Friday, July 27, 2018

Mission Impossible 6 - Fallout


Like Dwayne Johnson, I have a hard time reviewing a Tom Cruise movie because no matter which character he is playing, I only ever see the actor Tom Cruise doing stunts and driving motorcycles and running at top speed. The only film he ever did that I 'bought' was Edge of Tomorrow which is a fantastic movie and he was great in it. Of course his role in Tropic Thunder is a whole different conversation. He hasn't taken a role that brave in decades.

Once again Ethan Hunt is giving an impossible mission to retrieve three spheres of plutonium that he, himself lost while acquiring them from the kind of shady characters that he tends to hang with.

Henry Caville is very good in this one with a mustache that would make Tom Seleck proud. He plays a CIA agent who is forced to team up with Hunt. Of course they don't like each other or the methods each uses to get the job done.

Of course this mission is just an excuse for Cruise to perform stunts which would kill a normal human being.I just started to realize that I have seen this Mission Impossible movie. It just had a different name and came out a few years ago but the formula is still the same. Ten minutes after the movie ended I forgot most of it and like the Fast and the Furious franchise all these films tend to blend together after a time.



Yes, there are impressive stunt piecees like in each Mission Impossible film and each movie pushes the envelope and tries to outdo the previous one and this film is no different. But even though this movie got 98% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, I still felt like I have seen it all before. The trailer reveals who Hunt's true foe is in this one and that ruins any surprises the movie tries to develop.

After about an hour in I still had no idea what was going on, who was chasing who, who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. It was all just a bunch of car chases through European cities until it turned into a motorcycle chase and a boat chaase in those same narrow European streets and I still have no idea what is going on. The bad guys are numerous and nameless but they always seem to get themselves killed when they clearly have the drop on Hunt and his team. By the THIRD car and motorcycle chase I wanted to slap someone. Didn't I just SEE this same scene ten minute ago? And why does such a smart agent not wear a helmet when he is racing around at top speed against the traffic. Of course he doesn't need one because if he crashes, and he does, his head and hair will remain intact because he is the star of the movie. It's little shit like that  that spoils this movie and makes it increasingly frustrating to watch. It reminds me of why Tom Cruise is not a very good actor. It's the reason his movies have to be filled with dangerous stunts and last minute escapes because whenever Tom pretends to be the smartest boy in the room it's so obvious that he is not.



Of course there is a girl who Hunt has a past with but unless he is working with Emily Blunt then he has no chemistry with any of his female co-stars. They are just there to fill time and betray our hero when the time is right.

I also can't believe in a movie with so many gun battles that NO ONE can seem to hit Ethan or any of his crew but of course Ethan never misses whenever he needs to kill four bad guys with only three bullets. You would think that the best spy in the WORLD would be target one for all the radical terrorist groups on the planet and would have been killed a long time ago. Even the police should be able to arrest this guy but he is too smart for them and too good a driver. Be it car or motorcycle or helicopter, no one can catch him despite the fact that these cops actually LIVE in Paris and might know a way to cut off this dangerous driver but why would that happen? Tom will always escape because the script needs him to escape.

The mission is insanely complicated, so much so that I will need someone to explain it all to me afterwards...IF THEY CAN, but I have my doubts.

I am starting to think that these critics at Rotten Tomatoes are being paid to pad their reviews because this is NOT a 98% film. It's more like a 68% film and anyone who believes the reviews has been gaslit by the studios to turn a lazy movie into a hit. That is a bullshit score. No script this bad deserves 98% fresh especially when it's twists are laughable as are the superhuman abilities of it's hero. What am I missing here? NOTHING, that is what I am missing here. There is nothing new or fresh here. Now, Die Hard - THERE is a great action movie.

And how can Hunt run at top speed without ever gettting tired or injured and still having all the energy he needs to fight and defeat someone who has not just run across the rooftops of Paris. If I can call bullshit on your indestructable and unbeatable hero then it should cost you at least 20 percentage points.

 
I have heard people on the radio calling this film the greatest action film ever. WHAT? This thing is average at best and it goes back to the same well that has sustained this franchise for six films. I hope you all enjoy this film but for me it was a chore to get through. I just didn't care.
 

2 comments:

Monc said...

You have to hand it to Tom Cruise: not everyone would invite the entire world to witness their midlife crisis on the silver screen.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

True dat. But that HALO jump that was all hyped? Done in a studio where Tom was no higher than three feet off the ground.