Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Quick thoughts:
- Grade – B
- It’s a lot.
- There are two tremendous set pieces that are worth the price of admission. Cruise put an incredible amount of work into creating them and they need to be seen in theaters.
- Shea Whigam’s hair…..
- Katy O’Brian and Tramell Tillman steal their scenes.
- Treadmill Cruise is now a thing (Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick, Final Reckoning).
- Seriously, the two huge set pieces are worth the price of admission.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a lot. Which is a good and bad thing. The good news is that there are two beautiful set pieces that are spectacular in scope, ambition, and technical ability. The bad news is that there are way too many characters and the self-seriousness of the 169-minute film drags it down deeper than the sunken submarine housing the MacGuffin (there’s always a MacGuffin in M:I films). Like every other action franchise in existence, the Mission: Impossible franchise has gotten grander in scope so it’s no surprise that the eighth entry is so gigantic.
Two years ago, I researched and wrote a Mission: Impossible franchise episode for the Fandom show By the Numbers. For the assignment, I analyzed the seven films and learned a lot about them and I wanted to share them with you.
- People stand around and talk about the logistics of an impossible mission. Then, they accomplish the impossible mission. This is nice because audiences can enjoy the mission without being bombarded with too much expository dialogue.
- Tom Cruise loves problems on top of problems. Nothing is easy.
- Each film introduces new characters. Some characters stick around (Luther, Benji), but expect new faces.
- The MacGuffins get mentioned many times (Where’s the Rabbit Foot?…etc…)
- The first three films had the personality of their directors (DePalma, Woo, Abrams). However, since Ghost Protocol, they’ve had the same vibe (which isn’t a bad thing).
- Ethan always goes rogue. The only time he doesn’t is in M:I2.
- Ethan is saved by a cool lady in six of the eight films.
- The scope has gotten out of hand. Ethan has always traveled around the globe for his adventures, but The Final Reckoning really goes for it.
- Characters always remind Ethan that the mission is impossible.
- Ethan gets the job done
- Villains are almost always the weakest aspect (except for M:I3 and Fallout)
Quick Note – I’ve also figured out how far Cruise has sprinted since 1981 (here’s a ranking of all his running scenes). On top of his running, Fandom paid me to figure out Cruise’s average height across his films. The assignment was a bit insane, but it allowed me to watch his movies again. I’ve spent a lot of time watching Tom Cruise movies since 2018.
It’s because of these assignments that I was prepared for the bloated theatrics of The Final Reckoning. The Mission: Impossible franchise has a limited playbook (like all other franchises), but it excels at running its plays at an optimal and admirable level. The film revolves around Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) attempting to literally save the world from the AI antagonist dubbed “The Entity.” The all-powerful villain plans on taking control of the world’s nuclear arsenal and using it to blow up the world. To prevent the world from ending, Hunt needs to find a Russian nuclear submarine somewhere on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, so he can grab the Entity’s source code and use it against the sentient malware. Since the Mission: Impossible franchise loves problems on top of problems, Hunt has to deal with his nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales), while staying ahead of agent Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham and his giant hair) – who wants Ethan in jail. To defeat the Entity, Hunt and his makeshift team made up of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan David), have to travel around the world and accomplish impossible tasks that require perfect timing and terrible odds.
I expected the theatrics but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of dialogue used to explain how impossible all the tasks are. The weight of the expository dialogue drags down the experience and makes the first hour feel like a slog. That being said, the experience is still thoroughly enjoyable and the second half features two incredible set pieces built around a sunken submarine and an airplane chase that features at least 43 jaw-dropping moments. The almost $300 million budget can be seen on screen and the new characters played by Hannah Waddingham, Katy O’Brian, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Nick Offerman, Tramell Tillman (his line delivery is wonderful), and Holt McCallany (same) all pop on screen. Toss in returning characters played by Angela Bassett, Janet McTeer, Charles Parnell and Mark Gatiss – and you have a lot of movie.
