Jack Reacher 2012 8 out of 10

Jack Reacher 2012 8 out of 10

A sniper takes out what appears to be five random people.  When interrogated the sniper simply writes the word " Get Jack Reacher". 

Jack Reacher is played by Tom Cruise who is an ex military investigator with a grudge against the man in custody and shows up hoping to see him put away.  But when he begins to look into the case some things don't add up.  And then someone pays some thugs to have him beat up to discourage his investigation.   Bad idea....Jack kicks some ass and gets deeper into uncovering the mystery behind what is really going on.  The cast includes the beautiful Rosamund Pike as the defense attorney that helps him investigate the shooting.  Robert Duvall is great in a supporting role.

Tom Cruise --may be a crazy Scientologist in real life,  but he is definitely a movie star.  He has that "IT" factor on screen.  This movie could have been a TV episode on some cool action mystery series like Castle.  The story is fairly simple.  The action isn't Mission Impossible over the top on the side of a building and feels more realistic.  Tom Cruise elevates what could be a standard film with his portrayal of Jack Reacher.  The character he plays which is based on a book series --is like a cool investigator version of Jason Bourne.    I really liked this film and now look forward to seeing the sequel.

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Edge of Tomorrow 2015 9 out of 10

Edge of Tomorrow   2015  9 out of 10

The Story

The best way to describe Edge of Tomorrow is to take Groundhog’s Day and mix it with Starship Troopers or Aliens.  It is a bad ass Sci-Fi Time Loop movie that stars Tom Cruise as the main character Cage.

It is a story about a marketing guy for the military that has never seen combat before being thrust onto the front lines of a D-Day style invasion against an Alien enemy.  Something strange happens to him during the battle and he dies…only to wake at the exact same place he was the last time he woke up.

This is a great high concept film that plays out just like Groundhog’s Day as we see Cage’s character grow and change as a character as he lives this day over and over again.  The movie does an excellent job of showing Tom’s character progress through the day like it is a brutal old school video game without a save.  Everytime he dies he has to start all over again.  One wonders while watching the film how many thousands of times has he already lived this day.  At one point you can feel his character want to give up…like kid that has wasted all of his quarters at the arcade that can never seem to get to the end of the game to face the final enemy.

The Cast

Whatever you may think about Tom Cruise  (I’ve seen that documentary on Scientology),  he was perfectly cast in this movie.  He was able to nail the role as both the cowardly media guy at the beginning of the film as well as the confident kick ass warrior and hero he becomes by the end of the movie.   Emily Blunt  does a good job as his mentor and companion throughout the film who had the same time loop thing happen to her previously, before she lost the ability).  Bill Paxton (one of my favorites) plays an army sergent in the film to perfection.

The Special FX

The special FX were great.  The Aliens seemed extremely lethal and the D-Day style landing and battle that the main characters takes part in was epic.

I would definitely recommend this to any fans of Groundhog’s Day and Aliens.   It perfectly mixes the genres and includes its own fun sense of humor that was an unexpected bonus to the film.  Just see it ...you won't be disappointed.

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Minority Report: A Movie and TV Show review

I watched the first episode of the new FOX sci-fi show Minority Report the other day and really enjoyed it.    I heard the ratings were not that good and this saddened me---because I believe the show has a lot of potential and fear it getting cancelled too early.  
2 Episodes in I decided to revisit the movie as well which is basically a springboard for the show.   Here are my thoughts on both the movie and the show.

Minority Report :  The Movie  9 out of 10  2002

I loved this movie.  It is probably my favorite movies that Tom Cruise has been in.   A big factor in my loving the movie is that it was directed by my favorite director Steven Spielberg who as far as I'm concerned can do no wrong.  Another factor is that it was based on a Phillip K Dick story.   Some of the best sci-fi movies have been based on Phillip K Dick stories such as Blade Runner and Total Recall…..This movie belongs in that great class of films.

