Ethan Hunt vs. The Apostles

 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Just like "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (still the best of the series by far), "Fallout" is an elongated, explosive chase picture designed to rattle your senses and bury your eyes with epic action of a magnitude that might never be improved. Hopefully you can keep all the multiple characters and situations straight as well. I haven't figured it all out but it was a pleasure trying to and, even after five movies, "Mission: Impossible" series continues to be top-notch entertainment. 

The unbreakable IMF agent Ethan Hunt is back (the sprightly Tom Cruise, of course) and he is hoping to be in possession of three stolen plutonium cores before they are used in three nuclear bombs! Of course such a terroristic plan can't be thwarted so easily as the extremist group, the Apostles, are ready to give up the cores for money until they decide during a shootout to steal back the cores. The Apostles had also taken hostage the IMF's most trusted hacker, Luther (Ving Rhames), until Ethan saves him which makes the cores easy pickings (this scene was far too unbelievable but, then again, so is the movie. Still, didn't Ethan think for a millisecond that the cores would be stolen?) I have made it a habit of not questioning logic in movies like this because, as long as I am entertained and involved, I don't care. 

Enter "Fallout's" few new characters that keeps the movie rising in its thrill meter and they include Henry Cavill as August Walker, a CIA assassin whom you just know will reveal a darker side, and Angela Bassett as a very forthright new CIA director keeping tabs on Ethan and August. You start to wonder if she trusts them or will she believe Walker's assertion that Ethan is far more dangerous than anyone dared think. Uh, oh, will Ethan be disavowed yet again? For tremendous sex appeal, we get Vanessa Kirby as White Widow, a curly blonde arms dealer who flirts with Ethan in one stunningly erotic moment. For sheer villainy, we get the cold, evil stares of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the leader of the Apostles who has a complete indifference to humanity. Returnees include Alec Baldwin as Hunley the new IMF Secretary, formerly CIA Director and he has a few tricks up his sleeve; Michelle Monaghan as you know who, if you have seen previous "Mission: Impossible" movies; Rebecca Ferguson as the disavowed MI6 agent from the last sequel who is also a bit unbreakable and can't stop herself from following Ethan and, of course, for some comic relief is Simon Pegg as Benji, the IMF technical field agent who also has a couple tricks up his sleeve.

"Fallout" is densely layered with a lot of characters and motives and I couldn't quite keep track of all them - I also wondered why the Apostles, formerly the Syndicate, want to blow up so many countries. Still, for hair-raising spectacular action including an endless motorcycle chase in Paris and two helicopters racing through the Himalayas that had me almost ready to break off the armrests of my chair - they delivered a major sonic boom to this critic - "Fallout" is as spectacular on every level as you can imagine. Tom Cruise is a reliable action star and plays this role to the hilt, whether he is running, jumping or receiving a kiss from the White Widow. The man is a relentless action toy, always on the run and never stops moving. "Fallout" certifies Tom Cruise as one of the greatest action stars of the 21st century.   

Not going anywhere, do you mind if I come along?

 AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

An Appreciation By Jerry Saravia

George Lucas's "American Graffiti" is an explosion of good-natured nostalgia with a killer soundtrack of rock and roll songs that have, since 1973, been utilized in films so often that they have become cliches. So have coming-of-age films being swathed in nostalgia, whether it is a film set in 1962 or the 1950's - for the baby boomers, they were the last truly innocent decades (though history shows they were anything but). The movie is a rollicking good time, a reflection of an era when no high school graduate had any idea what the future held. They knew their present and that is all they had to go on. Watching the film you get the impression that these Modesto, California teens wouldn't mind staying in town forever listening to Wolfman Jack, cruising in their cars, and making out.

In a sense, that is the film's charm because would anyone really want to become an adult? No, no teenager wants to grow up yet they know they eventually have to. Richard Dreyfuss's Curt is the one who is ambivalent - can he go to college out-of-state and become a great writer or is he premature in assuming a future that might lead to something else? No one else really struggles with that notion, outside of his best friend Steve (Ron Howard). Curt also has a night where he sees a mysterious blonde woman (Suzanne Somers) driving by in a white Thunderbird, cruising as everyone else does, who says something to him but Curt can't make out what she says. He spends the rest of the film looking for this blonde and feels, for the first time, that his life has purpose. It is a singular mission to find this elusive beauty, but who is she and what did she say to him? 