I don’t want to spoil anything, just know that despite all the bloat you should watch this film on the biggest screen possible. The Mission: Impossible movies have always built their stories around action scenes, and the two featured in The Final Reckoning are bananas. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning) has a long history of filming second-unit action scenes for movies such as Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Kingsman: The Secret Service – so he knows how to capture action in thrilling ways. The production design from Gary Freeman (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Everest, Tomb Raider) is fantastic and the highlight of his work is the massive submerged submarine that must’ve needed a tremendous amount of gimbals to work. During production, the gigantic submarine (which cost 23 million Euros to make) got wedged into its 8.5 million litres tank. This delayed the production for several weeks, as the crew attempted to figure out how to make the giant scene work. I love how big Cruise goes to make his movies enjoyable.
Director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise have worked closely together since 2008’s Valkyrie (McQuarrie wrote the film), and they’ve become wildly successful collaborators. However, their successful partnership has seemingly created unchecked creative control which could explain why the M:I Reckoning films are jam-packed with so many ideas and characters. They’ve earned the right to guide the franchise wherever they want, but it would’ve been nice if someone told them to tighten the film up a bit.
Final Thoughts – Watch it on the biggest screen possible.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 622: Rapid Fire (1992), Brandon Lee, Sleeveless Shirts
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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Mark and Professor Mike Dillon discuss the 1992 action film Rapid Fire. Directed by Dwight H. Little, and starring Brandon Lee, Powers Boothe, and Kate Hodge, the movie is famous for giving Lee his first leading role in a Hollywood production. In this episode, they also talk about bratty protagonists, bowling alleys, and the excellence of Brandon Lee. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 621: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Camping, and Rock Climbing
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Mark and Niall discuss the infamous 1989 sequel Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Directed by William Shatner, and starring Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and William Shatner, the movie focuses on what happens when a god needs a starship. In this episode, they also talk about camping scenes, bad decisions and oops moments.
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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MY CALL: I hope you were looking for a flick that’s all sorts of gross. Because that’s what you’re going to get! MORE MOVIES LIKE Street Trash: Well, there’s obviously the original cult classic Street Trash (1987). For more “melt horror” consider The Devil’s Rain (1975), The Incredible Melting Man (1977), Slime City (1988), The Blob (1988), and Body Melt (1993). And for more South African horror, consider Zygote (2017), Fried Barry (2020) and Gaia (2021).
The future is wrought with corporate monopolies, government control, and an ever-shrinking middle class and growing lower class. Homeless populations have grown tremendously. To solve this problem, the mayor has ordered experiments on vagrants to test a toxic agent called Viper, which literally melts those exposed from the inside-out into piles of colorful gobbledygook.
As if competing with the opening scene from the 1987 original, the first death scene is a spectacle. Guts pour out of the victim’s abdomen onto the floor as he oozes purple slime from his eyes, ears and other orifices, including projectile vomit. His skin pulsates and sloughs off in big chonkety chunks as he screams and peels off his own face. The opening death scene award goes to 1987 in my opinion, but not for lack of a great effort from 2024, which is still extra gross and sloppy!
A goofy nice touch is that one homeless guy (Gary Green; Fried Barry) has a raunchy blue goblin imaginary friend (i.e., drug-induced schizoid delusion). Unfortunately, later in the movie this becomes more tired and annoying than charming and quirky. Also like 1987, there is a long-running severed phallus gag. So, yeah, in case you were wondering—it’s that kind of slapstick movie.
But the gore is why you showed up, right? Faces fall right off of skulls, bones melt and collapse under the victim’s own bodyweight, and slime geysers from bodily orifices. Victims pour out variously colored slime, they pulsate and bubble and rupture, they leave disembodied partially disintegrated limbs behind as they crawl for help, and they all become gross pieces of macabre performance art.
Director Ryan Kruger (Fried Barry) takes the short film-turned cult classic Street Trash(1984, 1987) and contemporizes it with corrupt government officials. This remake is just as deliberately classless as its source material—and I applaud that. The writing, acting, budget, effects and direction feel on par with the original as well. If anything, the greatest improvement is in its pacing. The greatest change is the form and implementation of Viper (just some old, mysterious liquor in 1987), now having a more deliberate RoboCop-ish (1987) utility in this dystopian corporate future. And speaking of RoboCop (1987), one death scene seems to homage the toxic waste mutant exploding when struck by a car.
