MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 131 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation from YouTube.
 

In Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Agent Tom Cruise is going after the mysterious Syndicate that is targeting the members of his organization, the IMF - Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames.

Starring and Produced by Tom Cruise, this fifth movie to the Mission: Impossible films - which takes place immediately after the movie Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - is a fun movie with Cruise, Field Operations Director Renner, computer expert Pegg, and agent Rhames reprising their roles from previous films. This is the first Mission: Impossible film where the IMF team is a veteran of at least one other Mission: Impossible film. Of the films that I have seen in this series, this was the most fun. It is curious that before the movie, they aired the James Bond movie trailer SPECTRE. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a more fun film than James Bond, with the character relationships providing the fun in Mission: Impossible.

In the movie, Cruise is on the run from the CIA, headed by Chief Director Alec Baldwin, that wants a Senate Oversite Committee to disband the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) after a series of botched operations, and is trying to order Renner to give up Cruise's location. Cruise meanwhile is trying to find Sean Harris. the head of The Syndicate - an international criminal organization - that is escalating a series of terrorist acts as well as targeting the IMF.

During the opening title sequence, which has graphics just like the TV series, there were clips of the movie shown, just like in the TV series of clips of that week's episode. These movie clips did not have any spoilers, but definitely teased what was going to happen in the movie. It was great that the musical theme of the TV show by Lalo Schifrin was all over the movie, which made it feel like a Mission: Impossible episode. Another nod to the TV series is The Syndicate, which was the antagonist organization in the TV series, as well as Cruise receiving his mission briefing from a vinyl record from which the original TV briefings came from.

The movie does have a world-wide feel to the movie as they travel to various countries, just as a James Bond movie does, with locations in London, Vienna, Monaco, Morocco, and Morocco's largest city Casablanca. The movie also had several car chases to make for great action. It is amazing that spies nowadays have to be so electronic savvy when you see all the gadgets that everyone uses. Just as the original TV series and TV series update made use of the latest state of the art technology, the movies do as well.

Operative Rebecca Ferguson was pretty awesome in the movie as someone who you were not sure which side she was on whenever she engaged Cruise. I definitely fell in love with Ferguson as a "bad girl" and I look forward to seeing more of her work.

Cruise hanging off of a plane, an Airbus A400M, was a real stunt with Cruise at an altitude of 5000 feet. The underwater footage is the first film release featuring footage from Arri's new 6.5 Alexa 65 camera. Cruise trained with diving specialist Kirk Krack to hold his breath underwater for three minutes to perform an underwater sequence without any edits trying to defeat a security system.

For the IMAX theatrical release, the movie has a Mission Impossible style SMPTE Academy leader countdown at the beginning of the movie instead of the normal IMAX countdown.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language. Running time: 131 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

Paramount

Rated PG-13

Running time: 132 Minutes



Click below to watch the Star Trek Into Darkness movie trailer.



In Paramount Pictures Star Trek Into Darkness, a terrorist has attacked facilities at Starfleet and Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, is determined to go after him.

Directed by J.J. Abrams, this Star Trek sequel has a rule-breaking Kirk/Pine - brought home to Earth for his transgressions - going after a revenge bearing Starfleet agent Benedict Cumberbatch, famous for his role in the TV series Sherlock, who is targeting Starfleet. Despite the fact that Admiral Chris Pike, Bruce Greenwood, admonishes Kirk for his recklessness - Pike/Greenwood continues to take Kirk/Pine under his wing.

While I had enjoyed this film as an action film with Star Trek elements, I would have preferred a more original story for a Star Trek reboot - even though I liked this story better than the first Star Trek film, possible because the writers studied science fiction novels written by Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven. I know a lot of Trekkers are not happy with J.J. Abrams treatment of the series, and I will admit that there were scenes where I was groaning "don't do that." Either way, Cumberbatch was very good in his role. One of the early plot points foreshadowed what would happen in the rest of the movie. It is curious that one of the themes of this movie is about family, which plays as a motivator around most of the characters.

After the Boston Marathon bombing, the terrorist attacks in the movie had more immediacy to me than what would be in a normal movie. Stills of the terrorist attacks being used in the movie reminded me very much of the news media videos of the Boston Marathon and foreshadowed what was to come.

It is curious that Starfleet has always had a schizophrenic identity - both scientific and military. Even Chief Engineer Scotty/Simon Pegg was wondering about that. After the terrorist attacks, Admiral Peter Weller - who represents the military aspects of Starfleet - naturally wants to get Cumberbatch and sends Kirk/Pine on a manhunt after Cumberbatch.