The plot is kind of like the plot for Logan’s Run  --in that the main character is a cop that ends up on the run himself.   In Logan’s Run the main character is a cop that has to hunt down anyone that runs once their lifespan has been scheduled to expire.  In Minority Report the main character played by Tom Cruise is a cop that arrests criminals before they commit crimes based on a program called Pre-Crime.  Pre-Crime relies on three precognitive telepaths that are able to see murders before they happen.   The problem is all of a sudden his name shows up as a murderer and he runs knowing that he doesn’t plan to murder anyone.   The movie follows him as he tries to prove that he is innocent and uncovers some things about the program that throw the whole program into doubt.

The movie has a fun and exciting plot with some solid action sequences.   The look at the future is visually appealing and some of the concepts from this  2001 film feel like they are starting to happen already.   Speilberg is one of the best there is and as usual delivers a good film with  a satisfying ending…. If you like Sci-Fi and Spielberg this film is a must see.

Here is the trailer for the film

The TV Show:

The TV show is off to a great start with a story that jumps off from the film years later as Pre-Crime has been abolished.   The Precogs  that were sent to live a normal life at the end of the film are now the center of this TV show.   The story follows one of the Precogs (played by Stark Sands)  that has taken upon himself to try and stop the murders.  He secretly teams up with a cop (played by Megan Good)  and together they try to solve crimes together.  Megan Good is excellent as the cop and Stark Sands (interesting name) plays socially awkward well as Dash.  This is a typical fish out of water cop team up story like Castle or Sleepy Hollow with he interesting twist  being the Precogs themselves.   There is an interesting background story involving the 3 Precogs that I hope the show gets around to revealing.   The show feels like a natural extension of the movie incorporating many familiar elements. 
This isn’t a reboot –but instead a cool sequel that makes use of the cool elements from the film.  Check the show out while you still can

Here is the trailer for the TV show

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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol 2011 6 out of 10

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol   2011   6 out of 10

This is the fourth adventure for Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt.  

Ghost Protocol was a good solid action movie, but I wasn't as impressed as everyone else was apparently.  The story focuses on Ethan Hunt and a team of agents that basically trying to stop a rouge nuclear launch while under the radar since they are blamed for an explosion at the Kremlin.  The action sequences (despite Cruise's awkward running style)  were good.   Jeremy Reener did a good job as the reluctant ex field agent that ends up a part of the action. The movie just lacked for me some of the cool elements that  I had really enjoyed  in Mission Impossible 3.    Mission Impossible 3 which I had watched earlier this year got me interested in a franchise that I had bailed on after the dismal Mission Impossible 2 which I.  Ghost Protocol was good... just not to the level of James Bond or even Tom Cruise's own  (over the top and silly)  Knight and Day from 2010.      It wasn't even as good to me as some of the really good episodes of the Spy -comedy TV series Chuck.  It treaded too familiar ground in many scenes like ----let's have the hot women seduce and steal the codes from the rich bad guy....which quite frankly was done better on Chuck and recently with a twist on  Agents of Shield.   

The story just didn't capture me as much as Mission Impossible 3 which had a much better villain.   The missile scene at the end seemed ridiculous,  anyone who has seen War Games would know that a missile launch like that would have an immediate response so I just couldn't buy into.  For every interesting  sequence like the car parking structure battle at the end of the film that worked really well---there was an uninteresing one like the chase through the sandstorm just didn't work.  I'd say it is worth checking out if you like spy movies, but I definitely wouldn't rate it as highly as most people do.  I'd say it ranks 3rd amonst the 4  Mission Impossible films.

 

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Oblivion 2013 5 out of 10

Oblivion 2013  5 out of 10

I found myself uncertain exactly how to feel after watching Oblivion.  It was directed by the director that did the stunning  Tron Legacy  so I was excited to finally see it.    The film had great special effects, but the movie itself wasn't so great.    This sci-fi movie stars Tom Cruise in a "Last Man on Earth"  type movie about a worker whose job it is to go down to the planet and repair patrol drones.  He has a girl partner that operates out of a platform above the earth they are stationed on.   Earth was devastated by a war that happened after an interstellar invasion and is pretty much void of life.  Of course ever Last Man on Earth story you find out that they are really the Last Man on Earth and Oblivion is no different in that respect.    The movie  suffered from the same problem that most "Last Man of Earth" films suffer from....a really slow pace with only that one character on screen for quite ahwile.    The movie develops and has on ok,  but predictable story until a certain interesting twist.  The only problem is that by the time the twist happens I'd lost interest in the main character and the story and started looking at my watch wondering how much longer the movie was.   Despite the cool twist the movie ends with a very lazy and typical sci-fi invasion ending that I've seen dozens of times before.     After watching the film I went online and was surprised to see great review after great review from people talking about how stunning and amazing it was.   I have to disagree and I probably wouldn't see this movie again.  The best I can give it is a   5 out of 10.

