A movie that had been filmed five years ago was dropped on Netflix last week and had some initial success. Hidden Strike featured a team-up between John Cena and Jackie Chan.

According to IMDB, “Two ex-special forces soldiers must escort a group of civilians along Baghdad’s “Highway of Death” to the safety of the Green Zone.“

This is not a great movie. It is not the worst thing I have seen, but it definitely depends on the personalities of John Cena and Jackie Chan to get by and, unfortunately, the writing does not give them much help because some of the dialogue is eye-rollingly bad.

There is a lot of action, specifically with hand-to-hand fights featuring Cena and Chan. There is nothing here that we haven’t seen before and better.

There was a lot of poor CGI in this movie too with some very ugly work. Not only in the fighting sections, but some areas that were painfully obvious green screen.

The chemistry between the two main leads help to make this a serviceable thriller, but so much more could have been done with this film. There was a reason why it hadn’t been released until it was dropped on Netflix.

2.5 stars

When I saw the trailer for Meg 2: The Trench and Jason Statham used his legs to hold off one of the megalodons, I knew what kind of movie this was going to be. Sadly, the reality of Meg 2: The Trench did not reach that expectation.

In one of the worst movies of 2023 so far, this sequel truly is filled with nonsensical decisions, both on screen and behind the camera.

Jason Statham is back, now as a environmental warrior, trying to keep the oceans clean while the group he is tied with continues to investigate the Trench, the place where the prehistoric sharks live. When they headed down into the Trench on a mission to explore a section, they come across a giant megalodon and also discover an undersea base that they had no idea was there.

After an explosion set off by one of the film’s nondescript villains traps them under a landslide, the crew has to walk across the ocean floor to the station, hoping to avoid the Megs and other ocean faring monsters. This sequence is just horrible. It is hard to see a lot of what happens and it did not look like they were underwater at all.

Let’s talk about the positives of this movie….

Um…

Well…

It was mostly in focus.

To be fair, some of the film looked pretty good. It was not the greatest CGI I have ever seen, but it was not the worst either. There were some pretty apparent green screen scenes though.

The last 20 minutes or so had a fairly cheesy shark battle, which is what the whole film should have been about. Yes, the ending sequence in the third act was cheesy in nature, and some of the actors involved seemed to know that was what the film was, but some of the things that happened were so dumb and impossible that even for this type of a film, it was too much.

I will say that the scene with Jason Statham’s super strong legs did look a little better in context as there were some chains involved that I did not see in the trailer, so it is not completely inane.

However, what there was not too much of in Meg 2 was sharks. The first two acts of this film had a minimal amount of Megs in a Meg movie. There really was much more of plot involving the human characters and the espionage and betrayal of said human characters. The villains in the movie so just so cardboard cutout that they created zero tension or conflict. I think one of the villains (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) may have actually twirled his mustache once.

The dialogue of Meg 2 was terrible. Nobody talks like they had these characters talk. Then you throw in some of the most cringeworthy one-liners from Statham and some of the other actors, and it only fails even more.

Meg 2 was also almost two hours long, which was really 30-40 minutes too long. The first half was just boring and dragged along with these uninspiring and uninteresting characters that we have no connection with in a plot that had to do with illegal underwater mining instead of Meg fighting.

Then, if you saw the trailers for Meg 2, you have seen absolutely every minute of any scene with the shark that could be considered cool, even a little bit.

I did laugh several times, but I was laughing at the movie and not with the movie. There was no humor in the flick… at least, intentional humor.

As I was coming out of the theater, I heard a young boy, probably around 9 or 10, say that this was his favorite movie of the summer. I believe that because that is about the level that Meg 2: The Trench is fishing for.

0.75 stars

The WWE has always done solid documentaries about their WWE Superstars. Their latest venture debuted this week on Peacock and features a legacy performer who has been one of the top performers in the ring recently.

Cody Rhodes was a wrestler who spent the first ten years in the WWE, but reached a point where he could not see a path for him to escape the midcard in the company, and he chose to bet on himself by leaving the WWE and going out into the world of the independents, smaller organizations around the country/world.