"American Graffiti" takes place during one long night where cruising teenagers drink and make out and it is largely episodic as we float in from one group to another. Charles Martin Smith is the nerdy Terry who gets mixed up with another blonde girl (Candy Clark) and pretends the car he is borrowing is his, yet he has trouble getting liquor with no ID (how he finally gets some Old Harper's produces one of the biggest belly laughs in the entire film). Meanwhile, there's the aforementioned Steve and his long-term girlfriend, Laurie (Cindy Williams), and Steve has no ambivalence about going to college and suggests that he and Laurie see other people. Naturally this causes some tension despite them dancing and pretending to have a good time while The Platters' "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is played by a cover band at one of those sock hops. Then there's the cool John Milner (Paul Le Mat), a drag-racer who is challenged by fearless Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) to a drag race. While John tries to avoid Bob, he reluctantly gives a ride to a precocious 12-year-old girl (Mackenzie Phillips) and their brief moments together suggests a softer side to John who acts like her big brother, a protector of sorts. 

"American Graffiti" ends with title cards indicating certain characters' fates but it is not needed. The film exists as a moment in time before the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination - a vastly entertaining mood piece of nostalgic reminders of great cars, great music and a white 56' T-Bird with an enigmatic blonde. Curt sees her car as he's flying to college and smiles - a momentary pause where such a great night ends and evaporates though it is retained as a memory. One of the saddest and yet most exhilarating endings of all time. I only wish Lucas made more films like this.

Malpractice and murder

THE HOSPITAL (1971)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The best satires play it straight and to the point, and are concise and controlled in tempo and black humor. Most scenes in "The Hospital" are played so straight that you almost think the filmmakers are being serious until you catch the exaggeration that is practically hidden. The movie is not on the same high of hilarity mixed with serious topical issues as "Network" (both written by the brilliant seriocomic mind of Paddy Chayefsky) but it is unnerving and often funny in a way that feels like life. You won't come away bored by "The Hospital" but you will get a mild headache due to its brazenness and humorous asides - probably the way anyone would feel after visiting a hospital.

A New York teaching hospital is coming apart at the seams. Patients clog the main artery of the building, the emergency room, seeking help while only one nurse asks each and every one of them if they have health insurance. Two doctors and a nurse are murdered though nobody knows who did the deed - one young doctor is found dead after having had sex with a nurse. To top it all off, protesters gather outside the building knowing that the hospital annexed an adjacent slum building to expand their quarters, and the protestors include some Black Panthers. George C. Scott is Chief of Staff Dr. Bock who is going through a crisis - he wants to commit suicide, is divorced and impotent, and his kids (one who is a Maoist) hate him. Enter Diana Rigg of all people, as the sexy former nurse who is at the hospital for her comatose father (Barnard Hughes) and wants to take her dad back to Mexico to be among the natives. Cue Dr. Bock whose impotence is relieved after a one-night stand with the ex-nurse, and she tries to convince him to go to Mexico as well. 

"The Hospital" is messy, a little disorganized yet never less than blisteringly funny with an ache that stays in your head. George C. Scott has some magnificent scenes of dialogue as the tortured Dr. Bock, mostly with Diana Rigg that results in some of the best work he's ever done. A lot of scenes perk up when Scott and Rigg appear but the movie piles on too much of a killer subplot that detracts from the satire yet the inner workings of this disastrously managed hospital keeps one's interest - will this place ever be up to standard? Scott's Dr. Bock character adds a lot of flavor and meaning and his occasional outbursts come out of the hysteria of his own life and the hospital - both are in shambles. Chayefsky and director Arthur Hiller might be working overtime to entertain with a few extraneous scenes but you can't say that you won't come away from this less than drained with a little smile on your face. Just make sure your insurance is airtight if you visit this hospital.

