Movie Review: Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: J.J. Abrams  
Starring: Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell  
Running Time: 126 minutes  

Synopsis: Impossible Missions Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is engaged to Julia (Michelle Monaghan), having retired from field duty and settled into the role of a trainer. But when his former trainee Lindsey (Keri Russell) is captured by elusive international weapons dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Ethan returns to duty with his team to mount a rescue in Berlin. He next attempts to kidnap Davian from a Vatican gala to prevent him from peddling the dangerous "Rabbit's Foot" device, but Ethan's exploits have far-reaching consequences involving IMF Directors Musgrave (Billy Crudup) and Brassel (Laurence Fishburne), with a showdown in Shanghai.

What Works Well: The third installment in the franchise achieves superb polish, director J.J. Abrams finally unlocking the potential of the series. Tight editing, a controlled running time, and a steady stream of highlights deliver perfect measures of suspense (the abduction of Davian from the Vatican), stunts (plentiful, but the high-rise jumps in Shanghai are spectacular), and plain high-intensity action (the bridge ambush). Grit (Lindsey's rescue and aftermath) mixes with romance (Cruise and Monaghan sharing good chemistry). The globe-trotting plot is easy to follow, helped by a cast stacked with quality. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a terrific cold-blooded villain and worthy adversary to Cruise's combination of athleticism and intensity.

What Does Not Work As Well: The "Rabbit's Foot" deserved a better explanation, and the political machinations within the IMF Director ranks are half-baked.

Key Quote:

Lindsey (under fire with Ethan in the middle of a firefight): I'm out. How many rounds you got?

Ethan (checks weapon): Enough.

[rises, fires one shot, and takes out the opponent]

Ethan: Now I'm out.

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Movie Review: Cocaine Bear (2023)

Genre: Monster Horror Comedy

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Margo Martindale

Running Time: 95 minutes

Synopsis: In 1985, a drug runner working for gangster Syd (Ray Liotta) drops cocaine-filled bags from a small plane over Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest. A bear consumes the cocaine and becomes crazed, attacking two hikers. Syd sends his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and fixer Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) to retrieve the drugs, and they are pursued by detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.). Also in the park are kids Dee Dee and Henry, while Dee Dee's worried mom Sari (Keri Russell) searches for them. Park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale), an environmental officer, and a bunch of thugs are the bear's other potential victims.

What Works Well: Based on an actual incident in which a bear died after consuming cocaine dumped from a smuggler's plane, this is a silly, fun, gory, and often hilarious comedy. Highlights include a wild ambulance ride, the bear passing out in a most inconsiderate position, and wayward pistol shooting by the hapless park ranger. The special effects are generally passable, and the music score adds peppy energy with several mid-80's era songs.

What Does Not Work As Well: The cast is cluttered with a few too many bad guys, worse guys, and idiots, and although the insistence on using backstories to round most of the characters is appreciated, the intervals between bear attacks drift sideways into the forest of indifference. The combination of big gore and big laughs is sometimes jarring.

Conclusion: Unsurprisingly, "Don't Do Drugs" also applies to bears.

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Movie Review: Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014)

A science fiction action thriller, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is a festival of simian special effects. The story struggles for relevance in the rumbling rush to the next CGI-generated highlight.

Ten years after a drug intended to treat Alzheimer's disease increased ape intelligence and almost wiped-out humanity, Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads a group of apes building a growing society in the forests outside San Francisco. His son Blue Eyes is learning about leadership, while Caesar's main military leader is the aggressive Kobo (Toby Kebbell).

The apes block a small group of humans, including Malcolm (Jason Clarke) and his partner Ellie (Keri Russell), from exploring the forest to find and reactivate a hydroelectric dam. They are part of a San Francisco settlement led by Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), growing increasingly desperate for a power source. Malcolm believes he can reason with the apes and Caesar's instinct is to help. But just as Dreyfus does not believe the apes can be allies, Kobo is also suspicious and starts to agitate for war. 

The sequel to Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011) starts off on a rickety foundation with a dumbfoundingly similar title, and the prolonged opening scenes are computer generated National Geographic-type explorations of apes in the forest. It takes a while, but director Matt Reeves eventually finds his footing and settles down to a basic conflict between apes and humans, with peacemakers and warmongers on both sides.

The film is adequate but never threatens to rise anywhere. Despite Andy Serkis' expressive heroics as Caesar, only so much interest can be generated by actors in monkey suits surrounded by digital monkeys hooting and hollering at each other in the forest. And large chunks of the overlong 130 minutes are exactly that.

The hawks on both sides have to get their way for the pixels to be truly unleashed, and the second half is full of bloated computer-generated combat, sometimes effective but often a confusing mess of digital firepower and destruction.

It's a tough slog when most of the human moments are not among the humans. Caesar has a family, allies and enemies, and they must have all watched The Lion King, as the dynamics of treachery and the next generation rising to the challenge play out with full predictability. In contrast Jason Clarke and Keri Russell have the thankless task of interacting with ape suits and green screens to demonstrate basic empathy.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes shows good and bad intentions on both sides, and concludes apes are no better than humans in their capabilities for internecine acts of self-destruction, a thoroughly depressing prospect for all mammals on a small planet.



