Category Archives: Relationships

Movie Review: Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning

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The good news is that, to ultimately save the life of Tom Cruise and any number of stuntmen who create the most dangerous movie stunts in the history of film, this eighth installment., “Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning” will most likely be the very last Mission Impossible movie. The problem with insane stunts like these is that for each new film, the producers always try to top themselves, and one day, during one mundane take of an action sequence, someone is going to be killed.

This new movie now has the most dangerous stunt scenes ever filmed, including the climax with two biplanes and Tom Cruise wingwalking, and climbing around both airplanes with a high probability of instant death. Some videos about these stunts explain the years of planning and risk involved (included in this blog) as Tom Cruise has once again topped himself, but has put his life in the most extreme danger in this movie.

As far as the rest of this 2-hour and 49-minute action film, there are times when the story is rather slow with a plotline that is overly crazy and complex, about a worldwide AI virus and the series of tasks required to find the source code and then trap the virus to save the world. There are also very dangerous scenes on a submarine where Tom Cruise spends a long period underwater looking for this container that, along with another device, is needed to trap the AI virus that is putting the world on the brink of nuclear war. This part of the action is the most far-fetched, with Tom Cruise at one point without a diving suit very deep in freezing cold water, something that would definitely kill any human being.

The rest of the cast includes the two regulars in this long-running movie franchise, including Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, with Hayley Atwell as Grace, and did not include Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust who has been Ethan Hunt’s long-term love interest and was in the last Mission Impossible movie released in 2023. This is because she was killed off in the last movie, something I did not like about the previous Mission: Impossible film. I also thought the ending of this film was too similar to the ending of Mission: Impossible Fallout, released in 2018, and the film was unnecessarily long.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film are an anemic 80%, mainly due to the overly complex and convoluted plot, with my rating 100% for the incredible action scenes and a solid 85% for this movie.

Movie Review: The Friend

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The new movie “The Friend” has a very simple logline. An older man, Walter, played by Bill Murray, decides to commit suicide and leave his Great Dane, named Apollo, with a friend Iris, played by Naomi Watts. What follows in this story is the grief that Iris experiences after losing a close friend, the many difficulties in trying to take care of a giant dog, and her landlord’s constant reminders that dogs are not allowed in her rent-controlled apartment.

This movie is filmed entirely in New York City, following Iris continuing with her professional and personal life despite the many challenges she suddenly faces after her friend dies, coping with both grief and anger. There are more flashback scenes with Bill Murray towards the end of this film, that show the depth fo this friendship between Ira and Walter.

Most of the good moments of this story are about the personality and likability of the dog when he demonstrates a high level of intelligence including several moments of sadness in his eyes, after Watler dies early in the film. From ChatGPT: “Great Danes are considered a giant breed, and unfortunately, larger dogs tend to have shorter lifespans compared to smaller breeds. Some of the most common health issues that can affect their longevity include: Bone Cancer, Heart Disease, Hip Dysplasia and Gastric Torsion.“

I thought the ending was well done, with Iris struggling to find a solution to the landlord forcing her to get rid of the dog that she has grown to love.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for The Friend is a very high 86% with my rating around 80% with an overall running time that could have been shorter, due to the very simple story.

Movie Review: Babygirl

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It is hard to fully understand why in the last few weeks, two major respected and well-known actresses, Amy Adams in “Nightbitch” and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” both with many credits and 30 years+ in the industry would make two movies that involved degrading and humiliating themselves. Both Kidman and Adams have millions of dollars, with Kidman having won one Oscar and 5 nominations and Adams having 6 nominations. Considering Adams and Kidman’s clout in Hollywood that includes the ability to take or reject any project they want, it is hard to understand why either of them would take projects like these.

The story of Babygirl is of an older woman in her late 50s, who is the CEO of a major manufacturing company and is only sexually satisfied by being humiliated. This humiliation includes being ordered around and even being told to drink milk from a plate like a house cat, reminding me of the scene where Amy Adams ate raw meat like a dog in a cafeteria in front of many onlookers. What is going on during some of the recent last movies to be released at the end of 2024? At a certain age, Adams is 50 and Kidman is 57, there has to come a time when an actor realizes, as they said many times during the four “Legal Weapon” movies, “I am too old for this sh**”.

I found most of Babygirl difficult to watch, at times even feeling sorry for Nicole Kidman taking this role. There is not much of a story here, other than some masochistic sexual encounters between Romy, played by Kidman, and a young man who is an intern at her company Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson. There is also conflict between Samuel and Romy’s husband Jacob played by Antonio Banderas, when he finds out about Romy’s affair, nothing new there.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Babygirl are way too high at 78%, with my rating at 60%, which is the consensus review on IMDB and a recommendation to miss this film.