DISAVOWED, again and again

 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION (2015)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

After the grandly entertaining and furiously intense "Ghost Protocol," I came in with higher expectations for "Rogue Nation," the fifth in the "Mission: Impossible" movies. I rank it higher than the first three in the series but it is not nearly as explosive as "Ghost Protocol." Still, I imagine you will not leave wanting more after it is over but you might still want more depth.

As "Rogue Nation," the crazy Tom Cruise plays the equally insane Ethan Hunt, a daredevil of an IMF agent, who has to get a "package" inside an airbus. How does he do it? He grabs onto the outside of a plane as it takes off and is waiting for his computer hacker agent, Benji (Simon Pegg, always animated and comical fun) to deactivate the door to enter. This is an astounding sequence to marvel at and you almost assume Cruise must have had a safety wire attached to him (apparently, he did not) but it is not nearly as hair-raising as the Burj Khalifa tower climbing scene from "Ghost Protocol." Nevertheless, this erratic sequel begins and eventually IMF is dissolved by a disapproving Senate committee and a blustery CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) due to the IMF agents embroiled (though not responsible for) the Kremlin bombing last seen in "Ghost Protocol." Meanwhile, Ethan is nearly tortured to death before being saved by a possibly duplicitous undercover MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) - she has been "disavowed." Hunt is a wanted man and IMF no longer has any function. "He is a man without a country," a quote I've heard many times in other similar movies but I don't go to hear original lines of dialogue in a "Mission: Impossible" movie. Everyone is always getting "disavowed" in these movies. 

"Rogue Nation" is fast becoming a nerve-jangling James Bond-type series with impossible, improbable stunts, shootings, elongated fistfights, and vehicle chases in cars and motorcycles at impossibly fast speeds. There is also an underwater sequence that almost made my heart stop. A "Turandot" opera sequence involving an assassination attempt brings up memories of Hitchcock and Puccini, both I love so I am good with seeing both. The ending is a little underwhelming which involves Britain's Prime Minister and the whole business of a data file with the identities of "The Syndicate," operatives who may have been MI6 agents, is not the most interesting MacGuffin since these movies always feature discs or encrypted data files. Of course, it all comes down to money, money, money, hence why I found it less than an enthusiastic finish.

As I said, I don't care too much about the MacGuffins but I still wanted to know more about Ethan Hunt and, after five movies, we don't know much at all. Since he is a superspy to a degree, I guess the enigma makes sense. I don't think he goes home much. 

Quarantine and aliens in an unreal town

 ASTEROID CITY (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I love reading and watching anything involving the 1950's, a time that had an implied turbulence about it without making itself manifest. There were atomic bomb testings in the desert, racism was sky high, economy was booming yet the Red Scare was full-throttle and the Roswell alleged alien ship crash was the government conspiracy of the day. Watching Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City" reminded me of the implications of an era when all seemed well, but really wasn't. Here we have people arriving at a pastel colored desert landscape spot whose only reason for existence is the novelty of an enormous impact crater. When "Asteroid City" focuses on the desert landscape, I was enthralled. When director Anderson switches to the black-and-white footage of a teleplay in progress titled "Asteroid City," I felt lost despite its clever meta narrative which is all too familiar at this point.

The fictional Southwest desert town of Asteroid City is phenomenally presented. We see the gas station, the cafe, the rock formations that look like papier mache constructs, and the various bungalows for rent. It is an astounding sequence, beautifully filmed in one take by Wes Anderson and his imaginative frequent cinematographer Robert Yeoman. Once we are set up with the characters, they are a quirky bunch that includes Jason Schwartzman as Augie Steenbeck, a war photographer who has brought along his "brainiac" son, his three daughters, and his wife's ashes in a Tupperware container; Scarlett Johansson as a movie star actress, Midge Campbell, who covers up her eye bruises with her sunglasses; General Grif Gibson (Jeffrey Wright) who opens the Stargazer Awards ceremonies with spun tales that sound like newspaper headlines; Tom Hanks as the grandfather of Steenbeck's kids who senses serenity in this town, and Tilda Swinton as a scientist at the observatory. 

