Movies MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING (Dragonlord's Review)

If you have seen MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE, how would you rate it?


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You are making sense and I agree with how you explained it. Masterpiece is a term that is used for things people consider perfection imo such as a painting, a movie, an album ect

I personally don't rate movies that way but I agree that others do rate the movie with how much they enjoyed it with the example you used.

Some of my fav movies of all time I would say are great (8/10) but it wouldn't feel right to label it a masterpiece just because it's one of my favs.

To me 10/10 are rarely given by me and should only be given to films that are close to perfection as it gets.

I'm sure you wouldn't just call The Last of the mohicans just an excellent movie, I believe in your eyes you see it as a masterpiece.
Yes, The Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time and it's a masterpiece to me... but I don't feel comfortable in pushing it as a masterpiece to others.

Regardless, I understand your viewpoint and I'm glad you also get mine. If you have any other complaints or criticisms, just PM me.

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Yes, The Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time and it's a masterpiece to me... but I don't feel comfortable in pushing it as a masterpiece to others.

Regardless, I understand your viewpoint and I'm glad you also get mine. If you have any other complaints or criticisms, just PM me.

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Aw man am I Andy in this scenario
 
Dang. I got this one mildly above 2. Not great I expected more

I watched the first 35 minutes before I was about to fall asleep (late night showing). I asked for a ticket voucher, I'll watch the movie again at the theater when I'm not sleepy.

But the movie didn't impress me much so far. The action scenes were less tactical, Tom Cruise was just shooting bad guys without much aiming. There's a fight scene too where I could tell the character wasn't even close to getting hit.
 
Copy and pasting my review from the other thread with added spoilers here.

I really liked this movie, it delivered in most everything it promises in what I've come to expect from the franchise.

I thought the movie was paced perfectly. It goes by in a flash and there is never a wasted moment. I also really enjoyed the new characters they introduced. As well as the fact that they brought back Henry Czerny who was awesome in it.

As is expected the action was great and I thought it (mostly) flowed with the story very well.

As for the story itself I thought it was very good and intriguing. I wasnt sure how I'd feel about the A.I thing going in but I thought the film utilized it as a villain extremely well.

I have a few criticisms. One is that I felt Pegg was a little under utilized in the film toward the second half. I also didn't like some of the shakey cam used in the film. There are also two aspects of the film that sort of bothered me.

the eye color change when Grace disguises herself as white widow goes unnoticed by everybody. Also, they set up the big over the top skydive stunt to get on the train, however Klementieff gets on the train in a much easier way.

I also didnt think the film felt quite as "complete" as I wanted it too. Maybe it's more the note that it ends on lacks something for me. But the set up for the next was great.

I'd give it around a 7.85/10 extremely good.
 
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I frequently bought those Movie Guide Handbooks by different authors. One of the book had a rating system like this:
4 - Excellent
3.5 - Very Good
3 - Good
2.5 - Pretty Good
2 - Average
1.5 - Poor
1 - Bad
Turkey - Abysmal
Not sure if this was the actual Movie Guide that used that specific rating system but this is just an example of the Handbooks that I bought in the past.

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That's how I was educated that Pretty Good is lower than Good. When I started posting in Sherdog, a lot of people were using the 10 star rating system. So I just used my old rating system and incorporated it to the 10 star rating system.

Just like when a few people misuse Lose and Loose, there are some people who don't know how to use Pretty Good as well. Pretty Good is equal to Fairly Good or Somewhat Good. Fairly and Pretty weaken the adverbs or adjectives that they modify.


I agree with HBK's rating system since we pretty much have the same one.

I don't think "pretty good" and "good" are a big enough difference to justify 1 entire point on the scale.
 
You are making sense and I agree with how you explained it. Masterpiece is a term that is used for things people consider perfection imo such as a painting, a movie, an album ect

I personally don't rate movies that way but I agree that others do rate the movie with how much they enjoyed it with the example you used.

Some of my fav movies of all time I would say are great (8/10) but it wouldn't feel right to label it a masterpiece just because it's one of my favs.

To me 10/10 are rarely given by me and should only be given to films that are close to perfection as it gets.

I'm sure you wouldn't just call The Last of the mohicans just an excellent movie, I believe in your eyes you see it as a masterpiece.

Yeah I only have a handful of films I would give a 10 to. For me its reserved for films I consider not only masterpieces but ones I find myself constantly wanting to go back and watch.

I would say there are only about 8 films or so I'd give a perfect 10 to.
 
I actually agree with this. I saw it today. I wasn't the biggest fan of the entity randomly becoming in existence and then taking over. But it did produce the best scene in the film imo

when the entity makes Ethan go the wrong way to kill off a certain character, I thought the entire scene with Ethan fighting 1 v 2 and then racing towards where a certain incident is occuring made for an excellent watch and was built up well and delivered at the end of the scene.

So I agree I don't particularly care for the entity angle, it did provide the best scene in the film. I thought this MI film had a great balance of humor and fun that made me laugh a lot.

