Tag: film

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: A Review of Epic Action

Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hawke in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and he’s back with a bang. This dropped on Sky only yesterday, and I was immediately psyched up to watch it. You know what you are going to get – great action scenes.

From Wikipedia:

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 American action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.[7][8] It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023) and the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film stars Tom Cruise in his final portrayal of Ethan Hunt,[9] alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett.[10][11] In the film, Hunt and his IMF team continue their mission to prevent the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence, from destroying all of humanity.

Imagine if your toaster became sentient, hacked the world’s nuclear codes, and then asked nicely for world domination. Now replace the toaster with The Entity, a rogue AI that threatens to blow up everything except dessert buffets. Ethan Hunt is all that stands in its way.

It’s a long film. I mean, very long at a running time of 170 minutes. Personally, I watched it over two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. One sitting would be a significant endurance test.

The action scenes are what really set this apart. The underwater cinematography is incredible, as are the shots on the planes. Additions to all the great shots and stunts Tom Cruise has given us over the years.

On that subject, we do get quite a few flashbacks of previous films. Much like a tribute to the franchise’s greatest hits.

I give the film five stars out of five. It’s like Tom Cruise.

Do you agree? Do let me know.

Liam Neeson is superb in Memory (2022 film)

Liam Neeson is back in action in the 2022 film, Memory. Like seriously, this guy is a film-making machine at this stage. In this one, he stars as a septuagenarian hitman called Alex Lewis who is—plot twist—forgetting things. Not metaphorically. Not “I forgot where I put my keys.” We’re talking medically, tragically, narratively, forgetting things. Which is bold, because the man’s entire cinematic brand is “I will find you,” and now the movie dares to ask: but what if he occasionally forgets why?

Alex is hired for a job that he doesn’t really want to take, only to discover that the target is a child. In a move that instantly promotes him from “professional killer” to “professional killer with ethics,” he refuses the hit. He gives a warning that the girl is to be left alone. When another contract killer completes the task and goes after him, he turns his very specific set of skills on the people who ordered it. Meanwhile, his memory is deteriorating faster than a phone battery in the cold, forcing him to leave himself notes like a lethal, cardigan-wearing version of Memento.

This is where the movie shines. Instead of pretending Neeson is still 30, Memory leans into age, regret, and cognitive decline—and somehow makes them tense, sad, and weirdly wholesome.

The action is grounded, tense, and refreshingly free of superhero nonsense. Neeson doesn’t leap off buildings—he moves with purpose, like a man who knows his knees won’t forgive him later. Every fight feels heavy, deliberate, and earned.

The supporting cast (including Guy Pearce and Monica Bellucci) adds gravitas, though let’s be honest: this is Liam’s movie, and everyone else is just trying not to get emotionally or physically outmatched.

Oh, and the ending is perfect.

The best film I’ve seen in some time. Five stars out of five from me.

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.

Why Madame Web Stands Out in Today’s Marvel Landscape

It’s been widely reported that Marvel films lost their shine over the last few years, and I’d agree. Each film seemed to be a rehash of the last one. And the CGI was too overboard. It’s also difficult to get excited when you know that superheroes are almost impossible to kill, so there’s little to really worry about.

Still, I went into my sitting room with an open mind. I’m nothing if not fair. And I’m so happy that I did. Madame Web is a uniquely refreshing entry in the modern superhero landscape—one that prioritizes character, atmosphere, and emotional resonance over the typical barrage of CGI-fueled spectacle.

A new story is finally being told. And she’s not invincible, but rather a haphazard time traveller. In fact, you see her death on more than one occasion. How refreshing. She is trying to protect three teenage girls, aptly played by Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor. The dynamic between them, and the main character Cassandra Web makes the film. The trio exudes warmth, charisma, and a natural chemistry that gives the story an emotional core. Their scenes together are vibrant and often surprisingly funny, providing a wonderful contrast to Cassandra’s world-weary pragmatism. As their bond develops, the film gains a sense of heart that elevates the entire narrative.