There is also Bryan Cranston as a TV host of the play "Asteroid City" though I was left aghast at the inclusion of this box-within-the box ploy. When Anderson switches to a 1.37: 1 aspect ratio of the black-and-white play and the semi-documentary about the play, I was confused and simply bewildered. What is the point of such scenes that are rather flat despite a cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Margot Robbie and others. These scenes have none of the spark of inspiration from the pastel colored hues of the town itself and are rather dull. Nothing compares to the buoyancy and whimsical nature of Asteroid City and its inhabitants (one of the renters of the bungalows has to settle for a tent due to an electrical fire). In fact, many of the jokes and visual puns really work and made me laugh like the addition of several vending machines, one of which can be used to buy a small plot of land that won't be worth much for 50 years, and an alien that shows up at the crater and steals the small asteroid. I also adore the smart, alert teenagers who love science and create contraptions that could almost disintegrate someone. To top it all off, there is a military quarantine order thanks to that googly-eyed alien.

"Asteroid City" is a decent, marginally entertaining Wes Anderson flick and you'll admire its originality and its audacity. Still, the constant switches to its teleplay origins will leave you with a headache. If we are to think that this fictional city is just a construct, isn't that obvious from its placid, prefab-looking, pastel-colored setting that makes you feel like drinking a glass of orange juice or the cartoonish critter that runs through the sole road that cuts through this town? These unreal, colorful and dramatic scenes already look like a Warner Brothers cartoon. I don't need Bryan Cranston to remind me.

Indy's past is his history

 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I had to check myself while watching "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" in a theater full of presumably septuagenarians and octogenarians and wonder, am I enjoying this movie or am I just nostalgic for the escapist action-adventures of Indiana Jones? Is the movie fun and is there a sense of adventure? The answer is yes to all! Is it better than the much maligned "Crystal Skull"? Oh, yes, but keep in mind - I love all four films, unequally. I want to say that "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is a movie you can comfortably watch and be wowed by its grand adventure scale - you know, somewhat critic-proof. Only most movies today feature caped superheroes that are meant to be fun and critic-proof, not 80-year-old retired soldiers of fortune. But we can still assess and debate a film's quality and I am happy to report that I love "Dial of Destiny" and found it also emotionally overwhelming - the latter I did not expect.

No Paramount mountain fades to anything, this time, only a Lucasfilm logo superimposed on a door lock (ever since Disney took over Lucasfilm, we have had changes like no 20th Century Fox fanfare during the opening credits of the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy but that is a topic for another time). We dive right into WWII in 1944 with Indy disguised as a Nazi with a bag over his head. When the bag is pulled over his head, it is a young, deaged Harrison Ford, you know Indy trilogy years not "Hanover Street" mileage. Before you know it, he's almost hung on a rafter, escapes near death with a missile that penetrates the floor from underneath his feet! Indy saves the life of his archaeology buddy, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones, whom you do miss once he disappears from the flashbacks), and there is some business involving the Longinus Spear (a fake) and the Antikythera mechanism that is about to be taken by a new suave villain, Jurgen Voller (played with delicious malice by Mads Mikkelsen). In terms of extended Indy serialesque prologues, this one has Indy on a motorbike chasing a train, several explosions, and a few fistfights in and out of train cars with Indy and Basil trying to escape with the dial. Cut to modern day, 1969 in New York City with Indy a much older man, unable to interest Hunter College students in archaeology when they are glued to TV screens showing the moon landing. Indy also has to contend with young neighbors who love to blast The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" at 8 am (well, who wouldn't?) 

Indiana is retiring from teaching and dealing with a separation from his wife Marion. Before you can say "are we watching a James Mangold drama?," Indy is thrust into action immediately when his goddaughter, Helena Shaw (a brilliantly animated Phoebe Waller Bridge), tells him of the Antikythera device that has been split into two halves and can create fissures in time. Action starts with henchmen working for Voller attempting to get both halves of the mechanism resulting in Indy and Helena escaping, well, separately since Helena may have double-crossed him. Indy escapes riding a horse at an Apollo 11 ticker-tape parade and in the subway system avoiding a collision with a train! He has also been accused of murder - so much for retirement. Helena is much more of a grifter, someone who steals artifacts and sell them in the black market or to the highest bidder. When Indy tracks her down in Morocco, all hell breaks loose with Voller and company in hot pursuit of the powerful artifact.

