Tag Archives: movies

Warfare

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June 11

This was brutal.

Warfare was written by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland based on Mendoza’s experiences during the Iraq war. It followed the events of a failed US Navy Seal mission from November 2006 after the Battle of Ramadi.

The script was created through testimony of the platoon members and is told only using their memories. The film is told in real time and is one of the most realistic war films that I have ever seen. This felt more like we had a window into this gunfight than anything that had been recreated by Hollywood magic.

I wish I had seen this on a bigger screen than on my home TV, because I feel as if this is more than a movie, it’s an experience. I can’t imagine what this experience would have been like in IMAX or on a bigger screen with a better sound system.

The sound of the movie was one of the most haunting aspects of it. Everything from the bombs and the bullets being used to the silence emphasizing the screams of pain from the injured. When the silence goes from all encompassing to visceral screams of the wounded, it is a powerful and suspenseful moment. The screams cut deep into the viewer and beginning with the silence makes it all the more impactful.

There is almost no plot and very little characterization. Despite that, the events that take place place a strain on the audience as it feels very real.

The ensemble cast included some of the best young actors around, but it is never apparent that these actors are doing anything but surviving a firefight. The actors include  D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai , Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Noah Centineo, and Michael Gandolfini. 

The amazing technical work of this film is masterful. The realness of the film cannot be denied. This is one of those tough to watch films that you need to see, once at least. It may not be a film you revisit.

4.5 stars

My Dead Friend Zoe

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June 11

The film for today on the June Swoon is film I saw on Fandango called My Dead Friend Zoe. It was a film that I had never heard of before, but the timing fit for today so I gave it a chance.

The film deals with grief, loss, PTSD and the military as well as the challenges of a family dynamic between people who struggle to relate.

According to IMDB, “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor (Morgan Freeman), the tough love of her mother (Gloria Reuben) and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather (Ed Harris) — holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house — begins to lose his way and needs the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is a buddy film about a complicated friendship, a divided family, and the complex ways in which we process grief.“

This is a very deep character study about life after loss and how individuals need help getting through the pain of life and loss. There is a bit of a twist at the end of the movie that recontextualizes the idea of the story, but the fact is that it is still dealing with the loss of an important person in your life.

There are strong performances in the film, especially that of Sonequa Martin-Green and Ed Harris. Two veterans, both with their own pain from loss, trying to get through their lives. Morgan Freeman is always a great addition to a cast, even if he may not have as much to do in this one.

My Dead Friend Zoe may be a touch long, but the character study of Merit, in particular, is full of important little steps and that is a realistic tale. This was based on a true story and it was a very powerful film that lets you think about other people in a different light.

28 Weeks Later (2007)

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Preparing for 20 Years Later which will be released later in the month of June, I wanted to rewatch the first two films of the franchise. I was up to 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later.

28 Weeks Later was different than the first film, but it was still very intense and anxiety-filled. The second film listed Danny Boyle and Alex Garland as producers, but the direction was done by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

Then, 28 Days Later featured a cast with not very many big stars, where as 28 Weeks Later would be considered an all-star cast. The cast of 28 Weeks Later included Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Robert Carlyle, Harold Perrineau, Rose Byrne, Imogene Poots, Catherine McCormack, Amanda Walker, and Mackintosh Muggleton.

According to IMDB, “Almost six months after London was decimated by the unstoppable Rage Virus in 28 Days Later (2002), the U.S. Army has restored peace and repopulated the quarantined city. However, the deadly epidemic reawakens when an unsuspecting carrier of the highly transmittable pathogen enters the dead capital with the first wave of returning refugees. This time, the horrible virus is more dangerous than ever. Has the next nightmare begun?“

This was a solid sequel to the first film and this brought a serious vibe to it. The desperate struggle to survive was even more in effect here as our protagonists faced so many more obstacles than just the return of the “Rage” virus. The military brought yet another level of threat to our characters.

Robert Carlyle, who played Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon A Time, is amazing in this film. He kicked things off making a choice that gives us a glance at his character, but you can understand where he was coming from. It did not make him look any better even if you do understand. I loved Jeremy Renner in this movie, even if I had a hard time thinking about him as anyone other than Hawkeye.

