Mission: Impossible

i guess i agree

The first two seasons of Alias are fun! Sadly the rest are bollox

Those first three films are still such a strange trilogy, three very different Ethan Hunts, each one feeling disconnected from the other and while one could plausibly deny to oneself that perhaps that's part of his spy skill I think it really is more about the franchise fumbling its way through character and worldbuilding without having an overall plan.

rewatching the mcquarrie joints starting w MI:5

sidebar, i came up with an acronym for the Syndicate

Society for Young Nazi Dickheads Involved in Corruption, Annihilation, Terrorism and Extortion

:D

lol

the technology stuff in Mission Impossible is so hilariously similar to like, Star Wars Empire designs

the main CPU is underwater inside a centrifuge & it uses uh plastic punchcards / oh the switch is on a platform with no guardrails waaaay up high

We are watching the series as a family and I have to say, 1-3 are great but very different beasts but the changes in tone work to keep you interested.

we did 4 this weekend and it was forgettable,

one seems more indebted to the original and seems more Spy-ey. Redgrave brilliant.
two is great for helping you explain why John Woo directing is a big thing to kids born after 2010... also features the only correct use of the phrase 'to get a ride' in a hollywood film
three has the best baddie in SFH and they purposefully never explain what the Rabbits Foot is.... (IIRC)
Four was good but suffered from having the same Russian launch codes plot device as Goldeneye.

will hit five in a few weeks and see if it does get into its formulaic stride at that point...

That Redgrave-Cruise scene is a master class in how an actor coaxes and teases another actor out of their comfort zone; Cruise genuinely looks like he's trying to keep from collapsing into helpless laughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTHVmd87QrY

For all his power, Cruise has always seemed a good sport, as an actor, and open to advice/mentoring. In fact, I think he sought it out. Has any other living actor worked with as many iconic American directors? It's got to be by design: Coppola, Kubrick, DePalma, Scorsese, Stone, Pollack, PTA, Spielberg, Michael Mann ...

The first Mission: Impossible, he was, what, 35?

Todd Field has spoken of how devoted Cruise was to showing him around Hollywood and for giving crucial advice.

Jake Johnson has a bunch of good Cruise stories.

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/jake-johnson-the-mummy-interview-spoilers

Here’s a story that is very anti-Hollywood, but very Tom. He wanted me to work out with him and get in shape for the movie. People have told me in the past, including New Girl, that I need to lose weight and stay in shape. But they don’t tell me how. It’s like, "Hey tubbo, fit into these slacks!" Tom said, "I really want you fit for this movie." I literally thought I was going to have to call Max Greenfield to do Crossfit. But Tom said, "You’ll be training with me and my trainers. If you want I’ll put you on a food plan with my chef. The food is great." And the food was great.

He (also) said I could use his gym whenever I wanted. One day I got to work to work out and one of the (assistant directors) goes, "You can’t go in right now because Tom is working out." I thought, "That sucks, I got here an hour early to get this in, but he’s Tom Cruise." After, when we were shooting later that day, he said, "What happened to you? I thought you said you were going to work out this morning?" I told him I was told not to bother him and he got really pissed. He said, "Let me make something crystal clear: I don’t care what anybody on the crew says to you, they don’t know what I’m saying to you. And I’m saying to you that you are always welcome. I don’t care what I’m doing in there. You’re not other. You’re my castmate. Come in." He’s the best.

Adam Driver's racking up a list as well - Baumbach of course, but also the Coens, Jarmusch, Scorsese, Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam, Leos Carax, Ridley Scott with Michael Mann and Coppola Sr on the way. He's a modern Shia LaBeouf!

I think Ghost Protocol is really good, the best in the series up to that point.

But Rogue Nation is still the best MI film, but more than that it's just one of the best action movies ever made, but it gets lost in the shuffle of great action films because it's merely considered to be a superior entry in this series rather than elevating the genre overall. The underwater centrifuge break-in leading to the car chase leading to the motorcycle chase is just astonishing. And the opera house sequence. Making Ilsa Faust the co-leading character to an extent was a v smart play.

Fallout is a p superior follow-up but not on the same level.

3 gets worse every time i see it, i think i need to start taking it out of the marathon. one day jj abrams will pay for his crimes

otm, otm

rogue nation is a level of sustained perfection in the genre

watched Fallout last night -- better than i remember though it's not the equal of Rogue Nation, just bc the lack of a true villain til the third act makes things a bit hazy in terms of the plot, and Ilsa being in play in less intriguing ways. But it's really good, i liked Cavill a bit more this time around as a properly brutish character though i didn't necessarily believe he'd be a crazy manifesto dude unlike Solomon Lane, Vanessa Kirby is a curveball character in the best ways (the perfect choice to play Max/Redgrave's daughter here really), the helicopter pursuit at the end is ridiculous in the best ways.

i think the end drags, tbh- its good all the way up to the final level mountaintop town

Anyway, so -- never did see any of these films so I thought over the past week I should fix that, and see the new one tomorrow too. Which I will! Anyway, my totally accurate summary of the first six films:

https://www.tumblr.com/nedraggett/722573883179515904/my-impossible-mission

3 gets worse every time i see it, i think i need to start taking it out of the marathon. one day jj abrams will pay for his crimes

You'll find my entry on that one bracing, then.