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is oodles of cliffhanging fun with some remarkable, eye-popping chase scenes and whip smart dialogue, courtesy of Mangold writers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. Phoebe Waller Bridge has priceless scenes where she banters with Indy, seeing herself as just the opposite of Jones and her own father. She is only in it for the money (a hark back to Ray Winstone's double-crossing Mac from "Crystal Skull"), a snarky "self-sufficient" capitalist who is up for danger every step of the way. What is tremendously fun is seeing how Indy disapproves of her motives yet sees the intelligence of a woman who shares the love of adventure just like our grizzled adventurer, and she begins to understand his pain and his own life and his history. 

Mads Mikkelsen is frequently insidious in his overall demeanor as Voller (catch the scene where he makes it subtly clear to a black waiter that the Nazis should've won the war. It is one of the most startlingly effective scenes in any Indiana Jones movie). Boyd Holbrook also lends formidable support as a trigger-happy henchman, and there's the welcome and brief return of boisterous Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) who went from Indy's Middle Eastern contact to a simple cab driver. My one bone of contention is the underused and undernourished role of Shaunette Renée Wilson as Mason, a CIA agent who has a file on Helena and her illegal activities - is Mason truly working undercover or is she aware of Voller's need to update Hitler's Final Solution by, gulp, killing him? We do have a pickpocket kid named Teddy from Tangier (Ethann Isidore) who hangs around with Helena and he's rambunctious fun for a while, though this Short Round clone is of mysterious purpose.  

"Dial of Destiny" is far from perfect and director James Mangold's proficient action choreography is not as elegant as Steven Spielberg's, who serves only as executive producer this time around. "Dial of Destiny" still moves at a snappy pace and has an emotional finish with a certain character from previous movies that should make most jaded moviegoers and Indy fans shed a few tears (Mangold does handle dramatic scenes better than most). I love the backstory of the artifact and its genius inventor, Archimedes, so much so that I wish there was more of it. But we are here for thrills, chills and spills and the movie offers all that including various insects, bugs and a new creepy crawly, eels, though hardly any booby traps. It's still pure Indiana Jones, with a few aches and pains, and I am happy to see him back. Like vintage wine, he ages well. 

Dad bought an Edsel!

 PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It has to be a jolting, incredible feeling of rejuvenation to go back to the time of being a high-school teenager. I don't think I would want to yet the idea of knowing how it all turned out, that is to say an adult transposed in the body of a teenager, leaves a lot of questions about fate and circumstance. Can one say that if I was a teenager again, I would do it differently. Well, the knowledge is there but the adult woman, Peggy, can't really change things yet her reality as an adult can become that much clearer. "Peggy Sue Got Married" is a joyful, subtle adult comedy that ends on a positive note with a dose of reality attached it. 

Kathleen Turner turns in one of her most precise dramatic performances ever, showing a woman in the 1980's reluctantly attending her high-school reunion. She is Peggy Sue Kelcher-Bodell and she's going through a separation with nasal-voiced Charlie "Crazy Charlie" Bodell (Nicolas Cage - an insanely over-the-top yet finely tuned performance). At the graduation, she's crowned queen of the night and faints. When she wakes up, she's back in 1960 as a high-school teenager giving blood at a blood bank. Her friends are concerned (after they drop off Peggy Sue at her house, she tells them "Hey, keep in touch") and her parents don't understand her when she starts drinking - never mind Dad buying an Edsel. Even more nonplussed is Charlie, a wannabe rock singer whose nasal-voiced tone seems to charm Peggy Sue despite the fact that she wants nothing to do with him. Charlie can't understand her mercurial behavior and she is shocked that he wants to date other girls, giving a hint of what's to come. It is that antediluvian thinking that can only come from a teenage mind - if they date other people, then they will know they were really meant to be. Only Peggy Sue's life has become far more complicated from her future marriage with Charlie and she begins to seek out other guys, including a future brainiac billionaire and a beatnik poet type. The billionaire inventor (Barry Miller) is the class nerd who has to be punctual at his Rocket Club meeting! Peggy asks him about the possibility of time travel and then further reveals the price of sneakers in the future, not to mention the moon landing. With the poet who has issues with Ernest Hemingway's writing (Kevin J. O'Connor), it is about attraction and a quickie, nothing more. He of course imagines a strange existence in a Utah cabin where he believes in polygamy. Eh, stay away from that guy, Peggy. 

This is one of Francis Ford Coppola's most beguiling and becalming movies ever, and the temptation to get sentimental is shrugged for a muted emotional reunion (the short bit about Peggy visiting her grandparents, one played by Maureen O'Sullivan, is a cinematic treasure to behold). Although I would've loved more emphasis on Peggy's relationship to her parents and her pigtailed sister (Sofia Coppola), I can't fault a movie for its dreamlike power overall. "Peggy Sue Got Married" is not so much a fairy tale or a time travel movie but actually about a woman who is uncertain about her future and yet so confident and upbeat about her past. An emotional marvel of a movie.

Taser Face?

 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Comic-book movies should be fun and somewhat upbeat with occasional lightheartedness. Not so with Batman and its far too many incarnations, some intentionally darker than others. The original "Guardians of the Galaxy" was fun and some of it infectious, with enough pop-culture 1970's songs to make one feel good about once owning a Sony Walkman. Its hero, Star-lord, came ready to fight but he needed his walkman to get in the right mood. "Vol 2." ups the ante on spectacular special-effects that resemble an electronic fireworks display at the Epcot Center, except you know a trillion times brighter with more lasers than one can count. As a matter of fact, the ending of this delirious if occasionally overcooked movie has a scene on a planet conjured by Star-lord's father that looks like Genesis from "Star Trek III." The difference is, you know, far more explosions with monoliths also protruding from the ground.

The plot is simple in this sequel with Star-Lord, known as the relatively immature Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), and his Guardians protecting massive batteries that power some alien race known as the Sovereign with spooky-looking golden skin ("Goldfinger," watch out) from a massive creature that seems that have emerged from Star Wars. The creature is killed, with one Guardian taking credit over the other, and Mr. Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a sarcastic, feisty racoon, decides to steal some batteries! Musclebound Drax (Dave Bautista) laughs very heartily at this revelation, leaving everyone else in the crew a little nonplussed. The Guardians take a hostage named Nebula who is our green-skinned Gamora's sister (Gamora is of course played by Zoe Saldana, a fierce and honest Guardian) in exchange for protecting the Sovereign. One thing leads to another as the Golden-Skinned race chase down the Guardians after the discovery of Rocket's theft and all hell breaks loose - this alien race uses remote stations to fight them in space. Nifty. Also nifty is the return of cobalt blue-skinned Yondu (Michael Rooker), Peter's adoptive father, who once lead the Ravagers and is hired to capture the Guardians yet Peter is not someone he wishes to capture. Meanwhile, Peter finds his actual father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who has created his own planet - just like Star Trek's Genesis. Indeed. Only Ego may have some grander design besides a seemingly peaceful habitat.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is easy to review - it is humorous, scatalogical and has enough solid action scenes to satisfy any fans of the Marvel universe. Chris Pratt is far more lively than usual and a rousing hero. I cannot pretend to understand all the gobbledygook towards the end with regards to this planet but it is all infectious in its own way, and director James Gunn never pretends to take any of this too seriously. Overcooked? Yes. A fun group of Guardians. You bet. It is also a sequel that manages to upstage its predecessor. Oh, and Sylvester Stallone and Howard the Duck also appear fleetingly. When was the last time you heard that happening?

Enchanting road movie

 ALICE IN THE CITIES (1974)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The idea of searching and discovering the real America by traveling through the whole country by car is a romantic notion. Books, documentaries and films have always tried to capture such an idea ("On the Road" by Jack Kerouac is one of my favorite books on the subject). "Alice in the Cities" begins with a journalist who can't commit to write a single word of his travels for a publisher, yet he takes a bunch of Polaroids and none seem to capture what he actually sees. This journalist is lost and captures moments that he feels embody something about him, and then he runs to tell his fed-up girlfriend all about it. The truth is that there is nothing there and he yields little to no discovery of the United States. His Polaroids look like Polaroids that could've been taken by anybody. 