This led to Cody, matching up with some other wrestlers (The Young Bucks in particular) and forming an alternative wrestling company in AEW.

Then, when his contract came up with AEW, Cody Rhodes made a return to the WWE at Wrestlemania 38, taking a new turn in his wrestling career.

This documentary does an excellent job of showing us who Cody Rhodes is and how he wound up getting to the point where he is one of the most over stars in the profession.

Cody spoke from his heart, an interview that was at the center of the doc, and displayed true emotion when discussing areas of his life and career that make him such a compelling figure to the fans.

One of the bets parts of the documentary was the discussion of Cody’s relationship with his father, wrestling legend “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. The relationship between Dusty and Cody was complex and comes across so real and genuine in the doc that it easily stands out as the highlight.

Another epic moment was the discussion of the moment when Cody tore his pec muscle during training a few days before he was scheduled to perform in a match with Seth Rollins inside a Hell in the Cell, a brutal cage match. The imagery of the bruised pec was one of the moments that define who Cody Rhodes is.

There were plenty of interviews with other WWE stars for the doc, giving their thoughts on Cody Rhodes including Randy Orton, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Triple H, Diamond Dallas Page, The Undertaker to name a few.

Cody comes off as a family man, whose family means the world to him and as a driven professional who wants to become the top of the wrestling community.

The doc does a great job of covering everything from his career, from his days wrestling in high school to his defeat at Wrestlemania 39.

4 stars

G’day, mate.

I had no idea this was an Australian production. I also did not know that Australian horror movie productions were so freaky and scary.

Talk to Me is the latest horror movie that proves that teenagers, especially older teens, do dumb shit.

According to the official synopsis, “When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and opens the door to the spirit world forcing them to choose who to trust: the dead or the living“

This movie was very tense and filled with suspense and real scares, and it did it with a limited number of jump scares (if any at all). The scares come from the characters and what is happening to them, not just something jumping out from the dark.

The cast is excellent in portraying these horrors throughout. The cast is led by Sophie Wilde, who played the main protagonist Mia, Alexandra Jensen as Mia’s best friend Jade, and Jade’s younger brother Riley, played by Joe Bird. These three carry the heavy load of the film and they do an excellent job with it.

I absolutely believe that these kids do this hand thing, welcoming spirits into their bodies, in order to film it and put it on the internet. I have seen way too many challenges that get picked up by this age group on YouTube or TikTok to find it hard to accept.

I did have some difficulties in the details of the plot, as some of the rules that are laid out are not very sensical. I would also say that the wrap up of the storyline is a touch messy for my tastes.

The visuals of the film are very well done, look great and do their job as a way to be scary or disturbing.

The film also goes out of its way to give these character backgrounds, especially Mia whose tragic background is vital for the film to work.

Talk to Me is a solid film from A24 from first time directors Danny and Michael Philippou. They deliver a atmospheric film with disturbing imagery and some excellent acting from the young cast.

3.75 stars

I got a chance to see an early showing today of the new animation film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The Turtles have had many feature films in their franchise over the years, but this is the first time we get a full length animated film.

The Turtles were young teens who were craving to be above ground and out of the sewers among the humans despite their father, Splinter (Jackie Chan), hating the humans. The Turtles decided to attempt to stop major criminal Superfly (Ice Cube) so the world would see them as heroes instead of monsters.

There was quite a large and very accomplished group of voice actors involved along with the couple that I have already mentioned. These voice actors included Nicholas Cantu, Brady Noon, Micha Abbey and Shamon Brown Jr (who were the Turtles) and John Cena, Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, Ayo Edebiri, Rose Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito, Maya Rudolph, Post Malone, Hannibal Buress, and Natasia Demetriou.

The best part of this new film is clearly the animation style. The film must have been inspired by the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse films, Mutant Mayhem has amazing artistic frames with bright colors and awesome backgrounds. I did have some problems with the fight animations, especially in the third act big battle because they had so many mutants involved (as well as other characters) that it felt like it was difficult to see what was happening. It reminded me of some of the big battles in Transformers franchises at times.

