[Review] Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

In my recaps of the Mission: Impossible movies last week, I postulated that even in this most unpredictable of series, where tone, narrative and character are defined not by formula but the vision of whomever happens to be behind the camera, the movies tend to alternate between the character-driven suspense of the first and third […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

After Mission: Impossible 3‘s straight-faced, character-driven approach made a messy attempt at returning the series to the first movie‘s cereberal roots, Ghost Protocol seems a natural companion piece to Mission: Impossible II. For one thing, Ethan’s hair has grown long again, while the movie adopts the same all bombast, all the time style which John Woo […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

Following the widely-derided Mission: Impossible 2, the series remained dormant for a full six years before JJ Abrams, then best known for his work on TV spy series Alias, was brought onboard to try and resurrect it. Star Tom Cruise was also in need of a vehicle to win back his place in the heart […]

Trailer for Victoria Teases Entire Film Shot in One Take

[youtube id=”DbEO-_2XwbE”] The “trend” of long takes has been growing in recent years thanks to films like Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men and Gravity and, most recently, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). In fact, both Gravity and Birdman were huge hits at the past two Oscars, with each film winning a plethora of awards, including Best Cinematography and Best Director (amongst […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible (1996)

Ahead of the release of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation this Friday, I’m going to be looking back at the four previous installments in the series to chart the evolution from one film to the next and see how well they individually hold up. The M:I movies are especially interesting in this regard because where most […]

New SPECTRE Trailer Reboots The James Bond Iconography

[youtube id=”LTDaET-JweU”] With the end of Skyfall having left Daniel Craig’s rebooted James Bond at effectively the same point in his timeline where his predecessors started, the latest trailer for SPECTRE, set for release in the UK on October 26th and the rest of the world on November 7th, sets up much of the series’ […]

[Review] Terminator: Genisys

Terminator: Genisys didn’t have the easiest start in life, having been revealed in a series of cast photos for Entertainment Now so ridiculously posed and doctored that they looked more like a deliberate parody of overwrought movie marketing than serious promotional material. The first trailer, seen below, didn’t inspire much greater enthusiasm, relying heavily on callbacks […]

[Review] Jurassic World

Many people expected Jurassic World to be a hit, though few would have predicted quite how big a hit it would turn out to be. In retrospect, it’s easy to appreciate how complete the movie’s formula actually is: dinosaurs will always be a major draw for children, especially when fighting other dinosaurs, while older viewers […]