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I have been awake 24 hours so ill rewatch it again this week, a major positive is much of the script, there are some good easter eggs that tie the series together which is continued in 6. McQuarrie certainly injected a sense of direction into the series. One minor gripe is the score its not on the level of 1, 3, 4, 6 incidentally 5 is the only score in the series I have not bought.
Much like Bond though numerous films behind the MI:I series has mixed things up which you have to do for longevity which keeps it fresh, you cant keep making the same film over and over.
Having diverse films allows most people even none die hard fans to at least gravitate to one of the films.
A film to watch dependent on mood is always good.
I just wish Bond 25 was a fun exciting standalone mission, I am sure I read something somewhere that the arc is continuing from the other Craig films, I use the word arc lightly as it was shoehorned in.
Agreed on both points regarding 45 Years. The director, Andrew Haigh, released a film earlier this year called Lean on Pete, which sank at the box office but was a fine achievement. It will probably be on my best of 2018 list.
Popped up on Netflix last night. Familiar theme and a variation on a recent film that had a unique approach. Straightforward story, very intense at times. I liked this a lot. Recommend not watching a trailer for this one.
The Search for Weng Weng, Andrew Leavold, 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSr_Y7JE7UM
Documentary about 2'8" actor Weng Weng, a major box office draw in the 1980s Philippines plus with some success in the US and other markets. This matches my interests in low-budget action films of the 70s-80s, plus I'd seen most of his spy-related movies like For Y'ur Eyes Only and The Impossible Kid. Director is an Aussie film-lover and video store operator who chose to search out the story for what happened to the actor. He gets swept up in some unexpected activity, even getting sucked in to Imelda Marcos' birthday party (!) as a VIP (!!). Eventually reveals some detail about Weng Weng, whose small stature wasn't actually dwarfism according to the interviewees. His stuntman abilities, a necessity since a stunt double was pretty out of the question. There's a conflicted sadness to it all, with descriptions of the childlike thoughts of the man. And his simultaneous benefiting from the outright stardom, alongside the use/abuse by the producers that squeezed success out of him but didn't let him share in all the money they made.
After a great viewing of MI:GP last night, I watched my 4K copy of the next installment tonight. As @Fire_and_Ice_Returns noted earlier, this isn't as good a visual upgrade as the other films. The image is a bit saturated and speckly in some places but remarkably sharp in other areas. Why they didn’t run this one off a 4K master like the other films I don’t know. It’s a shame, but the picture itself is terrific, and so my enjoyment wasn’t spoiled.
Casting Alec Baldwin as Hunt’s CIA foil was a great move. His charisma is well known and he uses it to great effect here in small role. He has an ability to appear likable even while chewing out both Hunt and Brandt. I’m also a fan of Sean Harris as the villainous Syndicate mastermind Solomon Lane. It’s no surprise to me therefore that he was brought back for the latest film. He’s not especially imposing physically, but what he lacks in that department he more than makes up for with a sinister creepiness, accentuated by his nasally voice and bug eyed visage. Hunt and Lane have a personal animosity towards one another, and they play a game of mental chess throughout which is fun to watch.
There’s no doubt who the star of this installment is though. Rebecca Ferguson as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust is icy cool, stunningly attractive and immensely capable, which are all attributes I appreciate. McQuarrie films her in a manner which accentuates her best qualities, and Ferguson does the rest. Her character reminds me a lot of Anya Amasova or Holly Goodhead, but just modernized for today’s time. Ferguson's chemistry and light repartee with Cruise also evokes the Gilbert Moore era – it’s the combination of professionalism and duty to one's country with sexual tension which makes it interesting.
I know some have criticized this film for not having a standout stunt like the Burj climb in GP. While that’s true, I really like all of the setpiece stunts here, and particularly the magnificent Opera sequence which is just masterful and a joy to view. The combination of Puccini’s Turandot playing in the background interspersed with the Opera scenes and the many players trying to achieve their competing objectives backstage is wonderfully conceptualized and executed. I really enjoy the Moroccan underwater break-in as well and think it's a very innovative sequence. While the car chase is tense and fun, it’s the ensuing high speed bike pursuit which really impresses me – I love the way McQuarrie films it from overhead and also in line with the bikes as they meander through traffic – it really gives a sense of the speed and the risks.
I still rate this film as the best of the series (just), but look forward to revisiting Fallout once I get my hands on a UHD copy to see if it can dethrone it.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Bird Box, but felt Susanne Bier missed a trick with building more tension and suspense. The book has a better sense of paranoia and dread than Bier was able to bring to the screen.