Wim Wenders' "Alice in the Cities" begins as a curiously remote odyssey, the story of a German writer named Philip (Rüdiger Vogler) who scribbles in his notepad yet has presumably nothing interesting to say. He hates television because of the commercials and that somehow the programs are commercials themselves - all interrupting each other and probably not having much to say either. His publisher is miffed that Philip did not write a single word, which was his assignment. Feeling lost once again, Philip decides to go back to Germany and never return. He runs into a German woman (Lisa Kreuzer) who is leaving for Germany after just having a bad relationship, but only tickets to Amsterdam are available. She has a precocious daughter (Yella Rottländer) and they befriend Philip who serves as their English translator and helps them. Eventually, the mother disappears and Philip is forced to help Alice, hoping the mother will return to Amsterdam. Instead Philip helps Alice find her grandmother though she can't remember what German city she lives in.

"Alice in the Cities" is extraordinarily moving yet never sentimental. As you watch Philip and Alice, who appear like surrogate father and daughter, you sense that this journey could be never-ending and perhaps Alice might never see her mother again. What is especially touching about the film is that it approaches Alice's own journey not as a mission but as a need for human contact - the girl is smartly aware that nothing is at it seems. Philip has his own journey and it feels just and with a singular purpose. When the two decide to take pictures in a photo booth, we see Philip smiling and finding some inner joy about life that moves him - perhaps forming his own family. When Alice takes a Polaroid of Philip, she finds his soul and he is touched. The movie along at a glacial though entrancing pace, like life. "Alice in the Cities" is enchanting.        

Munching on recycled 1984 parts

 GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2021)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Smart tykes as ghostbusters is not a bad idea as long as their personalities are colorful tinged with comic bravado. The tykes in this movie seemed to have emerged from "Stranger Things" (one of them, Finn Wolfhard, is from that show) and yet, except for one pre-teen kid, the rest are bland. "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" might have benefitted from having the tykes needing help with those slimy ghosts if they called the real ghostbusters thirty minutes after their story starts. Instead, the real guys don't emerge until the movie is practically over. 

The one tyke here that has color in her personality is McKenna Grace as Phoebe Spengler, the very smart girl who is Egon Spengler's granddaughter. For non-"Ghostbusters" devotees, a little backstory here. Egon Spengler was the mild-mannered scientist who fought ghosts with his other ghostbusters in the first two "Ghostbusters" movies. He was the truly clever scientist who ratted out statistics and percentages like no one's business and he was played by the late Harold Ramis. Apparently Egon bought a farm in Oklahoma, nicknamed "Dirt Farm," and has had a feeling, an apocalyptic feeling, that some entity has escaped from an occultist's mine and may rule the world. He has several ghost traps in his front yard and then dies after being attacked in his chair. Meanwhile, Phoebe and her brother (Finn Wolfhard, great actor name) move with their mother (Carrie Coon) to this farm they inherited. Annie Potts as Janine, Egon's girlfriend, shows up at the beginning at this rustic, decrepit farm and then disappears from the movie! Phoebe eventually finds the proton pack and the famous P.K.E. meter that serves as an alert for ghost activity. And her brother doesn't know much about anything, hardly the nerd his sister is and develops an interest in a girl working at a 50's-type diner! This brief subplot is simply dull and unnecessary, bringing the movie to a major halt. And with all this setup for a story, the movie is close to the hour mark before its mojo really gets going.  

Grace is terrific as Phoebe, who maintains her cool when chess pieces move by themselves or when a lamp moves with Egon's spirit intact. Some of this works for a little while but then we get Paul Rudd as a science teacher who is also a seismologist and shows movies like "Cujo" and "Child's Play" to the kids - I can't figure that one out. Rudd has a romantic interest in Phoebe's mother and all this simply marks time. None of it is exactly bad, just uninvolving. We get a few sparks of interest with a Ghostbusters fan named Podcast yet Phoebe is not used enough as an anchor for this movie. Special-effects dominate soon enough and we get one ghost called "Muncher" who spits out metal projectiles like bullets (a fun pudgy ghost) but then we get repeats of what the original 1984 film had - the return of the monstrous Zuul, the androgynous Gozer (now played by Olivia Wilde) and a few mini-Stay Puft marshmallow kids. Aside from the Stay-Puft kids, the rest is just recycling from the original without much of the pizazz or humor.

The end of this overlong, plodding movie has the return of the real Ghostbusters that we loved from the original but one wishes they formed more of the backbone of this skeletal redux. Flavorless, frequently humorless and lacking kinetic and comical anarchy, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" feels more like a dim "Goosebumps" movie than "Ghostbusters."