Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, Vanessa Kirby, Wes Bentley, and Alec Baldwin

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Written by Christopher McQuarrie

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When his team's mission fails, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg) are forced to be shadowed by CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) at the behest of CIA director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett).  At odds, Hunt and Walker attempt to track down missing plutonium before it falls into the hands of a terrorist group known as the "Apostles" who want to create several nuclear weapons and cause massive damage across the globe. 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

The Snowman

The Snowman (2017)

Starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Val Kilmer, Chloë Sevigny, and J.K. Simmons

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Written by Peter Straughn, Hossein Amini, and Søren Sveistrup

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Norwegian detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) and his fellow detective (Rebecca Ferguson) investigate the disappearances and subsequent murders of several women in their jurisdiction by an apparent serial killer who leaves a snowman as his calling card.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Life

Life (2017)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Summary (in 500 words or less): A sextet of astronauts orbiting the Earth attach to a satellite that contains samples from an exploration of Mars.  After discovering that the samples contain evidence of life on Mars, the crew begins completing research, discovering that the lifeform grows very rapidly...and may not be as gentle as they first thought.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Paul Strong, and Rebecca Ferguson

Directed by Michael Gracey

Written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon

Summary (in 500 words or less):  P.T. Barnum's life story from how he went from rags to riches thanks to his unique concept of a circus.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train (2016)

Starring Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez, Laura Prepon, Allison Janney, and Lisa Kudrow

Directed by Tate Taylor

When I first saw the trailer for The Girl on the Train, I felt a tinge of excitement.  Was this going to be another successful modern-day Hitchcockian thriller along the lines of the glorious Gone Girl?  I then proceeded to read the immensely successful book and realized that The Girl on the Train was unlikely to be a cinematic treat because the debut novel by Paula Hawkins was a bit of a bust.  Sure enough, the movie ends up being a bust as well, despite a solid performance from Emily Blunt as the titular character.

Blunt is Rachel Watson, an alcoholic divorcée who spends her days riding a train from the suburbs to New York City and back again.  The train passes by her old house which her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) now shares with his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and their baby.  Naturally, the train also passes by the house of Tom's neighbors, the Hipwells.  Scott and Megan (Luke Evans, Haley Bennett) seem like a happy, young couple, but one morning Rachel spots Megan on the porch in the embrace of another man.  Shortly thereafter, Rachel hears on the news that Megan has gone missing and, in her drunken haze, Rachel sets out to investigate.  Unfortunately for Rachel, she herself has no recollection of what she was doing the night Megan was last seen...and the police headed by Detective Riley (Allison Janney) seem to think Rachel may have something to do with Megan's disappearance.

The book was largely an internal piece with the story told through the inner monologues of both Rachel and Megan.  The film tries to tackle this with voiceovers, but voiceovers are always a tricky proposition in movies and having to base a large majority of your plot around them is a bit tiresome.  Emily Blunt is successful in creating the depressed Rachel and nicely embodies the character I envisioned whilst reading the book.  Unfortunately, the screenplay isn't any better than Paula Hawkins' novel with the culprit behind Megan's disappearance surprisingly obvious about halfway through in both iterations.  In the end, what good is a mystery if you can solve it at the midpoint?

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Nina Arianda

Directed by Stephen Frears

Based on a true story from the 1940s, Florence Foster Jenkins tells the tale of its titular New York socialite (played by Meryl Streep) who has a great appreciation and fondness for classical music and opera.  On a whim and with the support of her husband and manager St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) Florence decides that she is going to showcase her operatic singing at a small recital for friends and other New York elite.  St. Clair hires an up-and-coming pianist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg) to be Florence's accompanist and they begin preparing for the recital.  The problem, however, is that Florence can't sing...at all.  Her riches have allowed her to be trained by conductors of the Metropolitan Opera, but even these great musical minds can't mold Florence into a good singer.

The relationship between Florence and St. Clair is an unusual one.  Florence had been previously married and through that marriage contracted syphilis, so the couple have never consummated their marriage.  Because of this, despite being married, Florence and St. Clair don't live together with the two having an unspoken rule that St. Clair can see others.  Psychologically, this seemingly has an effect on St. Clair to be incredibly kind and generous to his wife, allowing her to act out her whims regardless of whether she really should, hence St. Clair's insistence that Florence be allowed to sing despite the fact that she simply is atrocious.