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Movie Review: Free State Of Jones (2016)

A fact-based Civil War drama, Free State Of Jones has an interesting story to tell, but spreads its material too thin and descends into a modular history lesson.

It's 1862, and with the war between the states raging, Confederate nurse Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) of Jones County, Mississippi, is getting increasingly disgruntled with the futility of it all. He views the conflict as rich Southern plantation owners protecting their way of life by sending poor farmers who don't own slaves to the slaughterhouse of the front lines. When Newton tries but fails to protect a relative from getting killed in battle, he deserts the army and leaves his wife Serena (Keri Russell) to flee deep into the swamps where escaped Negroes are also hiding out.

The Confederate army deploys increasingly heavy-handed taxation methods against the local population, breeding resentment. Newton organizes former slaves, including plantation housekeeper Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and serial escapee Moses (Mahershala Ali), as well as an increasing number of deserters, into a ragtag multi-racial anti-Confederate militia. They eventually seize control of a few counties and declare independence. But even as the war draws to an end, the troubles in the South are far from over.

Directed and written by Gary Ross, Free State Of Jones has good intentions to recount an interesting story, but gets caught between not enough focus and too much tutoring. At 2 hours and 20 minutes the film's running time is too long for the available material on Newton Knight. The first two thirds of the film labour at a slow pace to build up to the titular declaration, and then the narrative spirals off into plenty of on-screen captions describing historical events, and not enough dramatic narrative.

Despite the uneven tone, the film boasts impressive production values and recreates the behind-the-front-lines ugliness of warfare. With rich cinematography by Benoît Delhomme capturing a mystical landscape scarred by war, most of the action takes place away from the battles, as resentment builds among farmers conscripted to fight while wealthy landowners carry on their way of life. With the Confederate Army terrorizing its own populace with raids on civilian supplies, Newton Knight and other thoughtful men start to question the purpose of the slaughter.

The film also features a curious but not entirely successful side-story inter-cut with the adventures of Newton Knight. Set in a Mississippi courthouse 85 years after the Civil War, a descendant of Knight is on trial, accused of being a partially black man and therefore illegally married to a white woman. The parallels between the two men fighting in different corners of the same battle generations apart are intriguing, but the trial scenes are rudimentary at best, presented with little depth and hardly any context.

Matthew McConaughey is committed as Newton Knight and easily occupies the centre of the film. The rest of the cast members struggle to be noticed, with the script shortchanging all the secondary characters. There are attempts to flesh out Rachel and Moses, but neither Gugu Mbatha-Raw nor Mahershala Ali have enough to work with.

While its heart is in the right place, Free State Of Jones is less compelling as entertainment, but adequate as an earnest education piece.

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Movie Review: August Rush (2007)

A modern day fairy tale, August Rush unabashedly celebrates pure love and the magical powers of music.

In New York City of 1995, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a cellist and Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer in an Irish rock band. They meet at a party, it's love at first sight, they spend one night together and then separate. Fate keeps them apart, but Lyla is pregnant. Months later, an accident leaves Layla unconscious, the baby boy is delivered, and her father (William Sadler) hands him to social services. When Layla awakens, she is told that the baby died. Both Layla and Louis are miserable without each other, and abandon their musical dreams.

Eleven years later their son Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) drifts away from a boys' shelter where he has spent his life and finds his way to Manhattan. Lyla is a music teacher in Chicago, and Louis is a businessman in San Francisco. Evan has music in his blood, and finds musical inspiration in all the sounds that surround him. He falls in with a group of street musicians controlled and exploited by Maxwell "The Wizard" Wallace (Robin Williams). Evan demonstrates incredible ability with the guitar, and The Wizard starts to imagine the riches that can come his way. He renames the boy August Rush to make him more difficult to find. By now Lyla is frantically looking for Evan thanks to her father's death bed confession, and Louis is desperately searching for Layla.

Directed by Kirsten Sheridan (daughter of Jim), August Rush is a sweet story, unapologetically borrowing elements from Oliver Twist, and bathed in the soft light of eternal optimism. Evan is a child prodigy on par with Mozart in his ability to play and compose music, and just when the time is right Lyla and Louis follow their hearts, then their instincts and finally the music to arrive at the happy ending in Central Park.

As a package, it is almost impossible not to fall in love with the film's simple intentions and trust in pure innocence. This is not a film where common sense or logic need to prevail; rather, this is a place to reflect on the ethereal qualities of music, the silent and mutual attraction of souls destined to be together, and a mother's determined search for the son she never knew. The music score by Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer adds to the mood of poignant anticipation, while John Mathieson's cinematography makes good use of the New York City locations, with Washington Square particularly prominent.

Lyla, Louis and Evan clearly belong together, and spend the film overcoming obstacles to arrive at the same point in time and place. In true fable fashion all three are pure of heart and filled with nothing but good intentions, and the actors perform accordingly. Freddie Highmore exudes innocent bliss and a spirit naturally intertwined with music. Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are headstrong, passionate, and tender in their pursuit of the love that slipped through their fingers. Robin Williams makes for a worthy antagonist, channeling his inner Fagin as he heartlessly profits from child labour. Terrence Howard rounds out the cast as a social worker trying to help Evan.

As with all the best fairy tales, August Rush exists in a place where good will triumph over evil, love will survive and thrive, and the human spirit remains positive and optimistic, all set to great music and glowing in artistic light.

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