Cassandra Web is played by Dakota Johnson of Fifty Shades fame. Thankfully, this film is much better. It gets five stars out of five from me. My first five stars in quite some time.

Have you seen it? Let me know in the comments.

Exploring Football’s Greatest Con: King of Lies Episode 1

Hello, my dear readers. Took an annual leave today and decided that it was important for it not to be wasted. So, I watched TV and the above documentary, in particular.

Episode 1 of King of Lies: Football’s Greatest Con launches the series with an enticing blend of mystery and tension, but it’s not without its stumbles. The premiere does a solid job establishing the central scandal, which revolves around the sale of Notts County Football Club (the oldest professional football club in the world), teasing just enough information to pique curiosity without revealing too much too soon. The opening sequences are atmospheric and stylish, setting a tone that’s equal parts investigative thriller and sports documentary.

The documentary’s greatest strength is its interviews. I was stunned to see Sven-Göran Eriksson pop into the story. The interview is from the depths of sickness shortly before he died. Unfortunately, he gets caught up in it all and quite bizarrely ends up in North Korea at one point!

However, the pacing is noticeably uneven. Some sections feel stretched out, lingering on details that don’t yet carry emotional or narrative weight. The editing sometimes jumps abruptly between timelines or perspectives, which can make the episode feel scattered,

Russell King is the conman leaving ruin wherever he goes. It’s quite a complex con, almost masterful. But it’s impossible to see his out. He needed the con or new cons to keep being successful, to not get caught.

An interesting documentary. I learned that you can’t get people to do what they don’t want to. The art of persuasion is giving them a reason to do what they want.

Yes, so, not sure if that’s a positive, but what the hell.

It gets three stars out of five from me.

Have you seen it? What do you think?

Episode 1 of King of Lies: Football’s Greatest Con is currently available on Sky Documentaries.

A Review of Netflix’s ‘Being Eddie’: Insights and Reflections

Anybody within seven or eight years of my age (I’m forty-six) would have fond memories of Eddie Murphy. I still remember seeing Beverly Hills Cop for the first time. A great film that would never have made it without him. It was the first time I saw on-screen a black character who was clearly more intelligent than the white people around him. All the curses stuck out as well.

But what happened to him recently? I haven’t heard his name in an age. I was also interested in what other aspects of his life were like.

That’s why I watched the documentary “Being Eddie” on Netflix a couple of nights ago.

If you are looking for something visceral, raw, then this is not it. Some critics think it’s more like a prelude to him returning to stand-up more than anything else. It retreats from anything awkward/contentious. He comes across as a family man and reminisces about voicing the donkey in Shrek. There is nothing about the paternity suit with Mel B, for example. He has ten children. Musk would be proud.

The best part is when it just lets him speak. I found his tendency towards OCD intriguing. Great minds appear to have a likelihood for such things, and I doubt it’s a coincidence.

He also brings up that he has never won an Oscar, despite his great performances and sometimes playing multiple characters in the same film. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were him; their value has greatly diminished over the years.

The interviews with other comedy legends, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, and more, show what a powerful influence he was on the industry. They all say nice things. What a pity!

I give it three stars out of five. It’ll make you feel warm. Just don’t expect anything beyond the bland, though.

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.

A House of Dynamite: A Thrilling Perspective on Nuclear Crisis

Happy weekend to all my readers. I had the good fortune to watch “A House of Dynamite” during the week.

A nuclear missile is fired towards the United States. What follows is a masterclass in contemporary suspense. The film’s structure is bold: it essentially shows the same 18 minutes (or the timeframe of the missile threat) from several perspectives — intelligence, military, and White House. This different point-of-view approach illustrates how separate parts of the US military and government respond to the crisis.

Whether the nuclear warhead actually detonates, and what then happens, is not part of the film. Under the direction of Kathryn Bigelow, the film plunges the viewer into a high-stakes nuclear crisis with astonishing realism. The sense of urgency is almost physical — Bigelow keeps the camera moving, the editing sharp, the clock ticking.

Some viewers might find the repeating structure (showing the same timeframe from different angles) slightly repetitive, but I enjoyed it. Others may find it frustrating that questions go unanswered. I find it apt. I see the ambiguity as intentional, just like the real-life situation would be.

