on the film’s theatrical poster. Because of that, McQuarrie used the scene very early in the film, and surprised many viewers in the process.

“We knew instinctively that it was the right thing to do to put the scene where we did,” said McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Usual Suspects.” “If we built the whole movie about that shot and put it at the end, it simply wouldn’t be fresh or satisfying.”

Perhaps one of the freshest surprises to come out of “Rogue Nation” is Ferguson, a Swedish actress relatively new to the Hollywood film scene. McQuarrie, who will be back with Cruise for yet another “Mission: Impossible” film in 2017, said he hopes Ferguson will be a part of it.

“Since I had such a great experience working with Rebecca, I would love, love, love to work with her again,” McQuarrie enthused.

Then, the writer-director suddenly remembered how “Rogue Nation” effectively catapulted the actress to superstardom.

“Unfortunately, everybody else in the world loves her as much as I do now. I only hope she’s available,” the director added with a laugh. “I just hope she returns my calls.”

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Film, Movie Reviews

Summer at the movies 2015: The best and worst

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'Inside Out' (photo: Disney/Pixar)

By Tim Lammers

Theaters had their share of movie hits and misses this summer. Here’s a look at the five best … and the worst.

5. “Spy” (R): Unlike the overrated “Trainwreck,” this latest teaming of Melissa McCarthy and her “Bridesmaids”/”The Heat” director Paul Feig was by far the summer’s funniest film. After hitting the wall with her obnoxious performance in “Tammy” last summer, McCarthy returned to a character with dimension – a vulnerable sweetheart who can also talk F-bomb-laced smack with the best of them – reminding moviegoers of the very things that had us fall in love with her in the first place. Having a winning cast including Jude Law, Allison Janney, Rose Byrne and an uncharacteristically funny Jason Statham to back McCarthy up didn’t hurt, either. And who says writing, direction and casting isn’t important to a movie?

4. “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (PG-13): Tom Cruise continued to ramp up the intensity with more real-life, death-defying stunts in the fifth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” series, which has vastly improved since the underwhelming original. “Rogue Nation” isn’t as good as its predecessor “Ghost Protocol,” but clearly Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie have enough respect for their audiences to give them a twisty, challenging narrative to compliment the film’s exhilarating action scenes. Relative newcomer Rebecca Ferguson also brings a kick-ass performance and proper air of mystery to her ambiguous female lead, and Simon Pegg gives his funniest “M:I” performance yet as Benji Dunn, Ethan Hunt’s (Cruise) techno-nerd right-hand man.

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3. “Love and Mercy” (R): It’s only fitting that the biopic of Beach Boy icon Brian Wilson get a summer release, and one can only hope that it’s not forgotten come awards season in the fall. Director Bill Pohlad expertly tells the riveting story of Wilson during the “Pet Sounds” era (Paul Dano) and later in his career (John Cusack), where the tortured musician endured physical and mental abuse first from his father/manager, Murry (Bill Camp), and in his later years, from manager/psychotherapist Dr. Eugene Landy (a haunting Paul Giamatti). When all is said and done, you can’t help but be affected by the fascinating, behind-the-scenes stories and heartbreaking plight of one of America’s greatest musical geniuses. Dano is brilliant as usual in the role of young Brian, and Cusack gives one of the best performances of his career as the elder composer/musician.

2. “Inside Out” (PG): After a few shaky years for the studio, “Up” Oscar-winning director Pete Docter brings Pixar Animation back to dizzying heights with his ingenious look at the changing emotions of an 11-year-old girl, Riley (voice of Kaitlyn Dias) as she relocates with her family from Minnesota to San Francisco. Docter keys in on five emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) – and how they become seriously mixed up when they tamper with Riley’s memories. The film works for all ages, although adults – particularly parents – will become weepy when being reminded of their own childhoods and the rites of passage as their own children cross from childhood into adolescence. Beautifully animated with vibrant, iridescent colors, “Inside Out” is Pixar’s best since their 2010 Best Animated Feature Oscar winner “Toy Story 3.”

Tom Hardy in Mad Max Fury Road

1. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (R): Thirty years after his last film in the original “Mad Max” trilogy starring Mel Gibson, writer-director George Miller comes screaming back with his hair on fire to make “Fury Road,” which is easily the most energetic, hyperkinetic, visually whacked-out ride to hit the big screen this year. The film is anchored by a charismatic Tom Hardy as the new Max Rocketansky and bolstered by yet another risky, kick-ass performance by Charlize Theron as female warrior aiding him in a showdown with the skeleton-masked leader (a menacing Hugh Keays-Byrne) of a society of post-apocalyptic crazies. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a brilliant extension of the original “Mad Max” and “Road Warrior” movie experience as it captures the bat-s*** crazy tone that made the original films cult classics. After starting with low budgets with his original films, you can’t help but feel that Miller finally got the chance to realize the vision of the “Mad Max” movie he’s always wanted to make.

And the worst …

“Vacation” (R): While “Tomorrowland” was in the running for the worst movie of the summer with its preachy diatribe about how we’re all to blame for killing our planet, there’s nothing more painful than a smattering of dreadfully unfunny set-ups and pratfalls in a movie that shouldn’t have been remade in the first place. Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, who are generally likable and talented performers, should be embarrassed about ever signing up for this dreck, which feebly attempts to retrace Rusty Griswold’s (Helms) path to Walley World (the famed destination of the classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation” in 1983). Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo sadly show up for cameos near the end of the film, which only make you lament what might have been if maybe they would have been more creatively involved. Any amount would have elevated this “Vacation” out of its comedic hell.

Runners-up for worst summer movie: “Fantastic Four,” “Ted 2” and “Hot Pursuit.”