The final 20-30 minutes are loaded with action. But we just keep seeing the same gore gags over and over again during clumsy action scenes. As much action as there was, I found this final act on the verge of boring with a few momentary exceptions—e.g., an exploding gory breast.
This remake certainly had its moments. But if I’m being totally honest, I favor original. They’re both fun bad movies. Yet 1987 just felt more organically “so bad it’s good.” Whereas this remake is trying too hard to be “so bad it’s good.”
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John’s Horror Corner: Grafted (2024), Face/Off meets Re-Animator-LITE in this gross medical body horror.
MY CALL: Combining elements of foreign horror, Face/Off (1997), and Re-Animator (1985) give this directorial debut much quirky spunk. MORE MOVIES LIKE Grafted: Not much). For more New Zealand horror, try Bad Taste (1987), Dead-Alive (1992), Black Sheep (2006), Housebound (2014), Deathgasm (2015) and What We Do in the Shadows (2015). For more regeneration-gone-wrong horror, I’d recommend Re-Animator (1985), Rejuvenator (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992), and The Substance (2024).
The daughter of a medical researcher, Wei (Joyena Sun) bears a large, discolored birthmark on her face. The opening death scene is an entertaining spectacle of an experimental skin graft-gone-wrong that regeneratively expands to seal its recipient’s mouth and nostrils shut, leading to her father’s death. Some time after losing her father to a horrible biomedical accident, she moves to New Zealand to live with her cousin (Jess Hong; 3 Body Problem) and aunt (Xiao Hu) for college.
Wei tries to make new friends, and does so in the nicest ways. But her culture, interests, and even her food are off-putting to these Kiwi-brand Mean Girls. So Wei’s only support comes from her professor (Jared Turner; 30 Days of Night).
Playing a bit off the aged coattails of Re-Animator (1985), Wei has her father’s research notebook and intends to continue this research as a lab assistant under her professor. And also like Re-Animator (1985), her academic superior aims to steal her research for personal gain.
Some Mean Girls blackmail her, a girlfight-turned accidental death transpires, a little medical self-mutilation, and some ad-hoc experimentation take the movie in an interesting direction. Throw in some Face/Off-esque (1997) face swapping and identity theft, and we have a proper vehicle for some catty-motivated revenge. Yeah, it gets weird.
This film offers a refreshing cultural crossover—the kind we need more often. Many of the characters speak Mandarin, the film takes place mostly in New Zealand, and it was written and directed by women. In fact, this was director Sasha Rainbow’s first feature film. This film is very well made, decently written and acted, and has just enough gore gags and murder to maintain good pacing. Pretty nice job!
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MY CALL: Another average horror anthology. This one has some good messages, yet lacks the execution to feel impactful. MORE MOVIES LIKE Horror Noire: For more “horror noir”, consider trying Def by Temptation (1990), A Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Tales from the Hood (1995), Bones (2001), Get Out (2017), Us (2019), Lovecraft Country (2020), Spell (2020), Candyman (2021), and Them (2021-2024). There is also the documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019).
MORE HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: Dead of Night (1945), Black Sabbath (1963), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Uncanny (1977), Screams of a Winter Night (1979), Creepshow (1982), Screamtime (1983), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), Deadtime Stories (1986), Creepshow 2 (1987), From a Whisper to a Scream (1987; aka The Offspring), After Midnight (1989), Tales from the Crypt Season 1 (1989), Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Grimm Prairie Tales (1990), The Willies (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Body Bags (1993), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Tales from the Hood (1995), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Campfire Tales (1997), Dark Tales of Japan (2004), 3 Extremes (2004), Creepshow 3 (2006), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Chillerama (2011), Little Deaths (2011), V/H/S (2012), The Theater Bizarre (2012), The ABCs of Death (2013), V/H/S 2 (2013), All Hallows’ Eve (2013), The Profane Exhibit (2013), The ABCs of Death 2 (2014), V/H/S Viral (2014), Southbound (2015), Tales of Halloween (2015), A Christmas Horror Story (2015), The ABCs of Death 2.5 (2016), Holidays (2016), Terrified (2017; aka Aterrados, a pseudo-anthology), Oats Studios, Vol. 1 (2017), Ghost Stories (2017), XX (2017), All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), The Field Guide to Evil (2018), Nightmare Cinema (2018), Blood Clots (2018), Deathcember (2019), Shudder’s series Creepshow (2019-2021), Scare Package (2019), The Mortuary Collection (2019), Xenophobia (2019), V/H/S/94 (2021), Netflix’s series Cabinet of Curiosities (2022), V/H/S/99 (2022), V/H/S/85 (2023) and V/H/S/Beyond (2024).