There were some scenes that really stretched credibility here. These scenes add tension to the story, even if they are unbelievably unlikely to actually happen.

I do believe the first film was a tighter story and the second one is a little messier. Some of the scenes of the infected attacking others remind me of scenes when Killer Bob would attack someone on Twin Peaks Still, the shots did feel more artistic than just gory.

I do not expect any connection between these two films and 28 Years Later, outside of the “Rage” virus because of the length of time. I am still pleased that I was able to watch these two films before 28 Years Later comes out.

Death of a Unicorn

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June 9

Death of a Unicorn was in theaters earlier this year and it was one that I wanted to go to see. I never got around to seeing it. Anytime I had a chance, there were other films that were ahead of it and it never fit into my schedule. Then, a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes kept me away from it. With the June Swoon 4 adding a film a day from 2025, this worked out well to finally see it off Fandango at Home.

According to IMDB, “A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.“

Surprisingly, I found Death of a Unicorn to be a fairly entertaining movie, featuring unicorns in manners that you do not usually see them. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega are wonderful together as father and daughter and they give us a pair to root for among the group of generally unlikable people.

The talented cast included Richard E. Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Steve Park, Sunita Mani, Anthony Carrigan and Jessica Hynes.

The film has a message of greed and selfishness, hidden behind the guise of helpfulness. You could easily make an allegory of this movie and the pharmaceutical industry. It also does a good job of taking what is usually seen as a magical creature and turning them into a fearful force.

Admittedly, some of the characters were lacking much depth and the CGI had some moments that were not outstanding. Still, I found most of the drawbacks to the film to be less important and not take away from the overall presentation.

I thought this was much better than I expected and I was pleased with the opportunity to have watched this.

3.75 stars

Love Lies Bleeding

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June 9

Today’s movie from the June Swoon is on HBO Max and it starred Kristin Stewart.

The film, a dark, erotic crime thriller, is directed by Rose Glass. There are some great scenes of violence and erotica in this movie. The acting is top notch and the shocks are all over the place.

According to IMDB, “Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.”

It started following the relationship between Lou and Jackie as Jackie prepared for a bodybuilding contest. When Lou’s sister ended up in the hospital at the hands of her husband JJ (Dave Franco), Jackie took her own ‘roided-up rage out on him. This forced Lou into a position to try and help her love.

As the film progressed from this love story into a crime thriller, Lou’s criminal father Lou Sr (Ed Harris) got involved, trying to pit Jackie and Lou against each other.

The third act went way off the charts as something very bizarre took place that made you look differently at this film than any other one. It is hard to speak about it without spoilers so lets just say that I think it might be metaphoric at the end.

That final scene or two really threw off my thoughts about this film. It felt like something that was tense and real made, dare I say, silly.

Kristin Stewart was great as Lou. She seems like she has always had great performances since Twilight ended. Ed Harris brings some menace to the film too.

Not sure what happened at the end and why it went this way. Still, most of this movie was strong and the end did not completely waste that good will.

The X-Files S9 E11

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Spoilers

“Audrey Pauley”

This was a strange episode.

Monica gets involved in a car crash where a drunk driver hit her and she is taken t the hospital. There it appears that she is brain dead, though her body is still functioning. John refuses to accept the evidence before his eyes, despite the fact that everyone, including Scully, does not believe him. Monica is actually in a deserted hospital and she can only see a few other people there.

One of the people in the mysterious hospital was named Audrey and she was able to be in both the mysterious hospital and the real world. Turned out that she somehow created the mysterious hospital (along with a tiny dollhouse type of hospital) in her mind, I guess. The form this takes is not overly clear, nor how or why she was able to do this.

Another issue was the doctor, played by Jack Blessing, who was known as Mr. MacGillicuddy on Moonlighting, was poisoning patients and putting them into these brain dead situations to… I don’t know… help them die after that? MacGillicuddy’s motives were not explored too deeply. However, he did kill off a nurse who saw him give a shot that was not on the charts, and, eventually, Audrey. I don’t know why MacGillicuddy took such a dark turn after Moonlighting went off the air. Heck, if I remember Moonlighting, I think MacGillicuddy died in the last episode. Maybe he was in this mysterious hospital then.

