Posts Tagged ‘Jon Voight’

Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Easi Morales, Henry Czerny, Pom Klementieff, Angela Bassett, Ving Rhames, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Mark Gatiss, Cary Elwes, Pasha D. Lynchnikoff, Vanessa Redgrave, Jon Voight

Running Time: 2 hours and 49 minutes

Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Two years after the hugely successful Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning, the final film in the franchise has finally arrived and while the 2023 film was flashier and more glamourous, Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning is grittier and slightly retro in some scenes which director McQuarrie clearly takes inspiration for his film aesthetic from the 1960’s & 1970’s spy films. Think The Spy Who Loved Me and Diamonds are Forever.

Superstar Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in the final film which director Christopher McQuarrie expertly pays homage to all the previous films in the series especially the original Mission: Impossible directed by legendary auteur Brian de Palma back in 1996.

This film wraps up almost 30 years of possibly one of the most successful spy franchises next to the James Bond series.

Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning sees Ethan and his team including Simon Pegg as Benji and Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited, The Duchess, Captain America: The First Avenger) reprising her role as Grace as they have to race against time, risking the fate of the world to control a megalomaniac artificial intelligence known as the Entity as it seeks quite malevolently to pit all the nuclear nations against each other.

While the plot of the Final Reckoning is quite far-fetched, the stunts are absolutely amazing particularly the claustrophobic diving scene inside a sunken submarine in which Ethan Hunt retrieves a special source code to the incredible vintage plane sequence over jaw dropping African mountains when Ethan and his evil nemesis Gabriel played again by Easi Morales are fighting atop a burning vintage plane.

Oscar nominee Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Whats Love Got to Do With it?) is sensational as the American President Erika Sloane who has the difficult task of protecting America while entrusting Ethan to contain the entity for eternity before there is an international nuclear fallout. Fortunately Bassett has a whole group of co-stars to play to.

There are several really crowded scenes in Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning, almost like chorus scenes in a theatre, which adds to the absolute spectacle of this film. For Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning to be appreciated you have to understand the theatricality of the film, the splendour and the phenomenal stunts. The end sequence is heart warming and suitably appealing with the scriptwriter tying up all the narrative loose ends.

While some of the flashback scenes are a bit excessive, this final outing of Mission: Impossible is amazing and definitely made for the fans. Look out for brief appearances by Vanessa Redgrave and Jon Voight who were in the original 1996 film. Tom Cruise is passionate about big screen spectacle and he achieves this in this worthy conclusion to a stylishly well executed spy franchise, which has seen the films being set all over the world.

Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning is brilliantly choreographed with some unbelievable sets and stunt sequences held together by a bursting cast full of talented actors wanting this beast of a film to be appreciated and supported.

Set in London, Austria, the Bering Sea and South Africa, Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning is pure escapism on a grand scale and gets a film rating of 8.5 out of 10.

Highly recommended viewing for those with a spare three hours to kill. The fate of the cinema world depends on the viewer going to see it. Trust me, the experience is worth it.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Director: David Yates

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Faith Wood-Blagrove, Zoe Kravitz,

J.K. Rowling made an absolute fortune out of the Harry Potter novels and now to capitalize on her continued success she attempts to write the screenplay for a spinoff series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The Legend of Tarzan director David Yates is pulled in to coerce all the elements of an ultimately bland screenplay into a presentable and visually impressive fantasy film.

Yates who helmed the last three Harry Potter films, does an impressive job with Fantastic Beasts even though Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) maintains a continued perplexed expression on his face throughout this film as he plays the British wizard Newt Scamander who arrives in New York with a suitcase brimming with diabolically strange creatures.

Redmayne is joined by British actresses Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs, Inherent Vice) as Tina Goldstein and Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (Minority Report, In America) as the cruel Mary Lou along with Colin Farrell as an American wizard Graves who is chief enforcer of Macusa or the Magical Congress of the United States of America.

Dan Fogler plays the hapless wannabe baker Jacob Kowalski who effectively serves as a sidekick character to the infinitely cooler Newt Scamander.

Whilst Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is visually impressive and for once the filmmakers make effective use of the 3-D format and all the Beasts are both alluring and comical, the film itself suffers from a badly written script and an overdose of visual effects and a lack of critical editing.

Redmayne is far better in brilliant period films like My Week with Marilyn and The Theory of Everything and comes across throughout Fantastic Beasts with the impression of how the hell did I land up in a Harry Potter spin off franchise set in New York?

Unfortunately the rest of the characters do not get sufficient back story including the talented Samantha Morton’s portrayal of a cruel orphanage mistress Mary Lou who constantly punishes the repressive Credence Barebone played by Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Suicide Squad).

Colin Farrell (Total Recall, Crazy Heart) is suitably bland as Percival Graves but that is perhaps due to Rowling’s script not giving him much to work with.

Whilst there is an inherent fan base, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is not as dazzling as one expects although the visual effects are superb. Let’s hope the Fantastic Beasts sequels which Warner Bros intends making employs a better scriptwriter. No offense to Rowling but she does not possess a talent for snappy dialogue. Then again who needs brilliant dialogue when the audience is constantly overwhelmed by magical creatures roaming 1920’s Manhattan?