Friedkin made your heart skip and your blood pressure rise

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN (1935-2023) : 

A LOOK BACK AT 1987's RAMPAGE 

By Jerry Saravia

William Friedkin has passed away at the age of 87, a formidable director who reawakened people's senses with two iconoclastic 1970's films that challenged their respective genres. Those would be "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist," two major classics with one featuring one of the best car chases ever filmed and the other featuring some of the scariest supernatural thrills of all time. Of course what made these films so furiously alive and vivid in our collective imaginations is that Friedkin made them feel grounded - they were realistically conveyed and "French Connection" almost felt like a documentary with some hair-spinning hand-held camerawork. "The Exorcist" felt like an examination of evil in the least likely place - a pre-teen girl's bedroom. 

It would not be fair to highlight only those two films because his talent was evident elsewhere, especially his early documentary work. A Friedkin film that is still underappreciated and has been lost in the shuffle is 1987's "Rampage" which features a dynamic, scary performance by Alex McArthur as Charles Reece, a serial killer. This was no average killer (based on a true story of the Vampire Killer of Sacramento) - he went into people's homes and mutilated his victims and drank their blood (in one truly spellbinding scene, shot in slow-motion, he slathers blood over his body). Eventually, he's caught and sent to prison and Michael Biehn plays an idealistic District Attorney/prosecutor who seeks the death penalty for Charles despite being initially against it. Meanwhile it is determined by doctors and a psychiatrist that the killer is mentally insane and should be in a mental hospital. 

All sorts of legal questions are raised in "Rampage" and some of them are uneven and not always convincing, particularly Biehn's switcheroo with respect to what he considers ethical punishment. Still, the root of the film's success is Alex McArthur's chilling, persuasive performance as a seemingly innocent-looking man wearing a red windbreaker who suddenly reveals an animal bent on blood lust. Director Friedkin once again keeps the material grounded in an unshakable reality that occasionally brings up similarities with the monumentally frightening "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." And just like "Henry" which couldn't find a distributor for years, "Rampage" had been completed in 1987 through DEG (De Laurentiis) company until it went belly up. Released through Miramax Pictures five years later in limited release, "Rampage" still held its own against any exploitative slasher flick - this was serious, urgent material given a boost by its death penalty vs. insanity defenses. There are also scenes of such unbridled, unhinged madness from the killer's point-of-view that your heart will skip a few beats. William Friedkin was that in a nutshell in his best films - he made your heart skip and your blood pressure rise. 

Bloodbath in every sense of the word

 EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There are bloodbaths and then there are literal bloodbaths. "Evil Dead Rise," not unlike its 2013 predecessor, has its victims literally bathed in blood up to their necks. Blood fills the screen and spurts and spurts to the point of having its victims drenched in blood with perfectly bloodied faces. In terms of graphic disembowelment, stabbings, eating glass and eye gouges, the 2013 "Evil Dead" fit the bill more closely though that movie was a numbing bore. "Evil Dead Rise" is actually entertaining and has a very thrilling climax but you may want to take a shower after seeing it. Use some good bacterial soap to get those heavy blood stains off.

Alyssa Sutherland is a memorably wicked Deadite mommie who is so vicious and so psychologically torturous to her kids that you want to see her eviscerated. She is Ellie, a single mom raising three kids, one of whom discovers the Book of the Dead and a couple of cryptic LP's in the parking garage of their high-rise apartment building (this is after a brief earthquake that creates a hole in the garage). This building is the kind of creepy place where the hallways are barely lit and all I could think of is that someone needs to pay the electric bill or install more lights. Anyway, Ellie's DJ-aspiring son finds and plays the records and the incantations are read from the Book of the Dead and the usual demonic spirits are unleashed. 

Ellie is the first to get possessed and Sutherland makes her into a scary, demonic hellbreaker spirit - she is not someone you want to invite for a get-together. Aside from the kids who are scared beyond their wits, there is Ellie's visiting pregnant sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), who is more than a little concerned about her sister's contorted body and ability to float and avoid blinking when a fly walks on her eyeball. We feel great sympathy for the family and for Ellie and I hoped Ellie was going to get this demon out of her body - no spoiler but, um, no chance.