The film is more than entertainment: it’s a wake-up call about nuclear deterrence, about systems we (or at least the Americans) trust being fallible.

The movie boasts a stellar cast: Idris Elba, who looks much older than when I last saw him, gives a grounded, urgent performance as the U.S. President. His chances of being 007 are now gone, though. Rebecca Ferguson and Gabriel Basso hold their own in the thriller’s pressurized settings.

The characters feel real under pressure — not caricatures of power, but people making impossible decisions in impossible times.

If you’re in the mood for a film that makes you hold your breath—and keeps you thinking after—it’s absolutely worth watching. Five stars out of five for me.

Review of Night Call (film)

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to discuss an excellent film I saw yesterday. One of the great things about the modern era is that you get to appreciate great art from around the world. This is a French-language film I watched on Sky Cinema.

The scenes flow naturally from one scene to another. It doesn’t feel contrived but like something that could happen to an unfortunate soul. From Wikipedia –

Night Call (La nuit se traîne) is a 2024 action thriller film directed by Michiel Blanchart in his feature directorial debut from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gilles Marchand. Set over the course of a night amid a Black Lives Matter protest in Belgium, a young locksmith is called for nocturnal assignment that plunges him into danger. It stars Jonathan Feltre, Natacha Krief, Jonas Bloquet, Thomas Mustin and Romain Duris. The film is an international co-production between Belgium and France.

Jonathon Feltre gives a superb performance as the locksmith. The fact that he is black is generally not referred to (2024 film, after all), but it plays an unmentioned role towards the end.

There are some great and unexpected action scenes. I especially liked the car chase towards the end. There is quite a lot of violence and the threat of more. All good. It is unconventional, and you are unsure how it will conclude.

I give it four stars out of five.

The Electric State: Billie Bobby Brown Shines Pity Chris Pratt

Hello dear readers, I do hope you are all enjoying the last gasp of summer. This time, I’m writing about an interesting film I watched on Netflix last night – The Electric State. It’s based on a novel, yay for writers everywhere.

From Wikipedia –

In an alternate 1990, a war between humans and robots has left the world in disarray. With the help of Sentre CEO Ethan Skate, who developed Neurocaster technology that allowed humans to upload their minds into drone robots, humanity managed to win the war, while robots were banished to the Exclusion Zone. However, the success of this technology meant many people opted to live their virtual lives in a semi-vegetative state while drones did most of the work.

In 1994, teenager Michelle lives with her deadbeat foster dad Ted. Years earlier, she was involved in a car crash along with her family, in which her parents and brother reportedly perished, and has since lived with a succession of foster families. Michelle is also having trouble at school due to her refusal to use Neurocaster technology to participate in virtual classes.

One day, the sentient robot Cosmo – a robot character of the cartoon of the same name which Michelle’s declared-deceased younger brother Christopher, who was a child prodigy, watched – finds Michelle. He is only able to communicate using gestures and a limited set of pre-recorded words, but manages to convince her that he is controlled by Christopher. Michelle and Cosmo set out across a dystopian landscape to find him by first finding Dr. Clark Amherst, the doctor who confirmed Christopher’s death.

The film has a good cast. Chris Pratt plays Christopher, and the indefatigable Billie Bobby Brown, of Stranger Things fame, plays Michelle. There is little chemistry between them. Like most modern films, it is no longer socially acceptable for any on-screen age gap romance to develop. If this were made during the actual 1990s, that would have been a central plank of the film. Down with that sort of thing! She is clearly a child, at just 21 years of age.

The relationship between Michelle and her brother is warm and authentic. The robots move naturally, and I liked the action scenes. Things get dark at times but not much more than your average Disney film.

So, when you’re sitting on your couch later, maybe give it a try. It gets four stars out of five from me.

A deep dive into the TV Series “Travellers”

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I have just finished watching all three series of Travellers. It’s probably the best sci-fi series you’ve never heard of.