I’m kidding of course. There is just so much unexplained, even for an X-Files episode, that I had some trouble buying it. It also does not help that Monica is one of my least favorite characters on the show. I was impressed with Robert Patrick’s performance. He brought some solid work grieving the woman that he loved.

Admittedly, the love Doggett felt for Monica seemed to be fast tracked here. I got some implication that they had feelings for one another, but nothing to this extent until this episode. Still, I can let that slide. I do have an issue with Doggett not telling Scully what he thought was happening. He said once that Scully would think he was crazy… but he should know by now that Scully always listened to crazy theories and never outright dismissed them. You would think that John would know that by now.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas here, and some solid to great performances. There are just too many things lacking in my opinion for this to be anything but a mid episode.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

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June 8

I had seen the trailers for this movie earlier this year, but it never came around to any theaters that were in my area. So when I saw it for rental on Vudu, I was happy to make it part of the June Swoon.

According to IMDB, “An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favorite musicians to perform at his home.”

This is going to be an odd comparison, but this movie made me think of A Mighty Wind. They are completely different films, with A Mighty Wind being an improved film from Christopher Guest, but there was a pair of characters int he film named Mitch and Mickey, played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. Mitch and Mickey were a folk singing duo who were also a couple and the split up. Mickey remarried and then they came back together to play the big folk music special at the end of the movie.

This reminded me very much of that movie thanks to the folk music pair McGwyer & Mortimer, played by Tom Basden and Carrie Mulligan. Admittedly, this is a more serious film than the Chris Guest one, but many of the ideas behind these characters feel similar.

Written by Tom Basden and Tim Key (Key played Charles, the eccentric lottery winner), this was based on a short film entitled  “The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island” from 2007. Basden & Key wrote that short as well.

This film was sweet and melancholic tone to it, as Charles tries to get his favorite pair of folk singers together to play a solo gig for him. Charles may not have been straight-up with them in order to get the reunited duo to come.

The music is great. The imagery of Wallis Island is beautiful. There are some really strong character developing going on with the limited cast, and I do like how things do not necessarily go the way you would expect.

4 stars

Ghostlight

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June 7

This was another movie that I never would have heard of if not for Dan Murrell, online critic, who put Ghostlight on his best of 2024 list. After hearing that, I added it to the June Swoon list.

Thank you, Dan. This was a sensational movie, one of the best that I have seen over the last year or so.

According to IMDB, “When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.”

This script was beautifully constructed and the story told in a wonderful manner. Pieces of the story were given as the film progressed. We knew some of the things that happened, but they hold on to the overall events for the stretch. The writing was layered and worked so well that you could feel everything going on.

The performances were out of this world. Interestingly, the actors who played Dan and Sharon Mueller, Keith Kupferer and Tara Mallen, are married in real life, and their on-screen daughter Daisy was played by their real life daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer. All of this made this feel real and all three of them knocked this out of the park.

I had immediate connection to this movie because I know kids like Daisy, who came out immediately with curse words and anger. I wanted to know more about what was going on, and these characters were so well done that everything was awesome.

I watched the movie on Amazon Prime and, I am not sure if this was the way it was supposed to go, but the very end felt like Prime cut off too soon. Maybe that was how the film ended, which, if so, it felt like I needed one more scene.

That was the only problem that I had with this film. It is one of the best movies I have seen in awhile. The story was small and emotional with the feeling of reality truly cutting deep. Ghostlight was great. If I were giving star ratings for these June Swoon movies, this would be five stars.

The Phoenician Scheme

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Man, who could possibly guess who directed this movie?

I am being sarcastic because this movie is about as much of a Wes Anderson movie as you are ever going to see. There are traits about a movie directed by Wes Anderson and this provided just about every one of them.

For me, Wes Anderson movies are hit or miss. I loved Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore. Asteroid City and The French Dispatch are examples of Wes Anderson movies I could do withotu.

