FLIGHT

Dude, didn't anyone see this? There are no threads I could find about it.

I was quite surprised on watching the DVD--it was awesome!! And I haven't said that about a movie in a while now. One of the best action movies I've seen in a long time. J.J. Abrams went up in my estimation big time. I wish I had seen this in the theater.

The performances are perfect for a MI-type action thriller. The action is kinetic and hyper cool, yet grounded in [movie] realism. (I don't like the real-face masks that are a staple of MI, but I got over that. Otherwise, I never found myself saying "that's stupid" about anything in the movie, which is very rare.)

The emotions feel natural and Maggie Q is super super cute. Tom Cruise embodies this role like he was born for it. Despite being WACKY in real life, he is so good at looking cool and intense in films like this. I can't usually buy him playing a "regular" guy, like in War of the Worlds--but here he is superb.

I liked it. I don't want to pump it up too much, since admittedly my low expectations played in the film's favor. But I believe I can state rationally that it was a very good movie, and one I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. I actually am hoping for MI:IV now.

Okay, my one gripe is that I thought it was a bit too easy for Cruise's character to go back into action while in the midst of getting engaged and trying to "settle down." They had the requisite scene with him saying "I have to go away, just trust me, I love you," but I would have liked a little more development on the difficulty/reasoning of that decision.

But the movie works anyway thanks to excellent direction.

Not to go all Story 101 on this, but I found it a bit unfulfilling that the scale of the action got smaller instead of bigger. To go from a whiz-bang, protracted visceral raid involving tons of gunfire to a climax in which Cruise literally escapes from a two-story house in the middle of nowhere .... oh well. Kudos for the nonlinear narrative and twist, I thought that was really crafty.

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SPOILERS--







I took it as progressing from impersonal to more intimate. The final confrontation encompassed everything that Hunt deeply cared about at that point: just him, his wife, and the bad guy. I liked the non-formulaic resolution wherein the over-the-top evil bad guy was reduced to a simple, ignoble fate in a crappy alleyway. Yet in the midst of that simplistic fight in a bland setting, the larger, "universal" conflict was also resolved, and in a rather pedestrian (and possibly more lifelike) manner.

The action may have started big and worked down to "small," but the emotions were concurrently becoming intensified. All in service to the theme of a man attempting to "settle down," and then experiencing an exponentially increased threat of loss previously not possible. That's storytelling that reaches beyond the 101 curriculum.

Well, if Phil recommends it, Mission Impossible III just shot to the top of my list of films to see. Besides, I love big action movies.

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Thats strange, I always thought you'd like really deep kinda boring foreign films, I guess you can't judge a person by their comics.

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To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! in a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."

SPOILERS


Phil, I agree about the non-formulaic resolution. I probably misstated my exact thought; I think the concern is more that having such a pedestrian ending takes us a little too much out of the world of the movie. Among other things, I caught myself wondering why the place was so unguarded. For some reason I just wasn't as struck by this mano a mano the same way I was struck by, say, the climax of The Silence of the Lambs.

There is also the very likely possibility I'm wrong about this whole thing.

P.S. Checked out your site. Beautiful work, especially the brushwork.

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Did you not see his review on "Mission to Mars"? LOL

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Intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacle advertising droids!!!!!

Yeah, and I just bought Carlito's Way, Mission Impossible, and Batman Begins. I actually like pretty much all films so long as they have something interesting going on.

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I would agree with that. Sometimes a movie doesn't have much of a story but still has something to keep your interest. Some movies just totally miss all the marks and you think "why the hell did I waste my time?".

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Mission to Mars IS a kinda deep boring foreign film! (It's in space, hello.)

Good review on MI3, Phil! I totally agree with what you said.
At first I was a bit hesitant to watch it because of Crazy Cruise (I skipped watching War of the Worlds). But you're right, he was made for that role. Plus, I enjoyed watching parts one and two, and seeing added star power like Larry Fishburne and Philip Seymour Hoffman, it was worth a watch, or two, or a hundred in my opinion.

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I watched it last night and I agree. This is a really good film. The script is solid, the performances are strong, and pretty much everyone on the crew was playing at their highest level (I especially thought the editing was excellent, considering the shots the editor had to work with). The only thing that bugged me was the visual style. While it definitely had some merits, the gritty, shakycam look that plays very well on TV wears pretty thin over the course of two hours. If things were just a little more calmly composed, and the sets lit less garishly (the whole film looked like a rave), I think this would have been a classic. The script and actors were definitely up to the task. However, the more important elements were solidly in place and working well, so it's hard to complain. Now I'm hoping there's a Mission: Impossible IV in the works too...

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I liked this slightly more than the first Mission Impossible. The thing that bugged me the most about the first one was they completely killed the tv series with that film.

As for MI3, mmmmmmm....Maggie Q.

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Intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacle advertising droids!!!!!

Yes, indeed.
Mmm... Maggie Q...