Whenever I encounter a horror movie that really fits my interests (e.g., horror anthologies) that was released years ago and I somehow never even heard of it, I wonder how it flew under my radar. Sometimes these under-advertised or (on streaming apps) under-auto-recommended movies become little hidden indie gems for whom I want to run down the halls of the internet announcing my accolades. And other times, well, there was perhaps a reason I hadn’t heard of them. Horror Noir unfortunately is the latter.
Still, for those seeking a variety grab-bag of horror concepts, this anthology features a giant spider, murderous cults, a siren-like lake monster, family curses, a doppelganger, magical runes, vampires, occult Nazi symbology, and some social commentary on black issues. In this case, there is a theme uniting all the stories. However, the theme does not link the stories or characters in any way.
So, let’s review the segments…
———————
The Lake—A single woman (Lesley-Ann Brandt; Lucifer, Spartacus) and her cat move into a lake house shortly after an alligator attack killed the local pastor and a child. In classic troped up style, a wise, old harbinger-type warns her not to swim in the lake and tells her the sad story. But, perhaps feeling drawn to the lake, or just dismissing the old man’s warnings, she swims in the lake and develops cravings. Her personality begins to change, and even her body changes.
This starts out okay and closes as dumb as it gets… even in terms of monster make-up.
Brand of Evil—A street artist (Brandon Mychal Smith; Appendage) is hired by a wealthy white man to illustrate a specific symbol based on vague verbal instructions. Yes, of course it looks like some magical rune or occult glyph or whatever. The pay is so good he turns his back on his community, and the demands for more illustrations come in fast. But as the commissioned symbols are completed, black people in the community die bloody deaths. The obvious themes here are temptation and greed overcoming duty, honor and loyalty (and everything else).
The premise is interesting, but the execution just isn’t there. The finale evil that is conjured is laughable and sadly cheapens the entire segment with hokiness.
Bride Before You—After desperately trying all honorable means to become pregnant to avoid being cast out by her husband (Sean Patrick Thomas; Halloween: Resurrection, Dracula 2000, The Burrowers), a wealthy woman (Lenora Crichlow; Being Human) seeks dark magic to solve her problems. After the birth of her son (Tyriq Withers; Him), the cost she paid is that her home is forever inhabited with a dark presence.
This was among the stronger segments… in at least some ways. Still, I’d just say watch Cobweb (2023) instead. But this one had stronger allegory in its resolution.
Fugue State—Cult researcher Dr. Berry (Malcolm Barrett; Preacher) is proselytized into a cult of his own investigation. It’s not riveting. But things get just weird enough to remain interesting as he attempts to convince his wife to join him to “church.” Maybe go watch something like Faults (2014) if you want the top tier version of this. But this wasn’t half bad, and it was nice seeing a cameo by Tony Todd (Final Destination, Hatchet, Wishmaster).
Daddy—A father receives an ominous warning from an elderly fellow, and then the father suffers a scare. He receives more, and less kind, fatherly anecdotes from the older stranger, and is overcome with a paranoid protectiveness of his son. We wander into an ill-executed “fear of the other” situation. Ultimately, there are good bones in this script. It just could have been done better.
Sundown—A campaign team for a black West Virginia political candidate find themselves stranded in a historically racist “sundown town” after dark. The creepy fiddle-playing mayor (Peter Stormare; Constantine) leads them to an evening dinner party with a questionable main course. This was the most fun segment, as it was horror-comedy and decently executed despite a painfully limited budget for the almost-all-off-screen action and gore.