The Phoenician Scheme was a lot of fun and I found it to be totally funny.

According to IMDB, “Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins.“

I think what made this work for me was the comic timing of Benicio Del Toro, who played Zsa-zsa Korda. He had chemistry with every actor he interacted with and he delivered these eccentric lines of dialogue with just the right amount of sincerity that made it really funny.

While there was no sign of Edward Norton, the Anderson cast of actors that appear in a lot of his movies were here too including Michael Cera, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Scarlet Johansson, and Bill Murray. You could add some other great actors such as Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Rupert Friend, Steven Park, and Richard Ayoade.

Along with all of these established veterans, starring opposite Del Toro was Mia Threapleton. Threapleton, who is Kate Winslet’s daughter, showed that she is anything but a “nepo baby” as she was outstanding in her role as Liesl. She exuded the tone of a Wes Anderson movie perfectly, really helping set up Del Toro’s lines and scenes.

The dialogue was rich and exciting in this film. I really enjoyed just listening to the actors deliver these lines and how they were able to play off of each other. The dialogue helped balance out the craziness that was going on in each scene.

If you do not enjoy Wes Anderson movies, this one is not for you. However, I found this to be very enjoyable and humorous.

4 stars

Screamboat

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June 4

When I saw this for rent on Vudu, I expected it to be another film in the same vein as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. It had two movies and both were in the top 5 worst movies of their respective years. Taking the Steamboat Willie cartoon from public domain felt like the same kind of sad and pathetic attempt.

Make no mistake, this is a terrible movie….

But…

I don’t know… I guess I came in with the expectations of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but Screamboat was better than that. It’s not good. Just better than Blood and Honey.

According to IMDB, “A seemingly routine late-night ferry ride in New York City descends into chaos when an ordinary mouse undergoes a terrifying transformation. This mutated creature unleashes a reign of terror upon the unsuspecting passengers, forcing them to fight for their survival. As the body count rises, the remaining survivors must band together to find a way to escape the deadly vessel and confront the monstrous threat“

The piece that felt better than Blood and Honey was this had a satiric side to it. The Steamboat Willie character itself had some funny parts. He would whistle just before killing his victim, much like Mickey would in the original Steamboat Willie animated movie. I kind of liked the backstory of Steamboat Willie, involving the man known as Walt. Some of the kills were sufficiently gross. There were a couple of characters that I wanted to survive the trip on the ferry.

What was bad about the film? Oh, let’s see… the acting, the dialogue was horrendous. Most of these characters were one-dimensional and there were these “bad girls” that I really wanted to get killed by the mouse. I was cheering for Willie when they did. The characters did some really stupid things and made some really stupid choices. Plenty of the choices made no sense. Of course, stupid characters are not uncommon for some horror films, especially the slasher ones. A couple of the deaths of our main characters felt underwhelming.

If I am being honest, there are some funny moments in the movie and they actually felt like they were intended it to be funny. There was one line of dialogue that made me laugh out loud. One character fired a flare gun at Willie and said “Say cheese, mother f@#$%.” I thought that was exceptionally funny.

This is nowhere as bad as either of the two Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey movies and if you want a stupid movie to watch that has some dumb laughs and a murderous version of Mickey Mouse, you could do worse than this movie. Just know what kind of movie this is and do not expect much, and you might even have a passable time.

2.1 stars

Flow

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Today’s entry in the June Swoon is an Academy Award winner, and you can see why. Flow won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards, knocking off such luminaries as Wild Robot, Inside Out 2 and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

Flow follows the life of a dark grey cat that was living in a forest. A massive flood swept through the land, leading the cat to struggle to survive in a variety of ways.

During the film, the cat meets up with a group of different animals that form a sort of crew, especially while they were on a felucca. The cat joined up with a yellow Labrador Retriever, a ring-tailed lemur, a capybara and a secretary bird.

These animals were not anthropomorphic. They acted like the individual animals would act. The dog was playful and clearly looking to please. The lemur was a thief, collecting trinkets and shiny objects. The capybara, which is a type of rodent, laid around. There were some moments where it felt as if the animal characters transcended their natures and became something more.