Knight and Day 2010 7 out of 10

Knight and Day 2010  7 out of 10

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in this action/spy/comedy.  Cruise basically plays  a  comic book version of his Ethan Hunt Mission Impossible character and Diaz stars as the random girl that gets caught up in his adventures.  The film was fun despite being like a cartoon version of a spy film.  It is more a comedy than a true action film although there is quite a bit of action in the film.   It starts out with a silly bit of action on an airplane where every passenger other than Cameron's character is an agent trying to kill Cruise's character.   He takes each one of them out while Cameron is in the restroom completely unaware of the Austin Powers like melee happening aboard the plane.    The action was  so over the top to the point of complete unbelievability (especially with some of the bad CGI), but yet it was still a fun film as long as you don't take it seriously.   The drawback of being so over the top silly is that you definitely never feel that the characters are ever really in danger like say in a Bond film where characters can die.  If you can embrace the silly cartoonish nature of the film then the bad CGI running of the bulls on a motorcycle actually becomes an enjoyable scene.  If you are looking for Mission Impossible 3 you may be disappointed, but if you just want a fun silly action comedy than check it out.

Mission Impossible 3 2006 8 out of 10

Mission Impossible 3    2006    8 out of 10

I had tuned out the Mission Impossible series after the disaster that was Mission Impossible 2.  MI2 was one of the worst big budget sequels I had seen at the time and I just really didn't want to see number 3 after my experience with number 2.    Well MI3 played the other night on TV and I decided to DVR it and give it a chance since its director J.J. Abrams will be at the helm of my beloved Star Wars franchise.  Having not liked the Star Trek reboot ...but having liked some of his other work I wanted to see what he did with Mission Impossible.    I'm glad to say that MI2 was actually pretty good.   Tom Cruise again stars as Ethan Hunt a spy that always seems to be dealing with double crosses (if I was this dude I wouldn't trust anyone).  Mission Impossible 3 delivers with some exciting action sequences and a good story, plus the bonus of having the strong acting of Phillip Seymour Hoffman who makes for a much better villain than the recent Bond flick (which I thought was just odd).   Mission Impossible 3 is a solid 8 out of 10.  I'll have to check out the well received MI4 now.  As far as my thoughts on Abrams......I think he is a capable director that has a good chance to do Star Wars right......but I'm still a little worried for the Star Wars franchise to be in his hands.

Rock of Ages 3 out of 10 2012

Rock of Ages   3 out of 10   2012

Rock of Ages was a totally mess.   The movie is set in the late 80's and is basically just a nostalgic musical journey to the music of that time.  The movie itself is a plot less, pointless, cheesy excuse for a movie with the best performance coming from a baboon named Hey Man.   If I wanted to just listen to some 1980's music any hour of old school MTV  would have been more enjoyable.    I'd much rather hear the actual songs  than this cast doing covers of those songs in a story that seemed to be written as an after thought.   

Julianne Hough was the only bright spot in the cast as the sterotypical midwestern girl heading to LA for fame and fortune. Tom Cruise as the Axel Rose like singer was just an odd  casting choice.  Russell Brand confirmed the fact that he isn't an actor and instead just plays a version of himself on screen.   Paul Giamatti's talents are wasted in this movie in a role that may have well been straight out of an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.   There are a few okay jokes here and there amongst the paper thin plot---but basically this movie  (if it can be called a movie)  just hopes that you will be caught up in songs that you used to love that you will ignore the lack of any substance in the film.    The songs are good, but none of them are favorites of mine from that era that I lived in.   You are better off heading down to a local bar and catching an 80's cover band than sitting through this so called movie or popping in an old VHS tape of an hour of MTV  than sitting through this movie.   I would definitely not sit through this film a second time and I like some cheesy movies.