Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” the kid friendly “Lilo & Stitch:” and the literary rom com “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” the kid friendly “Lilo & Stitch” and the literary rom com “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” the kid friendly “Lilo & Stitch:” and the literary rom com “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” the kid friendly “Lilo & Stitch” and the literary rom com “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” the eighth instalment in the franchise now playing in theatres, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team attempt to save the world from a “truth eating, parasitical AI known as The Entity.” If Hunt and his IMFers (Impossible Missions Force) can find The Entity’s original source code they just might be able to “deceive the Lord of Lies” and save the world. “The whole world is in trouble Ethan,” says former pickpocket-turned-IMF-agent Grace (Hayley Atwell), “and you’re the only one I trust to save it.”
CAST: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
REVIEW: “I need you to trust me one last time,” Ethan Hunt says to his team in the new film, but he could be speaking directly to the audience.
For almost thirty years we have come to trust that the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise will deliver sky-high thrills—like Tom Cruise hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building—good looking people in exotic locations and convoluted, exciting stories of espionage, ripe with twists and MacGuffins. Sometimes the movies were needlessly confusing, but they were always entertaining and, “Look! Tom just rode a motorcycle off a 4,000-foot cliff!”
Given the track record, it’s easy to trust Ethan Hunt one last time. It’s easy to believe Cruise and Co will offer blockbuster entertainment for their last time in the clandestine world of the IMF. But, as Ernest Hemingway said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
In other words, buy the ticket, take the ride. Your trust will be rewarded with a ponderous, overlong movie that goes out of its way to break the golden “show me, don’t tell me” rule. Endless exposition weighs down scene after scene as Hunt as his team explain their every move and every convoluted plot twist, as if vocalizing the movie’s wild tangents makes them less preposterous.
It’s a talky movie that leans heavily into nostalgia—the first hour is basically a recap with flashbacks—and self-congratulation. It’s disappointing because this series has always valued entertainment over set-up. They haven’t always made sense, but the movies have never failed to make our collective eyeballs dance with big action sequences.
“The Final Reckoning,” however, does give Cruise a chance to indulge in his daredevil tendencies.
An ambitious underwater sequence is a testament to the franchise’s commitment to practical stunts over CGI enhanced imagery. As Cruise swims through the wreck of a sunken Russian submarine the danger and claustrophobia are tangible, and it raises the stakes for Hunt and the movie.
After that, director Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the script with Erik Jendresen, settles back into the film’s talky, laborious vibe until a third reel aerial sequence finally delivers the kind of wowser eye candy we trusted Cruise to deliver. Set 10,000 feet in the air, the death-defying scene sees the star jump between biplanes to thwart the film’s villain, a painfully underused Esai Morales. It’s wild, high-flying action even by Cruise’s superhuman standards.
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” asks for your trust, and, if you’re patient and willing to sit through pages of dialogue to get to the heart-pounding action you expect from a film like this, it earns that trust. But, overall, this explosive franchise goes out with a whimper not a bang.
SYNOPSIS: Based on Peter Brown’s award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller of the same name, “The Wild Robot,” a new animated film starring the voices of Lupita Nyong’o and Pedro Pascal, and now playing in theatres, features a shipwrecked robot named ROZZUM unit 7134— “Roz” for short—who develops a parental bond with an orphaned gosling. “A ROZZUM always completes its task,” she says.
CAST: The Wild Robot Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames. Directed by Chris Sanders.
REVIEW: The animated “The Wild Robot” will put you in the mind of “The Iron Giant,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “WALL-E,” but carves out its own, unique, rewarding space. Brimming with compassion, humor and kindness, it’s an exciting adventure story with a big, beating heart.
It’s a deceptively simple film. Roz’s sleek character design and the unpretentious premise of finding your logical, not necessarily biological family, are brought to life by the power of a great voice cast, inventive animation and director Chris Sanders’s vivid imagination.
Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) is a bigger BB-8 style robot, mechanical and, when we first meet her, mission driven with no visible signs of compassion behind her crystal blue electronic eyes. At first the matriarchal relationship with the gosling named Brightbill (voice of Kit Connor) is a job, nothing more. “A ROZZUM always completes its task,” she says.
But as time passes a warmth appears in her eyes and voice as Nyong’o reveals the bot’s hidden humanity. She’s less Siri and more a mother. “Sometimes to survive,” she says, “we must become more than we were programmed to be.”