———————
The production value in this anthology is good-ish (until you judge any gore or monster effects), the acting is fine-ish, but the content and writing itself seems to be the prevalent shortcoming. Still, this wasn’t bad. Not regrettable anyway. Just also not very recommendable.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 620: Alien 3 (1992), David Fincher and Sigourney Weaver
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Norbert discuss the infamous 1992 sequel Alien 3. Directed by David Fincher, and starring Sigourney Weaver, Charles Dance, Charles S. Dutton, and a super fast xenomorph, the movie focuses on what happens when a xenomorph runs amok inside an isolated prison. In this episode, they also talk about director’s cuts, troubled productions, and the Alien franchise.
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Fight or Flight (2025) – Review
Quick thoughts:
- Grade – B
- I can now say that I’ve seen Josh Hartnett and action movie legend Marko Zaror fight each other in a swanky airplane bathroom.
- Sporting a bleach-blond haircut, and a bulked-up frame that worked wonders for him in last year’s Trap. The 6’ 3” (1.91m) Hartnett towers over his opponents and believably holds his own.
- Charithra Chandran is cool.
- DP Matt Flannagan (The Raid, The Raid 2) knows how to film a fight.
Fight or Flight revolves around an ex-secret service agent and current alcoholic named Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) being pulled from a Bangkok bar to track down a blackhat terrorist nicknamed “The Ghost.” Reyes was once a respectable secret service agent, but after some job-related violence, Interpol slapped a Red Notice on him and for two years he’s been hounded by cops, bounty hunters and criminals. In a good news, bad news situation, Reyes has gotten into so many fights that he’s become a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing weapon who sports a year-round black eye. To take it further, Reyes is such a badass that even with a failing liver and permanent dehydration he can still fight his way out of any bar in Bangkok.
To catch “The Ghost,” Reyes is put on a 16-hour international flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. To get on the flight, his handler Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) gets him new passports and promises him a clean slate if he can bring in the uber-hacker alive. The “fight” in Flight or Flight occurs when Reyes learns that there’s a bounty on the infamous hacker. This means Reyes has to hunt down a ghost and keep them alive when dozens of money-hungry assassins start attacking them on the double-decker A3 plane. An added wrinkle is that since he’s been drinking himself to death for two years, Reyes has to keep chugging miniature bottles of booze to prevent the mother of all withdrawal hangovers – which won’t help him when he’s battling five assassins in the aisles of the economy seating section. During the violent flight, Reyes teams up with flight attendant Isha (Charithra Chandran), who helps him scour the plane and dispatch various killers throughout the seemingly endless compartments.
The highlights of Fight or Flight come from watching Harnett get stabbed, punched, shot, drugged, and loaded with toad venom. Sporting a bleach-blond haircut, and a bulked-up frame that worked wonders for him in last year’s Trap. The 6’ 3” (1.91m) Hartnett towers over his opponents and believably holds his own against action movie legend Marko Zaror (watch Fist of the Condor – it rules). In interviews, Harnett said that he had a great time doing his own stunts and he had a blast playing a badass alcoholic who has consumed so many intoxicants that attempts to drug him aren’t successful (you can’t pickle a pickle).
Directed by James Madigan, who is no stranger to action scenes because he’s worked as the second unit director on See, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Snake Eyes, The Meg, and G.I. Joe Retaliation. His background with visual effects and shooting action scenes allows Fight or Flight to stretch its budget so it can go all-out on the chaos. The cinematography from Matt Flannagan (The Raid, The Raid, Merantu, Havoc, Gangs of London) is self-assured and understands the movements and structure of each brawl. Flannagan has worked on some of the best action films of the 21st century, which means the fight coverage is solid and the various brawls aren’t edited into oblivion. The highlight of the film is a bathroom fight between Hartnett and Marko Zaror. It’s a brutal affair loaded with broken glass, spin kicks and brain matter being stuck to the ceiling of the spacious bathroom.