The cat served as the POV of the film, as we see things through its eyes. The survival instincts of the cat was on display throughout the film in such a harrowing instance that you could not help but root for these animals.

I am a cat lover and so it was very easy to get into Flow. There were multiple perilous events along the path of this adventure that placed the cat in jeopardy. The whole showdown with the flock of secretary birds was tense and frightening.

There were a couple of scenes that went past just survival and looked at themes of life and death. One, involving the secretary bird, was a lovely moment that leaves you to deduce what exactly had occurred. There was a second scene involving a mutated whale that had saved the cat from drowning earlier in the movie. This scene was heartbreaking.

Flow was beautifully animated with such amazing visuals across the board. The artistic mastery created an incredible tone throughout Flow and some of the visuals with the cat and fish in the water was astounding.

With no dialogue, Flow was able to tell this story through some amazing characters and some fantastic music. According to Wikipedia, the cat of sound designer Gurwal Coïc-Gallas provided the meows for the cat in the movie, which I thought was a funny piece of trivia. It also provided that realistic sound that enhanced the viewing treat.

While I am not sure if I would have given Flow the Oscar over The Wild Robot, there can be no denying that this is a masterful animated film full of life and love and friendship.

Into the Deep

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June 2

I have been a fan of shark movies. Sadly, most of them are terrible. There are some exceptions. So when I spotted Into the Deep on Disney +, I thought this would be a good option for the June Swoon 4: Two A Day.

It gave me hope when I saw that Richard Dreyfuss was among the cast of this movie. Dreyfuss starred in the greatest shark movie of all time (heck, one of the greatest movies of all time) Jaws. How could we go wrong?

We could go wrong in so many ways.

Into the Deep was horrible. Just a waste of an hour and a half. After the first five minutes, I had an idea of what kind of movie this was going to be.

According to IMDB, “Pirates on the hunt for sunken drugs kidnap a boat of tourists and force them to dive into shark infested waters to retrieve the contraband.”

That sounds exciting. That was not the basis behind this story. I mean, it was there, but the execution of that storyline was so inept that it was laughable.

The acting was just bad. The dialogue was unnatural. It made no sense. The story was so coincidental and haphazard that it could not be believed. None of the characters felt like real people.

The shark attacks looked ridiculous. It looked like a shark just shaking a hunk of bloody meat. The images of the sharks in the water were impressive as they just swam around. Other than that, there just was not much of anything.

The overall production of the movie felt cheap. The sound was terrible. With the exception of the beauty of the water shots, there was not much to make this stand out among shark films, let alone other movies.

There are so many better movies on Disney +. Take your time and watch those. This was terrible in every way.

1 star

Karate Kid: Legends

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I have been a fan of the Karate Kid movies, particularly the first two, and the Cobra Kai TV show, so I am the type of person this is directed towards, and because of that, I probably liked this more than someone else might have.

According to IMDB, “When kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) relocates to New York City with his mother to attend a prestigious new school, he finds solace in a new friendship with a classmate and her father. But his newfound peace is short-lived after he attracts unwanted attention from a formidable local karate champion. Driven by a desire to defend himself, Li embarks on a journey to enter the ultimate karate competition. Guided by the wisdom of his kung fu teacher, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), and the legendary Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Li merges their unique styles to prepare for an epic martial arts showdown.“

Starting off, this is absolutely the same story, including several specific details, as the first Karate Kid movie. I was sitting in the theater and every time something specific would happen, my mind would connect it to the same bit from the first flick. The story could have been something more than what we got.

Ben Wang was a charming lead as Li Fong. I liked him, even if he was just replaying the Daniel LaRusso role from the first film. I liked the chemistry between Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, though I do wonder why they were constantly arguing about the different moves. It also felt a little awkward with how Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso came together.

I did like the first part of the movie as we spent some time with Li Fong. However, the second part, the 5 Burrough tournament, felt extremely rushed.

The fighting scenes were great. I loved the mix between karate and kung fu. I also enjoyed the boxing scenes with Joshua Jackson. Jackson played Victor, the father of Mia (Sadie Stanley). I really liked both of these characters, especially Victor who felt like something different than other films.