I have bad news for you, folks. There is an apocalypse on the way. I know what you’re thinking, no shit. But don’t worry. You see, the nineties were the key decade. A future super-intelligent computer (Is this even sci-fi anymore?) called the Director is sending back time travellers on missions to ensure a better future. The fact that I might like warmer summers, and will almost certainly be dead by the forthcoming ice age, doesn’t come into its calculations.

Alas, the time travellers have to take over a living body and erase the previous person. Kind of reminds me of “Body Snatchers”. Fear not, it’s all done very ethically. They take over the bodies of those who are about to die anyway.

The travellers have several protocols to protect the timeline (from Wikipedia) –

  • Protocol 1: The mission comes first.
  • Protocol 2: Leave the future in the past.
  • Protocol 3: Don’t take a life, don’t save a life, unless otherwise directed. Do not interfere.
  • Protocol 4: Do not reproduce.
  • Protocol 5: In the absence of direction, maintain your host’s life.
  • Protocol 6: Do not communicate with other known travelers outside of your team unless sanctioned by the Director.

The team historians have an additional secret protocol involving the periodic updates they receive concerning “historic information relative to [their] team’s role in the Grand Plan”. It is a sub-protocol of Protocol 2:

  • Protocol 2H: This forbids the revelation about the existence of the updates “with anyone, ever”.

The Director can invoke three other protocols in special situations:

  • Protocol Alpha: temporarily suspends all other protocols when a critical mission must be completed at all costs
  • Protocol Epsilon: can be invoked when traveler archives are threatened
  • Protocol Omega: permanently suspends all other protocols when the Director abandons the travelers because the future has either been fixed or deemed impossible to fix

Each episode is fast-paced and action-packed. A large part of the series is the relationships between the travellers and those who previously knew the host. The love story between Macy and David plays a key role in maintaining continuity and interest from episode to episode.

Another key relationship is between Grant and his wife, Kat, who can’t quite bring herself to believe her husband. Correctly, as it turns out. I don’t know if this series could be made today, as it brings up thorny consent issues. Can Kat give consent for sex if Grant isn’t who she thinks he is? Hey, it is kind of philosophical. Let’s leave it at that.

They end up completing many missions, but the future doesn’t seem to be getting better. In fact, “The Faction” ends up being created. This is a group from the future that opposes the Director. Ironically, they are from a newly created timeline where their shelter was not destroyed.

Then there is 001, who has gone way off mission, creating an empire and actually killing travellers.

Spoiler Alert.

It all comes to a head at the end of Series 3, which is probably one of the best finales ever. The director calls Protocol Omega, effectively giving up on the timeline. By the end nuclear war is breaking out, and the travellers are told all they’ve done is speed up the Earth’s destruction. What a downer! Ouch.

But there is one last throw of the device. Grant is transported even further into the past and sends a message that the Traveller program failed.

The final scene is the Director acknowledging its failure and initiating Team Two instead. So, everything you’ve watched at least in this timeline ends up never happening. Almost, like the whole thing is just one calculation of the director. I love it!

Travellers can currently be viewed on Netflix.

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End of 2024 update

Hello my dear readers, happy new year to everyone! Hope it goes well for you all. Just a quick update on myself and my writing plans for 2025.

2024 was a relatively good year, but my blog views are down somewhat from the previous year. They have gone from 1,922 views to 1,741 views. This is the first year I’ve had a decrease. I put it down to the new job mostly, and not having as much time to put into it.

On a more positive note, I will try to publish two new works in 2025. “Wheelchair Wars” and a collection of romance short stories. Yes, I probably said this before but fingers and toes crossed that I’ll actually do it lol

I’m really enjoying writing Pegasus at the moment. It should be completed over the next year, nearly halfway there.

Changing the subject entirely, I watched the “Carry-on” movie on Netflix earlier. I reckon it could become a new “Christmas” movie. It’s a new action thriller by Netflix with Taron Egerton and Sofia Carson playing the central characters.

It’s fast and energetic and you are never quite sure what will happen next. Keep an eye out for it and don’t forget to like and post! Please also share any thoughts you may have about the above.