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‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING’ REVIEW MISSION TO ENTERTAIN FAILS
It’s not that Tom Cruise has significantly aged in the seventh, and possibly the penultimate entry, to the Mission Impossible franchise that makes Dead Reckoning - Part One one of the worst films of the year. [caption id="attachment_158075" align="aligncenter" width="525"] TOM CruisePHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES[/caption] The 61-year-old actor is still lithe and agile and runs like Speedy Gonzales. But it’s the eerily bad script that is rather painful here. You’d think ChatGPT — in its beta-testing phase — could probably generate a better screenplay. Christopher McQuarrie returns to direct his third MI installment, co-writing a story that understandably jumps into the realm of Artificial Intelligence, given it›s the popular thing these days. Here, Cruise’s superspy Ethan Hunt is embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with clowns to get hold of a powerful physical key that holds immense power and can be weaponized on an unimaginable scale. One of the enemies is a rogue AI called The Entity that looks like plain disco lights, or a generic animated desktop screensaver, when shown on a computer. AI, in real life, is a terrifying threat. But in this movie, you don’t experience the danger of its sentience. Except for a mildly interesting precognition from a cipher-locked explosive, the most “exciting” thing The Entity can do here are some CCTV tricks, which we have seen a gazillion times, even way back in the past with the famous bus scene from Keanu Reeves’ Speed (1994). The similarly rogue and sentient AI in two X-Files episodes in the ‘90s, The Ghost in the Machine and Kill Switch, are ten times more thrilling than Dead Reckoning’s plot. Nothing new The Targaryen-haired Vanessa Kirby returns as arms dealer Alanna, as well as Ethan’s usual IMF gang Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson). A new major supporting female character is introduced, Grace (Hayley Atwell), a professional pickpocket that quickly (quicker than a Tinder swipe) becomes Hunt’s new love interest. The “biggest” human villain here is the laughable terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales) who looks more like a bored dad who enjoys lame tricks to amuse his kids, such as hiding inside a coffin-like treasure chest or walking stiffly behind doors, furniture and airport facilities. Even more unintentionally hilarious is when Gabriel’s assistant, the cosplayer-like Paris (Pom Klementieff), opens doors for him or unlocks latches for him to give him some semblance of a grand entrance. You may argue that you’re in it for the stunts and the action set pieces. After all, MI is known for its spectacle — stunning intercontinental locations where Cruise does all his heart-stopping stunts. Sure. Yawn. Here, the action scenes are nothing new. Hand-to-hand combat on top of a train? We’ve seen a thousand versions of this already. A car chase in Rome? A similar sequence in the kiddie movie Madagascar 3 is way more thrilling. Unintentionally funny The fight choreography, too, is often lazy and too zippy, with quick cuts that deprive you of the power seen in Rogue Nation’s raw, organic bathroom brawl between Cruise and Henry Cavill. The action scenes are overstretched and uninspired that you can easily stand up for a bathroom break — heck, you can even do your groceries — and when you come back, it’s still the same stuff happening on screen. The famous motorbike scene? We’ve seen it go viral on TikTok already, so it doesn’t cut it anymore. The dialogue, too, is often unintentionally funny, with surprisingly hammy acting, even for Cruise. There is a scene, at a “dangerous” meeting at a Venice party, where Ethan and Grace, surrounded by their enemies, are using their eyes to communicate, yet they are being so obvious that the film feels like a B-movie, or a deepfake of Mission Impossible, or I am in a James Corden MI parody with Lalo Schifrin’s theme music just thrown in. The movie’s jaw-dropping score of 96 percent at Rotten Tomatoes, as of writing, feels like AI sabotage. Nearly three hours long, Dead Reckoning - Part One is a disturbing example that humans are no longer imaginative and that AI›s threat is becoming real, what with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. At this point, AI just might entertain us better. 1.5 out of 5 stars Now showing in cinemas The post ‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING’ REVIEW MISSION TO ENTERTAIN FAILS appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Mission in Rome
American actor Tom Cruise and British actress Hayley Atwell are pictured during the filming of Mission Impossible: Lybra in Rome......»»