I enjoyed the idea of this film, but, make no mistake, there are a ton of problems with it. It is not a good movie, but I did come out of it with a smile.

2.75 stars

By the way: The mid credit scene was the best scene of the movie. It happens right away so you shouldn’t miss it, but it was worth the time.

Bring Her Back

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I guess I really didn’t need to sleep tonight.

The internet was out when I got home from my last day of school, so, instead of just being mad at Mediacom, I decided to go to a movie. I had the tickets for tomorrow purchased and I know there was one film that I was going to see later next week. I went tonight instead.

Bring Her Back, the latest movie from directors Danny and Michael Philippou, the directors of 2022 Talk to Me, was one of the most disturbing and unsettling films I have seen in a long time.

This film avoided many of the horror tropes. There were no jump scares. It covered multiple types of horror, from body horror to psychological horror.

Step siblings are sent to a new foster home after their father died. It does not take long to realize that something was off about this situation.

There is no doubt that this is a movie that will be triggering for some. It is one of those horror movies that stuns you so much that you just want to go sit in silence and deconstruct.

Bring Her Back is a slow burn, but it does move well and never is without a healthy dose of tension and anxiety. There were times when I was grimacing, disturbed and looking away. There are some scenes that were very difficult to get through.

Sally Hawkins played Laura, the foster mother, who was extremely creepy, even in the moments when she seemed as if she was a loving individual. Hawkins was truly exceptional in this performance, which could have been too over the top, but turned out strong.

The kids in the movie do a great job too. Billy Barratt played the oldest kid, Andy, who had plenty of background troubles. Sora Wong played Piper in her debut. Wong, just like the character she played, Piper, is partially blind. She was remarkable and made everything work so well. Jonah Wren Phillips played Oliver, the boy Laura had already been fostering. All three of these kids did an amazing job, and they all had a different type of character to play.

I have to say, I was not completely clear about the demon aspect of this movie. It was a bit confusing, but you just accept that there is something supernatural going on and don’t question it too much.

This is going to be one of those movies that I will recommend, but never want to watch again. I squirmed in my seat several times during this uncomfortable movie. A24 has become known as a super horror film studio and they have yet another one. This is also a very different of sort of horror film than the Philippou brothers made previously.

There will be plenty of people who hate this movie. I was tense the whole time. My teeth were gritted several times. The film is remarkably well constructed and made. I understand if someone hated this movie. I don’t ever want to watch it again. But it absolutely did what it was trying to do.

3.8 stars

Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning

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I have been a big fan of the recent Mission: Impossible franchise, so I was looking forward to the final film, and, like everyone I wanted to see Tom Cruise running and doing a massive stunt. Well, he ran throughout the movie but his massive stunt did not come until late in the movie… and it was a long movie.

I do think the last hour or so of Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was sensational. The problem was that the film was almost three hours long.

The first hour and a half of the movie was so packed with exposition and flashes to previous movies that I was getting a little bored, and that is something that a Mission: Impossible movie should never be.

Tom Cruise was great as Ethan Hunt. You can tell how comfortable he is with the character. His stunt work in the final confrontation of the movie is typically stunning. It was good to see the return of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as the team that has backed Ethan for so many missions. Hayley Atwell is back from the last film and she has decent chemistry with Cruise. Rolf Saxon and Lucy Tulugarjuk appear in the film as a couple of characters who become two of my favorites from the film.

Esai Morales is not my favorite character in the film. I do not think he worked as the villain of this movie. I think he was better in the previous film and his transfer over to this one was not great.

I did not love the final scene of the movie either. I wanted some more resolution for the characters than what was done. Perhaps that is in case this is not the final MI movie.

I do not think this was a fantastic finale of this franchise, but it was still a solid action movie. The last hour or so of the movie was really great and engaging. The first hour and a half spent way too much time explaining things and trying to set things up. Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was a touch underwhelming, but that is probably because the franchise had been so sensational for the last five or six movies that you do not expect it to only be okay.

3.5 stars