I own a Blu-Ray set of the first 5 but have never watched 2 or 3. I have the feeling that the hyperbolic praise for Hoffman comes from people who like Hoffman but don't like M:I movies, so whatever. I've seen him (and liked him) in enough things that I can pretty much imagine his work in this — the quiet scary voice, the rage-panic shouty voice, blah blah blah. Maybe I'll watch it one of these days but I'm much more likely to watch 4, 5 and 6 over and over instead.

Great writeup, by the way. You should do more straightforwardly humorous stuff. You're good at it.

Proper ratings too, though my own personal ranking would give the 5/5 to Rogue Nation and the 4.5/5 to Fallout.

Great writeup, by the way. You should do more straightforwardly humorous stuff. You're good at it.

― but also fuck you (unperson),

Seriously! I've rarely seen you in this writing mode before.

Ha, much thanks to you both! Ian Grey said similarly elsewhere, perhaps I should try some more.

Proper ratings too, though my own personal ranking would give the 5/5 to Rogue Nation and the 4.5/5 to Fallout.

Yeah I see how/why people vary on this. My sense is them always working to refine what they've got and make it even better (which is why I'll be interested in how this two-part setup works and if it will stick the landing, but I suspect it can).

I've seen him (and liked him) in enough things that I can pretty much imagine his work in this — the quiet scary voice, the rage-panic shouty voice, blah blah blah.

Yeah, not inaccurate, which is why I think his best moment is when he has to imitate Cruise/Hunt. It's amazing!

yes the ratings are good but just a minor correction, m:i 2 is a 6/5

yeah this is great Ned - love the line about U2’s closing credit theme & 4/4 time lol

xpost pvmic also has your home been checked for gas leaks

I hated the second movie and haven’t seen it since the first-run. Watched it again yesterday and think it might be one of the best in the series! Even if it essentially begat XxX and its ilk. It’s just enchantingly ridiculous.

what is happening

a John Polsonaissance

lol

In the movie he's, like, "no one's invented Simon Pegg yet so here's this guy"

iirc he immediately quit acting for two decades, so theory checks out

It is the definition of a serviceable performance, not bad, not good, fine. He is good at being intimidated by the other, better, Australian actor, the top henchman, who I think is pretending to be South African.

(he quit acting bcz he transitioned into directing in America, and also accidentally had another full-time job in Sydney when a fun thing he did at a local cafe once a year turned into the largest short film festival in the world. his one-off return to the other side of the camera in 2020 was then one of the biggest cinema hits of the year in Australia. quite a career!)

Polson was a pretty good m “oh that guy” actor back in the 80’s & 90’s, i always liked him — iirc he popped up in 2020’s The Dry w Eric Bana - was nice to see him again

ohhh that’s right he did Tropfest! i totally forgot that

Anyway, saw the new one, it's very good! More tomorrow.

Can't wait to watch this, during lockdown I decided to watch all these movies and became a fan. I'd loved the first one originally but was a bit meh about the sequel. After rewatch decided to love them all, even had some tolerance for Peg.

g

Will never develop a tolerance for J.

Okay, I updated my Tumblr post there with another wholly-accurate-summary and actual thoughts about the new one but I will say two things here, first for a spoiler for this new one:

The eye motif in the trailers gave it away but I am terribly amused that not only is the villain as such TechnoSauron and Techno-The One Ring too, there's a key thematic plot point that's very LOTR as well!

And a spoiler for the one next year, if you're avoiding checking cast lists and the like:

With Henry Czerny back as Kittridge from the first film this time around and next year too, I was absolutely delighted to see that next year also sees the return of Rolf Saxon as William Donloe, aka the CIA analyst who gets fucked up and needing to use the toilet at Langley so Ethan can break in from above, and who Czerny sends to Alaska. That's a long game!

I have just watched this and haven’t read Ned’s take (but I will!) but it was an interesting departure to go to a synthesis approach at this point instead of the reboot (pt 3) and evolution approach. In the first half hour, I was wondering if we were seeing a sequel movie (with some
backstory included) from the first Mission Impossible from the director of The Way of the Gun. Even shades of John Woo’s outing in that bridge fight and the preceding corridor

This was a lot of fun but it made my eyes cross keeping up at times. Loved the entire airport sequence and the final train sequence, and Pom Klemntieff's car chase.

Mega lols at the Safe Car

Between this and Joker, Shea Wigham is absolute shit at catching people on trains

I was annoyed by the whole “Ethan’s weakness is his friends, but very specifically women” and felt like Rebecca Ferguson was incredibly short-changed in this, but maybe she was busy with other projects? I’m not even sure how much she was on the set because most of it was seemingly her stunt double

okay interest in this just dropped 50%, ferguson is half the point of these things

Ferguson was apparently busy on Dune 2.

how you dune