The high-concept script from writers Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona is inspired, and despite there being way too much plot and far too many characters, the 97 minutes fly by.
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Thunderbolts* (2025) – Review
Quick Thoughts:
- Grade – B
- Florence Pugh is perfection. She delivers one of the best-ever performances in an MCU film
- I like that it aspires to be nothing more than a fun movie (and a back-to-basics style experience)
- Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Sebastian Stan and Wyatt Russell work well together.
- Once again, Florence Pugh is really good. It’s no surprise, but Thunderbolts* proves she can lead giant tentpole films.
- It’s a clunky film with a lot of wedged-in dialogue for people who haven’t watched every single MCU movie/show, but it still manages to be a good time
- DP Andrew Droz Palermo (A Ghost Story, The Green Knight) and production designer Grace Yun (Hereditary, Past Lives, Beef, First Reformed) do good work within the MCU confines
- I want a party limo
After years of watching Marvel Cinematic Universe properties that feature sun restoration, Egyptian gods, pissed-off witches, quantum realms, and quip-loving gods, watching a group of earth-bound antiheroes bickering about how to escape an underground bunker is very refreshing. I love all-powerful shenanigans and pissed-off witches, but after years of CGI smack-em-ups, sometimes you need to watch a Russian assassin bicker with a “dime-store Captain America” about handgun size.” Thunderbolts* is not a return to form for the MCU, but it’s proof Kevin Feige and crew are attempting to refocus on engaging characters who team up with other engaging characters to battle world-ending threats.
Led by Florence Pugh, who gives an all-time best MCU performance, Thunderbolts* works because of its focus on superheroes who have a hard time lifting large pieces of building rubble. The film revolves around a melancholy Yelena Belova (Pugh), who after the events of Black Widow and Avengers: Endgame is working odd jobs for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). The off-the-book missions have her destroying well-guarded Malaysian laboratories and other black sites that house secrets Valentina would like buried. Yelena hasn’t talked to her “dad” Alexei “Red Guardian” Shostakov (David Harbour – loving life) in over a year, and when she finally visits him, he says “The light inside you is dim, even by Eastern European standards.” To get a “more public-facing” gig that will give her life some meaning, Helena makes a deal with de Fontaine (the “de” is stressed) to go on one more job. She’s tasked with stopping Ava “Ghost” Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) from breaking into a top secret location. During her mission, she’s attacked by John “US Agent” Walker (Wyatt Russell), who is in turn attacked by Antonia “Taskmaster” Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko). After a brief fight that releases a guy named Bob (Lewis Pullman) from cryo-sleep (or something like it), the group realizes they were sent to the location to be incinerated by de Fontaine – who because of a governmental inquiry is killing off loose ends. After surviving incineration, the collection of misfits work together to escape the cavernous facility in one of the funniest moments in MCU history.
As always, writing about MCU films is tough because there is a lot to spoil. I can say that there’s a great chase involving a “bulletproof” limo and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) gets a badass hero moment while riding a motorcycle. Also, it’s a delight watching the Thunderbolts* punching and shooting their way through villains. None of them can fly, so it’s nice that the ending doesn’t feature two all-powerful characters punching each other through buildings.
The script by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow) and Joanna Calo (The Bear, BoJack Horseman, Hacks) is fun and engaging and does a fine job smashing characters from several different properties together to create a likable team. The constant bickering and quippy lines don’t slow down the proceedings and David Harbour’s nonstop enthusiasm feels earnest instead of overbearing. The straightforward story is nice and it moves in a logical manner which allows the “anti-social tragedies in human form” to argue and bond. There are also small touches like Alexei’s limo business slogan “Protecting You From Boring Evening,” and in a nice grounding touch, the group is named after Yelena’s childhood soccer team.
DP Andrew Droz Palermo (A Ghost Story, The Green Knight) and production designer Grace Yun (Hereditary, Past Lives, Beef, First Reformed) do good work within the MCU confines and must’ve enjoyed adding a little bit of grit and texture to the blockbuster film. After Thor: Love and Thunder, Captain America: Brave New World, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s nice seeing an MCU film shooting in actual locations. There’s a lot of VFX involved and massive sets were built, but they don’t overpower the proceedings.
The MVP of the film is Florence Pugh, who delivers a thoughtful and impressive performance. The Academy Award-nominated actor has excelled in movies like Midsommar, Little Women, Lady Macbeth and Fighting With my Family, but with Thunderbolts* she proves she can lead a tentpole blockbuster. Between Black Widow and Hawkeye, Pugh’s Helena has been a solid supporting character, but now she’s ready to lead. You can tell that director Jake Schreier respects and trusts Pugh because he gives her a lot to do and lets the camera linger on her while she monologues and deals with her past.
Final Thoughts – Thunderbolts* is a good time and I’d love to see this group again.
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The Surfer (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts:
- Grade – B+
- Between Mandy, Color out of Space, Willy’s Wonderland, Longlegs, Arcadian, Dream Scenario and Prisoners of the Ghostland, Nicolas Cage has appeared in some wonderful genre films since 2016.
- I’d love to see a series of films featuring Cage having a terrible time in a parking lot.
- Director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium, The Surfer) loves trapping potential home buyers in a remote location.
- The usage of colors is excellent.
The best way to describe director Lorcan Finnegan’s latest film is that it features Nicolas Cage having a terrible time in a parking lot. The almost single-location film features another fun descent into madness for Cage who is no stranger to losing his mind for cinema. Between The Wicker Man, Mandy, Dream Scenario, Pig, and Color Out of Space, It’s fun watching the world attempting to squash him. Cage is one of cinema’s all-time great sufferers because you simultaneously feel bad for him as he suffers, but you kind of enjoy when a barefoot Cage steps on glass after getting a flat white coffee dumped on him.
The Surfer revolves around a stressed-out surfer (Cage) who takes his son to an Australian beach that is near his childhood home. After years of waiting and working tirelessly to raise funds, the sprawling beach house he grew up in has finally gone back on the market and he plans on spending the entirety of his amassed wealth acquiring it. His goal is that the house will help him reunite with his estranged wife (who wants him to sign their divorce papers) and son, whom he wants to spend more time with. The plan of the beach trip is for his son to see the beautiful house while waiting to catch an Indian Ocean wave. Before they can get in the water, they are stopped by local surfers led by a well-tanned dude with comically white teeth named Scally (Julian McMahon), who won’t allow them to surf the waves. This sets off a chain of events involving stolen surfboards, towed cars, dead phone batteries, and the consumption of dirty bathroom sink water.
The local police are no help, so the surfer lingers around the parking lot waiting for the perfect moment to retrieve his stolen surfboard (which never comes) From there, everything goes wrong as the single water fountain in the area is covered with dog poop, and the only person who is nice to him is a photographer (Miranda Tapsell) who helps him hold on to what’s left of his sanity.
You can almost feel Cage’s brain boiling as he drifts around the Australian parking lot looking for food, water and anybody who will listen to him. Finnegan and DP Radzek Ladczuk add a nice layer of hard light which adds to the sun-baked atmosphere that pays homage to the sun-baked worlds of epic Ozploitation films Wake in Fright and Walkabout. The use of colors is excellent as the rusty orange buildings, faded yellow memories and red hoodie that Scally wears work wonders for the overall aesthetic. Scally’s red hoodie helps him give off an evil Jesus vibe (which the director intended), and it pairs well with his absurd tan (and whiter-than-white teeth) that took 40 minutes to apply each shooting day.
Influenced by movies like The Swimmer (1968) and After Hours (1985), The Surfer is a classic “guy has a rough go of it” experience and it was an inspired idea to cast Cage as the guy who has a rough go of it. In an interview with Empire Magazine, Cage said that he listened to the House of Pain song “Jump Around” to let his “inner-caveman” out during the production – and it’s a joy watching his evolution from a stressed-out businessman to a raspy-voiced dehydrated guy with chapped lips and stomach pains caused by dirty water. It would be a shame to spoil how it ends, just know that the film explores toxic masculinity, crushed dreams, and successful stubbornness.
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