In the history of movies, it has been rare that two highly advertised mega movies have been released in the same weekend. This time around with Oppenheimer and Barbie, the interest has been so high that the names “Oppenbarbie” and “Barbenheimer”, were created, based on the order the masses are planning to see these two new films. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for both movies are also very high with 94% for Oppenheimer and 90% for Barbie. The 94% for the 3-hour Oppenheimer makes some sense, but the 90% for a mostly bad Barbie film, is crazy.

Due to curiously, this blog, and the insane high ratings for Barbie, I decided to waste two hours, hoping that the trailers and the news reports about this film did not show what this movie was really all about. Unfortunately, the trailers are mostly accurate, showing what is a ridiculous series of disconnected scenes, cartoon-like sets, and even some unexpected musical numbers. This film on the whole looked like it could mark some level of career suicide for both Margo Robbie and Ryan Gosling, yet another reason why the 90% ratings make no sense here.

There are some honorable attempts at providing some very good messages about life and death and how difficult it can be to be a woman – including the speech from America Ferrera, that practically steals the entire movie. None of the attempted messages and camp absurdity are enough to save a screenplay written by husband and wife, Gretta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, where it seems they were commissioned by a major studio to complete the impossible task of – “writing a screenplay about the Barbie Doll, because name recognition will auto-create the box office”. Most of the attempts at humor failed, realized from the very few laughs in the large audience I was in. Baumbach and Gerwig, who also directed this film, knew that making a movie like this straight would never work, so they went in the only direction they could, but some movie ideas are impossible to save.

Other actors that appear in this movie include, Kate McKinnon, whose great comedic talents are mostly wasted, the same for Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, and Rhea Perlman.

With the release of Oppenheimer and Barbie on the same weekend, it will be interesting to see how the box office plays out, as now for well over a year, the world is past the movie theater disaster that was created by the Pandemic of 2020.

My rating for this movie is 50% and only for young girls who have had Barbie dolls, never for adults, other than those with sleeping disorders or who see this movie after smoking weed.

The newest Mission Impossible movie, “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is another huge special effects action movie where the amazing action scenes are designed and created first, and the screenplay is later reverse-engineered to incorporate the special effects. The difference with a film like this is that the quality of the entire production overwhelms some of the logic that makes no sense and the action scenes that are over the top crazy – but not low quality like most of the Fast and Furious movies.

There is a good deal of action within this film, but most of it is towards the end, with the best scene involving a train that is slowly falling car by car off of a huge cliff. In terms of a train action scene, this has to be the best one ever filmed, and even includes some moments of weightlessness. The big event is the many times shown, motorcycle jump with Ethan Hunt trying to get on the runaway train, by parachuting off of a mountain, and this could be the most impressive stunt ever attempted.

The story has some similarities to the recent Indiana Jones movie where two parts of a key have to be found, connected and then used to access something. In the case of the Indian Jones movie, the two parts are for a time machine, in this movie, the key has an unknown use, to somehow stop an invisible software AI bomb that can destroy the world. I thought that the invisible software AI part of the story, even though it was central to the entire plot, was at times too far-fetched with the two parts of this key, and then the connected key, changing hands too many times.

All of the central characters from the Mission Impossible movies return including Ving Rhames as Luther,
Simon Pegg as Benji, of course, Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and in more recent films, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust and Vanessa Kirby as the White Widow. The main villain in this installment is Gabriel, played by Esai Morales. The acting is very good throughout, with fight scenes that were well done, but one that seemed out of place, considering who the character was.

For my money, the best Mission Impossible movie was Ghost Protocol released in 2012, where Tom Cruise ran down the side of the worlds tallest building, with only piano wire saving him from certain death. The problem with extreme stunts is that it seems only a matter of time, before a huge tragedy happens, no matter how carefully rehearsed and researched the stunts are.

This movie is the first of 2 parts, with the second movie released next year.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this film is a very high 98%, with my rating at 95%, mainly for some obvious holes in the story.