One of the things that I really enjoyed was the idea that the Turtles were actually portrayed as teenagers. This is something that they have never really done before and this was a new take on these characters because of it.

The story of the movie was okay, but it was not the standout aspect of this film. There was some good humor and the film re-contextualized these characters for a new generation. It ended on a perfect note for a sequel too.

4 stars

Ron Perlman is back as a retired assassin who has taken up a bakery business, but is forced back into action when his son leaves his daughter with him and then gets killed. It is a revenge story mixed with the loving family relationships (sort of).

This film is not very good. I did like Ron Perlman and Emma Ho, who played Perlman’s granddaughter Delphi, together. They had a sweet chemistry and they did work well as a pair. Emma Ho did a nice job despite not speaking for most of the movie because of a trauma she had suffered a few years prior. This is easily the best part of the film.

Otherwise, the character of “The Baker” was very much like multiple characters we have seen over the years with not much new added to the mix.

The story was as you would expect. I have seen this done dozens of times, and most of them better. There are so many implausible moments that it overwhelms the good parts with Perlman and Ho.

Harvey Keitel is here playing the same character he plays in most of his movies. He is totally wasted. However, Keitel does appear in the most bizarre and unexpectedly silly mid-credit scene that I won’t spoil, but will have you trying to figure out why the creative people behind the film tacked this on.

Things happen without explanation and the entire plot was just tossed out to see what stuck. As I said, Perlman and Ho were engaging together and I wish there was more substance to that part of the story because they certainly could have elevated this movie to something more than just a clichéd revenge film.

2 stars

I watched the first Haunted Mansion film starring Eddie Murphy about a year and a half ago during the DailyView here on EYG. It had a terrible word of mouth and a low Rotten Tomatoes score, but I did not hate it. I went in with ow expectations and enjoyed it fine. It wasn’t a great movie, but it did not come off as the horrendous film that I heard it was.

I wasn’t sure if Disney needed a new version of Haunted Mansion, but here we go anyway. This time I went to the theater and I had a similar reaction to this film. I enjoyed it enough though it was not a brilliant film.

Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) moved into a mansion and they realized that the place was haunted and the ghosts would follow them and make them come back. Gabbie looked for help from Father Kent (Owen Wilson) who went to find Ben (LaKeith Stanfield).

Ben had developed a camera that could reportedly photograph spirits because his deceased wife (Charity Jordan) was a tour guide who showed haunted sites.

The problem was, once anyone entered the mansion, they had ghosts following them and haunting them until they came back, sufficiently trapping them in the house.

There were two more characters brought in to help with the attempt to figure out what to do. One, Tiffany Haddish played medium Harriet and Danny DeVito played Bruce, expert on local mansions who always wanted to see this one. The ‘Dream Team’ as Father Kent labeled it had to work together to try and discover what paranormal shenanigans was going on in the haunted mansion.

The ensemble cast was the strength of the film. Haddish, Stanfield, DeVito, Dawson, and Wilson were all very funny and worked well together. The film also gave time to the characters, trying to give them more than just a plot driven movie. I really appreciated the attempt to give each character (or most of them at least) more depth than you would expect. There were even some solid emotional moments that were more effective because the characters had some heft to them.

The CGI was fine, but nothing that I would write home about. The side ghosts were scary designs that would probably frighten younger kids, but would be fine for teens.

The story was a little messy, and the film was probably too long. There were some stretches in the middle that dragged a bit and could have been edited down 10-15 minutes to make the pacing sharper. However, the beginning and ending was pretty decent and moved at a good clip.

The story arc is around grief as several of the characters had to deal with loss, especially LaKeith Stanfield, who did a fantastic job in this role.

Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis appears too as the classic Haunted mansion character Madame Leota. Jamie Lee felt a little over the top in the smaller role.

There was also a section that felt like it was AI in the middle of the film, dealing with information about what had happened. I am not sure if it was AI or if it was animated, but I did notice the section.