There is a controversial exploitative bikini scene of Dr. Carol Marcus, Alice Eve, in the movie which made no sense - aside from being exploitative - as the scene was badly written. The scene would have been more acceptable if it were written better. As it is, there is a certain relationship developing between Marcus/Eve and Kirk/Pine that could be developed in the next Star Trek movie as per Star Trek lore. Sulu's, John Cho's, characterization also could be further developed in the next Star Trek movie as per Star Trek lore. The relationship between Spock/Zachary Quinto and Uhura/Zoe Saldana has also gotten deeper and more complicated in this movie.

While there was a credit for George Kirk/Chris Hemsworth at the end of the movie, I do not recall seeing him in the movie. The principal characters however did reprise their roles from the previous film.

This is the first time that a movie was filmed in IMAX format, then converted to 3D in post production.

At the end of the film is a dedication to post 9/11 veterans. It is cool that four veterans from the organization The Mission Continues are folding the United Federation of Planets Flag during the Memorial ceremony. It seems appropriate that I saw this movie during Memorial Day weekend.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. Running time: 132 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

PAUL

Universal

Rated R

Running time: 104 minutes
















Click below to watch the Paul trailer.



Universal Pictures Paul has two English science fiction geeks, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, on an American road trip to Area 51 - when they come across an extra-terrestrial alien from space, Paul -  voiced by comedian Seth Rogen - who escaped and is on the run from the government.

As a fanboy, I appreciated all the science fiction movie references. A cross between Men in Black meets E.T.: The Extra-Terrerestrial and Due Date, I was expecting more biting humor from the movie after all the fanboy reviews I heard - especially with the geeks going to the San Diego Comic-Con. With science fiction writer Jeffrey Tambor as a sarcastic writer, I almost expected him to be a major part of the movie like a bad guy or an unlucky road companion. Fortunately his sarcasm was kept to a minimum and kept the movie from being mean, and the film really was rather cute with Kristen Wiig as the religious girl road companion who wants to kiss someone for the first time. Although Wiig and her religious father could turn off those with religious views because of their attitude, it was interesting to see their development as the film went on. With the science fiction references, it makes me wonder how the fanboys at the real San Diego Comic-Con reacted to the movie Paul.

The film is rated R and does not seem to deserve it. To me an R film is supposed to be very graphic. It is mostly because of the language that the film is rated R and even then it seems mostly like a PG-13 film to me, even a PG film. This is a shame as I think the film would have had more of an audience as a PG-13 family type film. Paul very easily could have related to children.

The computer generated motion capture animation for Paul is very good and realistic, especially the animation of the eyes. This is better than the animation of the similar grey Roswell aliens of Stargate SG-1. It makes you wish you could care more for Paul just as people cared for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Paul is just a little too funny and rude for that kind of audience identification, even if he does want to go home - however it was cute to see how he was the fictional inspiration for E.T. along with a cameo voice-over by Steven Spielberg.

Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver are good as the intimidating government Men in Black who are after Paul, including the rookie Men in Black assigned to assist with their search - who realize the U.S. Air Force's investigation of UFO's in Project BLUE BOOK was real. Unfortunately, or fortunately for Paul, the rookies do not know how to shoot. Jane Lynch as a truck stop woman and Blythe Danner as the adult version of the kid who found Paul - who came to Earth and crash-landed on her dog 60 years ago - were also good.

Rated R for language, violence, and casual drug use. Running time: 104 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Trek

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 127 minutes


In Paramount Pictures update of the TV series. the movie is very true to the spirit of Star Trek. It brings the crew of the starship Enterprise together for the first time, and is very optimistic and fun with a level of intensity that is more than a typical TV episode of Star Trek. There are a couple of plot points which changes traditional Star Trek canon, but this might make for interesting story-telling for future films. With Spock, Leonard Nimoy, going back in time, this film is on a different timeline than the TV series. It was nice to see George Kirk, Chris Hemsworth, as the father of James T. Kirk, Chris Pine.  Zachary Quinto is perfect as the young Spock. I could see him as the original Spock in the 1960's TV series. Anton Yelchin was appropriatlely very young as Chekov. As Simon Pegg, who plays chief engineer Montgomery Scott, says "I like this ship!"

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 127 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews