The End of the Page

Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Cruise Is Back!

Seriously, how hard is to not make a Scientology joke here.

Rating: 9 out of 10

There are moments when a new franchise trailer premieres in the theater and you can feel the audience sink in their seats, silently ashamed they are even being exposed to it. That is when you know the franchise has pitched into a nosedive, frantically attempting to make major and mostly useless changes to the equation in hopes of restarting it (and its profits). I remember feeling that way when Mission Impossible III rolled out. I went in predicting it would be bad, hoping only for some popcorn entertainment, but was denied even that small request. When Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol peeked around the bend,I had my doubts, but (as always) I gave it a shot. Dear readers, this is why I always take the chance, because it just might be everything it is cracked up to be.

I took a deep breath when I sat down for this one and rechristened my hope for some mindless action and big explosions. What I got was even better.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol picks up our master spy leader, Ethan Hunt, in a Russian prison for an unknown crime. He is extracted by the IMF to once again lead a team of agents into near certain doom as a crazed Russian patriot is trying to get his hands on nuclear launch codes to bring about Armageddon and the next phase of evolution. The chase leads the team across the globe, from the desert paradise of Dubai to the colorful opulence of India. From one step to the next, the action never ceases as the seconds tick down on the fate of the world.

The top of the bill talent alone is a who’s who list of grand slam Hollywood talent. Directed by Brad Bird, this Pixar native is bringing nothing but gold with The Incredibles and Ratatouille already under his belt. Produced in partnership with J.J. Abrams, who actually directed the unfortunate third chapter of this franchise, has hit a major stride while directing Star Trek and Super 8 and acting as Executive Producer for a slew of hit TV shows dominating the airwaves right now (Fringe, Person of Interest, and the upcoming Alcatraz).

In front of the camera, we witness the resurgence of the living legend, Tom Cruise. After a score of years where his personal life completely overwhelmed his on-screen persona, Cruise erupts back on the screen with the fierce intensity the audience has missed for so long. Coming on the heels of some rather underwhelming performances (Knight and Day, Valkyrie), Cruise slides back into the comfortable spy shoes of Hunt like he had never left at all. From the high-kicking fight sequences to the awe-inspiring stunts, Cruise does it all with such enthusiasm you might come to believe the man is made out of pure adrenaline. For Ghost Protocol, Cruise’s intensity and commitment truly lead this cast in the direction of success.

Riding high on the wake Cruise leaves behind, the rest of the cast keeps the momentum going. Jeremy Renner, continuing a meteoric rise to fame after his Oscar nominated turn in The Hurt Locker, gives the crowd a little taste of what we will see in the new Bourne movie (which he took the reins over from Matt Damon). Renner holds onto a lot of that emotional depth we saw in Hurt Locker, but also kick ass in the fashion we have come to expect in the big budget blockbusters. Simon Pegg brings the hilarity, showing once again his subtle style and dry wit, perfectly fitting into the silent moments between explosions and catchphrases. Pegg also got a little extra training for this when he worked under the guidance of Abrams in the recent Star Trek reboot. Rounding out the super spy team is the one real newcomer, Paula Patton, who simmers in virtually every scene she inhabits. Her performance in incredibly layered, something we are not entirely used to in the normally flat eye-candy action roles for women.

From the opening moments to the final fade, Ghost Protocol brings back the action movie genre to what it once was and reinvigorates a sliding franchise. This chapter has the style and intelligence of the original Mission Impossible, while still giving us something bigger and more exciting. So a final kudos must be given to the writers, Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who created a story that held together even under the pressure of stunt sequences which exceeded the ridiculous.

The End of the Page recommendation: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol brings the franchise back to its former glory. An action movie worth the ticket price.

Avengers Trailer (Oh yeah, the Hulk is in there too…)

by Luke Goldstein

The new trailer for The Avengers hit the web today and I must say overall I’m pleased. It captures a nice taste of the dark grit that everyone is shilling for after the success of The Dark Knight, but doesn’t let go of the tongue-in-cheek geek humor from the earlier parts of the Marvel series. Plus, how can you not have a good joke tossed in when Robert Downey Jr. is there?

There was one other nice moment, although completely tossed in at the end as if they forgot it in the original cut, which was finally seeing Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. I’m worried that overall he won’t play a very big part, but we’ll wait and see if that fear plays out.

What do you think of the trailer? Get excited to see the full flick?

Captain America: The Real Hero Lies Beneath the Mask

If I just act like nothing is blowing up behind me, maybe it will all go away.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Yes, this is yet another comic book superhero movie. Yes, this is another Marvel comic big-budget franchise trying to get off the ground. You might start to wonder why you should bother seeing any of these if a new one just hits the screens one month later. First off, it definitely helps to be a comic book fan from the start, but beyond that, in terms of pure movie magic and box office trending, this newest chapter gets a little boost from being the last in a long line of films leading to a culminating epic fanboys have been frothing over for years now…The Avengers! But, I’ll dip more into that later, for now, let’s look at the throwback hero of the group who takes us back to a time when heroes were not only cheered for their strength, but also for their conduct.

Captain America: The First Avenger details the transformation of a skinny kid named Steve Rogers into the national icon (and medically-induced super-soldier) known as Captain America. Rogers is created into this new evolution of man in order to combat Hydra, the deep science/black arts division of the Nazi army, led by a ruthless tyrant named Johann Schmidt, who is more frighteningly referred to as The Red Skull (you know, cause his face fell off and such). Captain America must prove to the people who gave him his powers, and to himself, that he was the right man to do the job of saving the world from utter annihilation.

I had fairly muted expectations going into this movie, mainly because Captain America is essentially a retro-hero, a classic clean-cut good guy with no character flaws. He always does the right thing, or at least attempts to, no matter the cost to himself. It flies in the face of everything we have been seeing in terms of comic book heroes over the last decade. The grief and anger of Batman, the drunken power trips or Spider-man, the ego and pride of Thor; all these traits give the characters layers that assist in making them human, someone the audience can try to relate to. Captain America really doesn’t have any of those flaws, but here’s the surprise…they made it work anyway. The opening thirty minutes of the film we see Steve Rogers pre-magic-roid-juice, where he is a ninety-pound poster boy for the “Before” shot in workout ad campaigns. In those early scenes his struggle is how to find a way to match his frail muscles outside with his unbreakable drive inside. We find ourselves in the hopeful spot of routing for the little guy (and I mean really, really little, like me in high school) and those opening scenes help pull the crowd in, hopefully holding them there through what comes later.

Once we lose the physicality of the “before” picture and it’s replaced with superhuman “after” shot, it loses a bit of the charm. Chris Evans should take no blame for this, in fact I think he was cast perfectly. He held on nicely to the innocence of his smaller self and truthfully brought to life the heroic nature of those comics from the late 40′s and early 50′s. The real downfall was that he didn’t face any real obstacle after he got his new physical form. We never really felt he was ever in any real danger because he could basically accomplish anything that came to mind, no matter how insane.

On the topic of the shield, our iconic piece of comic book memorabilia, I was torn on it. I liked the design and the fact it could get scuffed up, dirtied and otherwise sullied, but I would have appreciated one scene where we got to see him learn to throw it. Within one scene of him picking it up for the first time, he was chucking it around like a world-class discuss champion, fully expecting it to return to him, instead of wondering how the hell that worked. The minor flaw sort of mirrors the bigger issue that the latter half of the movie was really just a long montage of Captain America jumping, swinging, shield tossing and otherwise being heroic (lots of it in slow motion). The heart fell out of it and the movie descended into flashy colors and catch phrases.

In terms of the cast, as I said before, Chris Evans did a hell of a job and I look forward to him building up the character even more, hopefully with more internal struggles in movies to come. Sadly gone after the first thirty minutes, Stanley Tucci was wonderful as Dr. Abraham Erskine , the scientist behind the super-serum, which made the man out of the molehill. Tucci worked in such charm and natural flavor into his German accent and characterizations, I really wish he could have stayed on screen much longer.

Getting back to the real buzz around this movie, the next film in line for Marvel Studios is The Avengers, the first time any studio in the recent decades has tried to tie together a handful of other movie franchises into one single film. The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (who Jeremy Renner cameoed as in Thor) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) will all assemble on screen for the eagerly anticipated culmination of Marvel’s long term film plan. The genius inside is they are using all the original actors who made these roles so popular (with the exception of Hulk, who was played by Edward Norton in the franchise film and now replaced by Mark Ruffalo). For me, as a movie junkie, this is where the franchise will become something truly special. Just to see all those actors on screen playing off of each other is immediately worth the price of admission (and maybe a box of Raisinettes too).

The End of the Page recommendation: Captain America is a light-hearted throwback to the heroes of before, but the back half of the movie doesn’t hold up the charm and warmth of the opening. Matinee on the big screen could be valuable though, just for the special effects.

Thoughts? Are you looking forward to The Avengers?

The Hurt Locker: Exploding with Power and Passion

I’m from America. I’m here to liberate your country. Why don’t you trust me?

Rating: 9 out of 10

In the years since we proved the motto “these colors never run” don’t include instances of running into other people’s countries under wildly false pretenses; we’ve seen the theaters filled with film after film dealing with the incredibly varied viewpoints of the Iraq War. Some are for the war, many are against, but all deal with the stresses and toil that it takes on the soldiers sent over there to protect us from afar and protect the civilians in that country from themselves. The biggest fear for any film covering this topic now is whether the audiences have seen it all. What more could possibly be brought to light after the 24-hour news cycle has been raking this story over the coals for nearly eight years? The answer coming from Hollywood seems to be making the stories more and more personal, connect them to individual soldiers and stories, whether they are true or based on true situations. We know why they are fighting, but we don’t always know who they are and that’s what still intrigues audiences.

The Hurt Locker centers around a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, dealing with car bombs, IEDs and any variety of homemade roadside explosive device. A new unit leader, Staff Sergeant James, finds himself trying to keep unit cohesion while not letting go of his unorthodox style of bomb defusing. Tempers flare, egos are tested, but the whole group must find a way to work together in order to keep themselves alive in their constantly hostile surroundings.

“Rare” is the first word that comes to mind when I describe this movie. In a project filled with so much inherent tension, very few are able to walk the hair thin line between too much tension, which would shut your audience down in some numb coma-type state, or too little tension, which would leave your audience bored and feeling as if the subject matter was taken too lightly. The story, the pacing and the intensity is handled beautifully by director Kathryn Bigelow, who really has had a intensely varied style of filmmaking ranging from the epitome of surfer action flicks, Point Break, to the turn-of-the-millennium sci-fi acid trip, Strange Days. No matter where she brings her vision, it always results in something unique to the current filmic landscape. With Hurt Locker, Bigelow paints a picture of three soldiers with completely different outlooks on their situation and she manages to give them all equal weight, which is an accomplishment in itself. She also is very specific with her use of camera tricks, like slow motion, so when they do appear in the film they don’t get lost in a sea of quick cuts, lens flares or unnecessary explosions. Overall it was a great effort from Bigelow and should keep her in the good graces of the Hollywood system for years to come.

Taking on the stresses of the bomb-busting trio are Jeremy Renner (Staff Sergeant James), Anthony Mackie (Sergeant Sandborn) and Brian Geraghty (Specialist Eldridge). Renner takes the point position here and leads the trio through the film with a wildcat mentality and seemingly careless attitude towards death on the job. This might have come off as a one note performance for Renner were it not for the brilliant script and the arc which his character travels. Mackie and Geragthy both show their initial discomfort with working for their new unit leader in different fashions. Mackie does a great job keeping the strong face and trying to remind Renner that they are all a team and must work together, but Geragthy has a more youthful persona and he becomes an endearing soul to the audience, swinging back and forth between emotionally shell-shocked and frantically fighting for his own freedom. Truly toned performances all around.

The Hurt Locker feels a great deal like what The Kingdom wanted to be. A balanced social commentary about life on the ground in the war zone balanced with action and tension to keep the audiences involved and attuned to the fact they weren’t watching  a documentary.

Recommendation: If it is still playing in a theater near you, check it out. The sound design alone is reason enough to not wait for DVD. If you can’t catch it on the big screen, don’t worry, the performances and poignancy of the film still carries through. Plus, you could just turn up your TV really loud.