Haunted mansion felt like a throwback to an 80s/90s special effect/ghost movie much like Michael J. Fox’s The Frighteners or Arachnophobia. It had fun moments with a great cast. It might be a little long, but the cast is enjoyable enough to make up any of the drawbacks.

This is better than the Eddie Murphy version and should be a good time for families, especially with slightly older children.

3.4 stars

The new film, They Cloned Tyrone, a sci-fi/mystery/comedy arrived this weekend on Netflix. The film is a satire of the Blaxploitation genre from the 1970s as well as the manner in which black people are exploited by governments and the more powerful.

They Cloned Tyrone starred John Boyega as Fontaine, a drug dealer, Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles, a pimp, and Teyonah Parris as Yo-Yo, a sex worker. The three of them become involved in a secret conspiracy to continue experimenting on people in an attempt to find peace in America.

This is a weird movie with some much deeper moments than I expected. It sounded as if the film was going to be one of those dumb comedy films that try too hard to get someone to laugh. However, this had much better characters and had some real thoughts on its mind about themes that it wanted to cover.

I’m going to get this white guy criticism out of the way. I do not like to hear the use of the N-Word as often as it is used in movies like this. I understand that I am not black and it is a word that is used in different context in situations like this. I just don’t like the word.

Having said that, the best part of this film is the performances from the lead three actors. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris are outstanding, both separately and together in every scene they are in. The interactions among the three of them are quick, clever, funny, standing out in the film.

Kiefer Sutherland played a role that I am not going to spoil, but he is exceptional as well.

The plot can be a bit convoluted, but I loved how the characters, especially Yo-Yo, approach the situation as if they are trying to solve a mystery and the references to Nancy Drew is both funny and ironic. There is a definite pulpy feel to scenes in They Cloned Tyrone.

The film does take a little time to get going, but once the three characters wind up together trying to figure out what had happened to Fontaine and what is going on around the neighborhood, the movie flies.

Teyonah Parris will be starring in The Marvels later this year as Monica Rambeau and, if this performance is any indication, she is going to be awesome. She showed that she is a rising star with this role, really fitting in well with John Boyega and the amazing Jamie Foxx.

They Cloned Tyrone takes some big swings. Some of them miss, but more than not, it is wildly successful and creatively effective. Director Juel Taylor went out on the limb in his directorial debut and you can tell that he is not afraid to break the mold.

3.75 stars

The second segment of the Barbenheimer double feature was a film that had no right to be as good as it was. I mean… what were the odds that I was going to like a Barbie movie?

As it turned out, the odds were pretty good.

Greta Gerwig, director of such great movies as Lady Bird and Little Women, directed the adaptation of one of the oldest and most iconic toys in Barbie, and she did it in a highly entertaining, funny, clever and one of the most visually stunning movies of the summer.

Everything seems to be perfect in Barbieland for Barbie (Margot Robbie) and all of the other Barbies. Every day is a party, a trip to the beach with Ken (Ryan Gosling), Ken (Simu Liu), Ken (Kingsley Ben-Adir… honestly it is a little difficult to see him and not think about Gravik from Secret Invasion) and a party at the Dream House.

However, Barbie suddenly has a thought of death, something that no Barbie ever thinks about, and it disturbs her, but that is not all. Her feet go flat. She starts to show some flab on her thigh. Her world was falling apart.

Barbie went to see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) and she explained that Barbie had to go to the real world and find the kid who was playing with the doll and get her to fix it.

Whereas you might think that this is just a surface level comedy, you would be wrong. There is actually quite a bit of depth to the story going on here. There is a lot of clever and insightful writing involved that is not only very funny, but also has things to say about someone being who they are and the expectations individuals face.

Margot Robbie is spectacular as the stereotypical Barbie and Ryan Gosling is brilliant as the oft-ignored and put upon Ken. Both Barbie and Ken have distinct arcs to their story and really carry this movie. Gosling steals every scene he is in.

The film is not only for fans of Barbie, but also for those people who hate Barbie. The film certainly has sections dealing with women power/feminism, but it also looks at the story of Ken, being beneath Barbie and how that affects him.