"Evil Dead Rise" is quite a horrific ride and its new residential setting for evil spirits (which may bring up unwanted memories of the high-rise in "Poltergeist III") does work in the story's favor rather than the traditional log cabin of previous films. The movie is still a little too blood-soaked and I do miss the wicked humor of the original trilogy and the long-chinned star of Bruce Campbell. Still, this movie is in capable hands and it works right up to its last feverishly sweat-inducing last scene. I do recommend antifungal antibacterial soap after sitting through it. 

God's Children are not for sale

 SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Tim Ballard sounds like someone I should trust if I want my child found. Jim Caviezel plays Tim as he's played most other roles since the heyday of playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," a beatific and saintly figure in repose. Never mind that Tim is not a saint or sinner - he is a man on a mission to save "God's children" from child traffickers. "Sound of Freedom" almost sounds like a Mel Gibson movie yet Gibson might have made a ticking time bomb of a movie with urgency felt in your veins while watching it. "Sound of Freedom" is a low-key, somber affair yet somewhat indistinguishable from any movie that might play on TV on the same subject.

Caviezel's Tim works for Homeland Security as a Special Agent assigned to arresting pedophiles who make their presence known on the Internet. Tim finds and arrests many of them, but what about the kids who are kidnapped, bought and sold into sex slavery. This is a fascinating premise in a sense - can we ever find the missing kids (and adults) sold into these elaborate, profitable trafficking schemes? Since Homeland Security is not keen on finding the kids, viewed as an impossible task, Tim becomes the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, O.U.R., an anti-trafficking non-profit rescue organization.  One of their first goals is to find the sister of "Teddy Bear," a recently found Mexican kid who was found at the Mexican border. There is a short bit here where one of their mission is to convince these traffickers that they can bring children to a wealthy guy's island. Later on, there is far more dangerous terrain in a remote part of the Amazon jungle in Colombia where a rebel enclave exists and Teddy Bear's sister is possibly being held there.

I can hardly dismiss "Sound of Freedom" and the movie does have an understated power in its best moments, especially seeing one older man carrying a drink as he's ready to take advantage of that little girl, closing the red blinds as we know what unspeakable act is about to take place. Yet the movie plays it so low-key, the outrage is so muted and so softly rendered that you only feel a modicum of anger when you hear Mexican songs sung by child-like voices. "Sound of Freedom" never gives you a rush of adrenaline or intensity with regards to such disturbing subject matter. It assumes Tim's righteousness is enough, or least the tears on Jim Caviezel's beatific face.  

I'll Be Watching You

 EAGLE EYE (2008)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Eagle Eye" is basically Shia LaBeouf running down one busy street after another with an intelligent woman in tow. They run, they hide, they drive, they run again and hide. All this time a female computer-generated voice is calling Shia's cell phone repeatedly, telling him where to go and where to be. If he doesn't answer his phone, the voice sends messages through visual bulletin boards or on highway signs, etc. "RUN" or "GO TO GATE 17" - you know, basic commands from the old days of BASIC computer language. 

How is this happening? The computer voice yields from a new surveillance system straight from the Pentagon that has gone haywire. How haywire? It not only deposits money in Shia's bank account to the tune of 750,000 dollars, in addition to sending him tons of guns and bombs in his apartment which he never gets to use, it also wants to assassinate top officials in the government starting with The President of the U.S. Now if this computer has such top-notch surveillance across all 50 states and can even kill someone by somehow cutting live power lines (!) then why does it need Shia or a poor, single mother (Michelle Monaghan) at all when it can accomplish its own dastardly methods?

This supercomputer is known as ARIIA and it is the most evil computer since HAL 9000 yet not the most challenging - how exactly did this evil technology suddenly became automated is not clear. While watching the movie's hyperkinetic Hitchcockian turns courtesy of director D.J. Caruso (who helmed the underwhelming "Disturbia," a knock-off of "Rear Window"), "Eagle Eye" is run-of-the-mill running and jumping and copious car-crashes that are at best generic with not enough of a visual eye. Headache-inducing with whirlwind use of hand-held camera moves and Michael Bay millisecond cuts, "Eagle Eye" is never believable and feels like a more high-tech version of "Enemy of the State" though any stimulating questions about government surveillance are zapped by the movie's falsely urgent explosive action scenes. You might get exhausted by the end but you'll come up empty.