Thanks I only started doing this about two years ago but honestly listing every movie I saw does actually help remind me of things as well as it’s just fun. Like I said I normally do two weeks worth of laundry while my wife works (she is a nurse and works every other weekends) and to make it more fun doing these retrospective series is fun I was nervous that no one was paying attention but glad to know someone is like I said for next year my main fun films will be Highlander Batman and probably 007 but I might have a few other mini retrospectives if o have the time and budget.
Very cool! Keep it up. I love Highlander and I’m happy that, although Hollywood keeps trying, they have thus far failed to do a remake/reboot!!
Speaking of Highlander, here is some useful information:
I thought so, @Revelator , but no one listened to me!
I just got back from CREED II. My girls came with me, the boy skipped this one.
Rocky films are all about heart; this film was no different.
Dolph puts in one helluva performance-- and no, I'm not being sarcastic. He was great as a broken down and abandoned experiment. He "wowed" me...
Viktor Drago, played by Florian Munteanu (an actual boxer), was frightening. That power he displayed can't be acted. This, ladies and gentleman, is what raw strength looks like.
Michael B. Jordan (the only reason why my girls came, although they came out with something more), is about the only young leading man who's worth watching right now, in my opinion. He's believable, likeable, intense and vulnerable. He's the complete package and exceptionally talented.
Stallone-- what can we say ? The guy created Rocky. Rocky is in his DNA. He's heart-breakingly good in the role to the point I will even watch ROCKY V any day of the week!!
This film is a success on many levels, but more so because they were able to make the cheese of (the great) ROCKY IV, into something poignant 35 years later. Kudos to them and this film will find a home in my Rocky collection, with ease.
45 yrs ago , x-mas '73......this guy was back :
Have to say I quite enjoyed it overall. But on the flip side the League is well below the Avengers standard.
Best scenes are the Batman intro and some of the Superman scenes.
I was quite pleased with Elfman's score too.
I watched it last night too. Im assuming that Willis knew that the stakes were suddenly a lot higher. It was no longer just a bravado-driven war of words between himself and Hans, but now his actions could get someone else killed.
(He has no direct influence over Takagi’s death).
In the last few years Villeneuve has impressed me with the way he deftly walks the line between art and commerce: Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival and now BR: 2049.
That's an impressive output.
Absolutely. Finally got hold of it myself a little while ago.
Last night, Dimi's girlfriend suggested that they watch THE SOUND OF MUSIC. "It's Christmas after all," she said.
Darth Dimi looked at her like the silly gal had gotten herself a Justin Bieber tattoo. He replied in horror,
"If you want a Christmas movie, I've got something better. Come over here, sit down and pay attention."
Dimi put on his silk gloves, unlocked the safe he keeps behind the large framed poster of Sean Connery and Ursula Andress on the beaches of Jamaica and gently took out a black, wooden box. After carefully levelling the box at the centre of the empty dinner table as a sign of complete reverence, and dimming the overhanging lights to minimalise the damage caused by the various physical agents in the room, Dimi exposed the contents of the box. He absorbed the scent of perfection and admired the gorgeous artwork before slipping a flat polycarbonate disc into his gloved right hand.
He closed the box, turned around and offered the disc to his BlyRay player like Agamemnon had offered his daughter Iphigeneia to please the Olympic gods before setting sail for Troy. Dimi's girlfriend, meanwhile, kept humming "The Hills Are Alive", a sign of demonic possession which Dimi knew perfectly well how to exorcise.
In a matter of seconds, George Lazenby had walked on screen, dropped on his knee before Dimi's girlfriend, and all the devilish sounds of music had vanished like a dark spirit leaving the fragile body of an anxiety-driven teenager. Instead, miracle after miracle unspooled before Dimi's girlfriend, culminating in the perfect Christmas scene atop the Swiss Alps, with John Barry's perfect compositions and some of the most elegant images ever frozen on film for Christmas decoration.
Two-and-a-half hours later, Dimi's girlfriend was proud to concede that Dimi had saved her life, her sanity, her joie-de-vivre. Singing Nuns and children in green drapes could have ruined Christmas as well as Dimi's desire for Earthly pleasures; ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE had, instead, provided the perfect escape. With a sense of foreboding, Dimi had replaced a terrible idea with a good one, Hell with Heaven, the curse of immaculation with the promise of keeping the British end up.
As Dimi carefully put the box back in his safe, he was already contemplating his new year's resolution. He closed his eyes and silently spoke the words, "Thank you, Peter Hunt, for one of the best Bond films ever made."