The costumes and sets, especially in Barbieland, are gorgeous and are awesome to look at.

The music in the film is hot. I have to say that the greatest song of the whole film is Ken’s song in the third act.

There is a large cast, many of which are playing Barbie. Some of these actors could have received a little more to do, but they all take advantage of what they are given to do. Other actors in the film include America Ferrera, Arianna Greenblatt, Helen Mirren (as the narrator), Rhea Perlman, John Cena, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, and Michael Cera as the non-Ken doll Allan.

However, Will Farrell, who played the Mattel CEO, was wasted. His first few scenes were interesting and had some funny bits, but his part of the rest of the film was dull and dumb. It was underwhelming and anticlimactic. His entire section of the film could have been removed and the movie would not have lost anything.

Barbie is a deconstruction of the roles of men and women in society, with social comment without being preachy. It is clever and funny. Witty and engaging. And all of the Barbie types shown in the film are real Barbies. Barbie is way better than I thought it would be.

4.5 stars

I have not been a fan of Christopher Nolan. I believe he has been overrated by all kinds of critics. Of his movies, I did not like Interstellar (about half of it I liked), Inception, Tenet, The Dark Knight Rises or Dunkirk, which I know is a hot take.

However, the buzz around his new biopic Oppenheimer (and the combined Barbenheimer) was high and I will say that I was anticipating the film.

The film tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and how he, along with a group of scientists, created an atomic bomb and the fallout of the use.

The plot is not anywhere near as simplistic as I just laid out. Like many other Nolan films, the narrative of the story is told in a disjointed, non-linear timeframe. At times, it was a challenge to know what time period it was showing. They did a lot of black and white shooting for the most recent timeframe (which was the Senate confirmation hearings for Lewis Strauss). This storytelling technique requires the audience to keep their attention on the screen, so that is not a bad thing.

The acting in Oppenheimer is absolutely top notch all around. Cillian Murphy has to be considered an early favorite to be nominated for best actor at the Oscars next year with his performance. He brought such a humanity and soulfulness to this man who could have been difficult to get to know. The expressiveness of each expression and his eyes was utterly fantastic.

Robert Downey Jr., who played Lewis Strauss, is another actor who should probably be in contention for a statue next year. Downey Jr. loses himself in this role and, before long, you do not see RDJ anymore, you see this manipulative politician out for a touch of revenge. Emily Blunt is a powerhouse as Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife. She spends much of the film in the background, but when she gets the chance to step forward, man does she step forward.

I loved Matt Damon as General Groves too. He delivers one of my favorite lines of the movie that was also in the trailers when he asks about the chance of them destroying the world when they pushed the button to the bomb. “Near zero” was the response and Groves preferred the idea of “zero” instead.

The visuals of the film were breathtaking. I watched this in IMAX and I absolutely recommend that you watch this on as big of a screen as possible.

The score of this movie was amazing. It beautifully illustrated everything that was happening on the screen. The sound of every explosion or loud noise literally shook the seat that I was sitting in. I can’t imagine watching this in some kind of 4D version because I am sure that the moving seat would completely destroy you. Each second of the sound effects were worth it.

Unfortunately, as we have seen with some other Nolan films, much of the dialogue of the actors gets drowned out by the score or was muffled and difficult to understand. This is truly the one aspect of the film that is worth criticizing.

As I said, I have believed that Christopher Nolan has been overrated. This, however, is a brilliant movie with unbelievable filmmaking. I think this is probably Nolan’s greatest movie ever. While I personally prefer The Dark Knight, there is no denying that this is a one-of-a-kind movie with phenomenal acting, special effects off the chart, a complex and well-organized story and a score that does exactly what you want a score to do.

This is one of the best movies of the year.

5 stars

As I was going to the theater at Cinemark, the ticket-taker asked me what the premise of this movie was about. I told her that I had no idea. She laughed and said the last guy who went through said the same thing.

The fact of the matter was that I have never seen a trailer or had zero idea what this movie was about, but I came mainly because I like Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates as actors.