It's the admittedly odd connection between Meryl Streep's Florence and Hugh Grant's St. Clair that powers the film along.  There is obvious love conveyed for one another, but their unique living arrangements lead both parties to acquiesce to each other's whims.  This blind acceptance leads to quite a few humorous moments, particularly involving Simon Helberg as Florence's accompanist.  Helberg's Cosmé is seemingly only in the film to give reaction shots to Florence's truly horrible voice, but he does so with such aplomb that it's easy to overlook his underwritten character.  Hugh Grant is also charming -- as he is wont to be in films -- but this is really Meryl Streep's film.  Florence is certainly not as complicated a character as Streep as played in the past, but the actress imbues the character with heart, compassion, and a survivor-esque quality.  She's certainly captivating as always.

The film itself isn't quite as successful.  It's by no means bad, but in the end it's very much a throwaway.  There simply isn't a lot here.  Once we hear how awful Florence is, the comedic schtick runs a bit cold.  You can only hear a woman sing off-key so many times before you find yourself looking at your watch secretly urging the film to come to its conclusion.  Florence Foster Jenkins is amusing and lighthearted, but in the end, it's a bit empty.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

-- Mission: Impossible Week --
Please note that all Mission: Impossible Week film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, and Alec Baldwin

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

As we come to the end of our Mission: Impossible week, I've come to the determination that the Tom Cruise-led series is a solid entry into the American cinematic action pantheon.  Does that mean that the series is full of overly amazing movies?  No, but what is intriguing (and I'm spoiling my rating for this newest installment with this sentence) is that with the exception of the second film (which, as you'll recall I found absolutely abysmal), all of the films in the M:I series rank in the "B" range.  I'm not sure there are many other film franchises that have gone on for so long that manage to maintain that consistent quality throughout.

In Rogue Nation, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team have uncovered a seedy agency known as The Syndicate that attempts to take down world leaders and governments by creating situations that look like accidents yet cause a great amount of havoc.  Just as IMF head William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) attempts to fund Hunt on a mission to take down the group, he is told by CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) that due to the numerous close calls that IMF missions have come under as of late (meaning the numerous close calls of the last two films), the US government has decided to defund the organization.  Not only that, but the CIA is under strict orders to now take down Hunt who refuses to return to the US, hellbent on finding the head of The Syndicate on his own if necessary.

Perhaps most interesting about Rogue Nation is that it's the least action-driven film since the first installment in the M:I series.  That isn't to say that there aren't some BIG moments filled with action, it's just that the film finds itself a little more focused on "talking" and duplicitous manipulation than big budget action sequences.  It's actually a bit of a relief and it works well for the film in an attempt to be a little different than its predecessors.

Part of the reason for the talkiness is due to the villain of the piece -- Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), head of the Syndicate and a Steve Jobs-ish lookalike in his turtleneck and glasses.  Lane is evil, no doubt, but his ability to keep his emotions in check and his temper under control makes him even scarier when he's got a gun to your head because you'll never expect him to shoot...and he will.  Lane is matched by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an undercover British MI-6 agent who may or may not have disavowed her homeland for Lane.  Surprisingly, the film does a very good job at keeping the audience guessing as to whether Faust is good or evil and this creates a nice amount of tension throughout the film as Lane matches wits with Hunt.

Tom Cruise has been the one through-line in the Mission: Impossible series of films and he's certainly captivating as the big screen action star.  This film perhaps gives him the least amount to do -- not in terms of stunts, but in terms of an emotional arc.  Rather than focus on aspects of his personal life, Rogue Nation places its emphasis squarely on taking down The Syndicate and I must say that I missed seeing Hunt's character grow...because he doesn't do any of that here.  Additionally, while I liked Jeremy Renner's newly introduced character in the last film, he's rather squandered here spending most of the film essentially sitting in a control room.  Seeing as how he is receiving second billing in the film, I expected a bit more from his character and didn't really get it.

Still, Rogue Nation is a solid entry into the M:I franchise -- I'd rate it second of the five.  [Ghost Protocol takes the top spot, M:I III takes third place, the original M:I fourth place, and M:I II an incredibly distant fifth place.]  Overall, the franchise is a winner in my book.  Should they make more, I'd definitely be along for the ride.

The RyMickey Rating:  B