Nyong’o does the heavy lifting, shifting Roz from automaton to sentient being, but she is supported by a terrific cast.
Catherine O’Hara brings comedic relief as frazzled possum mother Pinktail. As Fink, a fox who undergoes a transformation from predator to patriarchal figure, fan favorite Pedro Pascal brings sly humor and, as robot Vontra, Oscar nominees Stephanie Hsu is the icy-but-wacky voice of authoritarianism.
“The Wild Robot” is a wonderful film for the whole family. It has humor, adventure and uplift, but mostly, it has heart and the makings of a classic. “Was this task completed to your satisfaction?” Roz asks several times in the film. The answer is an emphatic yes.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Instigators,” a new heist comedy film now streaming on Apple TV+, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck play desperate father Rory and ex-con Cobby, unlikely partners thrown together to rob a corrupt politician’s war chest. When the caper goes sideways, the inept thieves hit the road, doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the police, the mayor’s henchman and a vengeful crime boss. “We’ve got to find these guys before the cops do,” says kingpin Dechico (Michael Stuhlbarg), “and put them down before they can talk.”
CAST: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Jack Harlow, Ving Rhames, Ron Perlman, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones. Directed by Doug Liman.
REVIEW: Fresh off their success in “Oppenheimer,” Damon and Affleck reteam in a movie that mixes-and-matches a caper with a political satire, action with a buddy comedy. It’s a laundry list of genres, but it works, aided by a terrific ensemble cast and the steady hand of director Doug Liman.
Liman and Damon, of course, first worked together twenty-two years ago on “The Bourne Identity.” While their new movie features some action, a really solid car chase and exploding buildings, the two characters, super spy Jason Bourne and the down-on-his-luck Rory, are polar opposites.
Bourne suffered from psychogenic amnesia, and used his special set of skills to rediscover his past. Rory is very much aware of his past, of his failings as a father, and Damon plays him as an everyman, a desperate guy who’ll do whatever it takes to make a few extra bucks for his estranged family, no matter the cost to him personally. Damon skilfully balances the character’s backstory with the increasing absurdity of his present-day situation.
In a rare humorous performance, Affleck is the more obviously funny character, and yet, Cobby is not just comedic construct. He’s a small-timer, used to things going sideways, and much of the humor in the film comes from his deadpan reactions as their situation worsens.
In a strong supporting cast, featuring heavy-weights like Michael Stuhlbarg and Alfred Molina in what are essentially extended cameos, Hong Chau as Rory’s psychiatrist, is a standout, both empathetic and hilarious.
“The Instigators” has everything you expect from a film about a heist gone wrong, but really, it’s not about the robbery or the explosions. It’s about the budding friendship between Rory and Cobby. Brought together by adversity and desperation, they become unlikely allies in a film that cleverly and humorously breathes new life into the failed-criminals-on-the-run genre, through interesting characters, some high-powered action and genuinely funny situations.
I joined BNN Bloomberg to talk about the weakest Memorial Day long weekend in nearly three decades.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
LOGLINE: Lasagna-loving, comic-strip cat Garfield returns to the big screen with a new voice, courtesy of Chris Pratt, and a new adventure. After being abandoned by his street cat father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) as a kitten, the orange tabby leads a life of leisure with easy-going Jon (Nicholas Hoult) and canine best friend Odie. When Vic reappears, Garfield and Odie leave the lasagna behind to embark on a risky, high-stakes heist.
CAST: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg.
REVIEW: “The Garfield Movie” is a big, action-packed (and product placement heavy) movie that doesn’t really feel like a Garfield movie. It’s a big, colorful action-adventure that will entertain kids, make their eyeballs spin and inspire a giggle or three, but the essence of the character, the sardonic, lazy cat with an obsession for sleeping, has been set aside in favor of a lively, fun character who has little to do with what made the comic-strip popular in the first place.
The new Garfield loses the simplicity of the strip, instead, filling the screen with rapid fire gags and frenetic action. The animation, which feels like a cross between computer generated and the comic-strip, offers up expressive character faces and fun voice work, particularly from Waddingham, who takes a generic villain character and gives her some oomph.
Aside from the father-and-son story, which touches on the importance of family, screenwriters Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds keep it simple, sentimental and predictable.
“The Garfield Movie” will likely have little appeal for anyone over the age of 10, but has a silly sense of mischief that the younger members of the family may enjoy.