A group of women in Dublin were trying to win tickets to go to the Grotto of Massabiele in Lourdes. The women, Lily (Maggie Smith), Eileen (Kathy Bates) and Dolly (Agnes O’Casey), wanted to go to Lourdes for a miracle (each of them had their own plans).

One of their friends died and her daughter Chrissie (Laura Linney) came back for the funeral after being away and estranged for 40 years. Lily and Eileen had their own issues with Chrissie, making the entire situation very awkward.

All three women, along with Chrissie, received tickets to Lourdes and they went to visit the Grotto as well as deal with old wounds and trauma from years before.

The strength of the film is easily the cast. Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Laura Linney are masters on the screen and Agnes O’Casey steps right up with these three legends. Stephen Rhea and Mark O’Halloran added some strong supporting performances as well.

There were a lot of plotlines involved in the main characters that were addressed with the trip. It felt like one of those movies that had plenty of stories in the film that you knew would get werapped up during the runtime.

However, it did feel like a lot of what the main stories were based upon did not work. It did not feel as if I understood the main relationships for much of the film and I did not understand why there was such anger directed toward Laura Linney’s character by the others. Then, sadly, when they dealt with this, a good chunk of what happened or the reasons behind it felt left out.

There were also some moments that were left unresolved or some moments that became resolved that did not feel as if it earned that resolution.

It was entertaining enough, again thanks to the wonderful cast, but the movie is nothing much more than a Lifetime movie that hopes to pull on your heartstrings.

3.2 stars

Last night, a friend of mine messaged me with a comment about the new film Sound of Freedom. He called it worth the watch. I told him I did not know if I was going to see it and that it depended on my schedule. This led to a debate between us.

He shared with me a YouTube video stating that the movie was trying to be buried by the woke Hollywood media and it used a series of negative reviews of the movie to prove their case. I called this a clickbait video, which I still believe. I did watch the video and saw that they were using a series of reviews that had QAnon in the headlines. Yet, Rotten Tomatoes had the film at a 74%, which did not seem to match the narrative the YouTuber was saying.

I wanted to have as much knowledge as possible so after I watched the video, I read some of the negative reviews listed on it. These included Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Jezebel, and, to be fair, these reviews did focus more on the QAnon aspect than the movie itself. However, I do not think that is uncommon as there were several critics who recently panned The Flash because of the controversy surrounding its star Ezra Miller. So I wondered why the reviews were targeting Qanon in these reviews.

It does seem as if the lead actor of Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel has made the rounds in promotion of this movie and has made some comments that are out of the QAnon playbook, insinuating some things about the collection of adrenochrome at some QAnon conventions and he mentioned some other conspiracy theories on far right programs. When an actor of the movie makes comments in the media like this, I do think it is fair to include that criticism in a movie review.

I find QAnon to be a horrible thing and that this has given a place for the bigots, racists and white supremists to get together. However, I want to be fair to the movie and I have been doing my best to not judge anything that I am reviewing because of an artist involved. My philosophy is look at the art not the artist. That way, I can enjoy or dislike a film by Mel Gibson, Ezra Miller, Woody Allen, Jonathan Majors or others because of what I see on the screen, not what happens behind it. It is a difficult chore at times, but I am constantly working on it.

So with a lot on my mind, I found a showing this morning at Cinemark for Sound of Freedom and I went with as open of a mind as I could have.

The film tells the true story of Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel), a former government agent whose job investigating the world of child sex trafficking was tearing him down. He became involved in a case that led him to rescue a young boy (Lucás Ávila) from the sexual predators. The boy told Tim about his sister Rocío (Cristal Aparicio), who had also been taken the same time that he was. The little girl becomes a driving force behind Tim’s choices, deciding to head to Columbia in an attempt at a rescue.

Jim Caviezel does a very good job as Tim Ballard. Caviezel’s use of his expressive eyes is very effective showing you what the man is feeling and thinking about without a lot of dialogue. Tim’s connection in Columbia, a character named Vampiro (Bill Camp) was one of the most interesting characters in the film and his reactions with Tim were strong. When Vampiro told the story of why he now spends his time buying children and helping to free them from the sex slave life was probably the best moment of the movie and Camp was outstanding in that scene.

I would also like to shout out Lucás Ávila and Cristal Aparicio, who both did an excellent job portraying these abused children. I believed everything that they did and their performances felt very real and sincere.

The music of the film, scored by Javier Navarrete, was wonderful. Each use of music did a great job of spotlighting the emotions of the scene.

I was not a fan of the third act, where Tim went into the jungle to try and find Rocío who had been purchased by the leader of a group of rebels. This entire section of the film felt hard to believe and seemed to be exaggerated for the film.

Some of the dialogue of the film was weak, but I do think that the strong performances helped to elevate the material.

Sound of Freedom was heavy and dark, difficult to watch at times and filled with a horrendous truth about the evil of human trafficking going on in the world. This is a real problem facing people across the planet and should not be used as a political talking point. Even though I do not believe that the Hollywood media is having a meltdown over this movie’s success, I do wish the movie could be judged on its own merits and not on its adjacent connection to QAnon. That is because Sound of Freedom is a solid thriller on its own.

3.5 stars

Wow

Wow

Wow

I was one of the lucky ones who was able to see an early screening of the seventh film in the Mission Impossible franchise. I will say it right now. I have enjoyed the Mission Impossible franchise so far, especially the last three or four films, but Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One is the best Mission Impossible movie yet.

This is nothing but a thrilling ride, chocked full of adrenaline-rushes and edge of your seats action that enthralls the audience, hoping that the heroes can survive the impossible situation that they are placed in.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is on a globe spanning adventure chasing the film’s McGuffin, a key that unlocks… something… that will give the user the power over an AI called The Entity. Of course, there are a bunch of people after this key which leads to a bunch of unbelievable action and stunts.

Ethan’s team members return for the film which include Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Also returning is the slimy former head of the IMF Kittridge, played by Henry Czerny.

The film added a new character, thief Grace, played by the exquisite Hayley Atwell. Atwell and Cruise share a ton of chemistry and some wonderfully written banter as they are being chased through a city and struggling to survive while stabbing each other in the back. Atwell was one of my favorite parts of the seventh Mission Impossible installment.

The action was out of this world. Everybody has seen the motorcycle/cliff jump sequence in the trailer and advertising for the film. I really wish they had kept this stunt under wraps and debuted it in the film, but it is hardly the only example of amazing stunt work. There is a train sequence that is utterly breath-taking and several chases that make beautiful use of the setting. There is also a bomb scene that is as tense as you are going to get.

This is also one of the funniest editions of Mission Impossible so far. The dialogue is very funny and the quips hit almost every time.

The cast is packed full with amazing actors. Besides those already mentioned include Pom Klementieff as a new antagonist femme fatale, Vanessa Kirby returning as The White Widow, Esai Morales as main antagonist with a link to Ethan’s past, Gabriel, Cary Elwes as Director of National Intelligence Denlinger, and Shea Whigham as an enforcer for the Community who was chasing after Ethan.

Though there were a limited use of the villainous A.I. The Entity, (I expect there will be much more in Part Two), what we got with this A.I. was truly terrifying. There is a scene with The Entity in a club that brought chills to me.

It is a long film, but the pacing is outstanding and you do not feel the length. You are too busy holding your breath, gasping at the incredible imagery of the skilled filmmakers. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie seems to have a real grasp on this franchise as he is signed up to direct the next film as well as this one. Though this is a part one, the film has a perfect ending, allowing it to feel like a complete film.

I was totally gripped throughout the entire film, laughing, gasping, and thrilling to the adventure. Tom Cruise is excellent as Ethan Hunt (and runs all over the place), having a true understanding of the character and Cruise and Atwell are charming as the day is long. There are some surprisingly emotional moments that are totally earned and surprise the audience.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One is a huge success and everybody should go out and support this film. It is exceptional. I can’t wait for Part Two!

5 stars