I also agree the new character Grace is an excellent addition to the franchise and I personally think is the hottest in the franchise.

the ending scene where the actress playing Mantis pulls up Ethan and Grace before dying was too over the top and impossible to happen but Hollywood loves to push girl power down our throats

I still like 1, 4 and 6 a lot better but this is just 1 half of 1 huge film so I'll hold my judgement when part 2 is released

7/10 range

Really good film

I also thought the opening while good is not up to par with the other Mi openings

Ghost had the jail break
I forget what rogue did but MI 6 had the plane scene. Much better than the opening to MI7
I pretty much agree with this entire post except I'd probably bump the rating to an 8/10.
 
Someone else that needs to return is Danny Elfman. His score was BRILLIANT in the first one. Especially during the amazing train sequence. Even to this day my freaking adrenaline spikes to like 14/10 during that whole bit. It's masterful.

It honestly feels like all subsequence scores have been pale imitations. Even Fallout, which had a really badass score at times, wasn't quite as good. Danny Elfman is the gold standard. Instead of trying to copy him while also expanding, just bring him back and let him expand on his score.

And while we're at it, let's bring back the red light, green light gum.
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Just got back from IMAX lite. I enjoyed it a lot. Some goofy stuff with the AI, a couple clunky dialogue scenes but I never got pissed off from any of it. Everyone in the audience was laughing and having a good time. I really didn't get bored with any of the action set pieces. Some good humor and no "agenda." There is one female character that qualified as a "girl boss" but it didn't bother me too much, which honestly says a lot. It helps the character doesn't really have any lines to say. I did like the Grace character a lot and thought she had great physical and comedic timing.

I'm not a huge MI fan but the first is one of my favorite movies I remember seeing as a kid. I still love the CIA guys voice. The hot chicks were hot tho I would have liked to see them in a dress or something other than a business suit. I think the car chase was my favorite action scene.

Knowing most of the stunts aren't CGI bullshit is def the biggest draw to these and I thought it delivered that while also avoiding a completely moronic, preachy or woke story.

I also liked AI being the enemy and them not being able to trust technology. wish they leaned into that more.

for being damn near 3 hours I didn't feel the run time that much which is great sign.

What's up with the retconning of Benjie's history. In this film, they made it seem like had a criminal past or something and he joined the IMF to change all that. If I recall, Benjie was just a lowly technician in the IMF in M:I 3 and he eventually got promoted to field agent in the sequels.

I don't recall that. He says " no one is making them be there. they want to be" I saw your comment before hand so I was waiting for this when it popped up.

I would recommend for sure.
 
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Someone else that needs to return is Danny Elfman. His score was BRILLIANT in the first one. Especially during the amazing train sequence. Even to this day my freaking adrenaline spikes to like 14/10 during that whole bit. It's masterful.

It honestly feels like all subsequence scores have been pale imitations. Even Fallout, which had a really badass score at times, wasn't quite as good. Danny Elfman is the gold standard. Instead of trying to copy him while also expanding, just bring him back and let him expand on his score.

And while we're at it, let's bring back the red light, green light gum.
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Dude definitely. The score was really blasting in some scenes but it really wasn't doing much for me so much so that I did notice it. Not that it was terrible. just that i was thinking "this wants me to notice the music, which I do and I am wishing it was better"

Want to rewatch the first one now
 
Pretty good (even a straight up good) action movie but not a world class film aside from the stunts that have become the drawing point for the franchise and a few other notable strengths.

The women steal the show in this movie and in a good way. Hayley Atwell and Vanessa Kirby are the high points of the movie, even more than Tom Cruise himself...and not because the movie disrespectfully writes him down in his own story but rather because the actresses do a great job with the characters that are properly written.

Hayley Atwell especially carries a lot of the water for the movie. She's better than she needs to be for a character like this in a movie like this. In fact...she provides a striking counterexample to something like Phoebe Waller Bridge in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The characters are actually quite similar on paper and in function. But while Phoebe Waller Bridge is somebody I wanted to please stop talking and get off the screen most of the time, the Hayley Atwell character was a success in delivery in all of the ways that the Waller Bridge character failed.

The one strength of Phoebe Waller Bridge was that she provided...almost all of the energy for that Indiana Jones film. She was the battery that kept things lively...though she was irritating and unpleasant for a good portion of that experience. Hayley Atwell has no overbearing burden to fuel the entire Mission Impossible movie energy wise...the movie has energy and momentum of its own...but other than that she provides a much more likable and watchable version of what the Indiana Jones film thought the Phoebe Waller Bridge character was.

Movie has some dumb stuff. A bunch of time is spent on contrived tension over a series of riddles that reminded me of Simon Gruber in Die Hard 3. There was a car chase that went on quite a bit longer than it needed.

And I think Ethan Hunt, despite seven movies and counting, is actually one of the less interesting characters Tom Cruise has ever played. I'm also not particularly interested by the Ving Rhames or Simon Pegg characters. These are all just functional and serviceable characters that are "plug and play" for one mission after another. But serviceable is good enough to get the job done for movies like this.

Some clunky moments, some clunky dialogue, but some good action. Atwell is the MVP in this one. And it was good to see Henry Czerny back.

7.1 / 10
 
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What's up with the retconning of Benjie's history. In this film, they made it seem like had a criminal past or something and he joined the IMF to change all that. If I recall, Benjie was just a lowly technician in the IMF in M:I 3 and he eventually got promoted to field agent in the sequels.
I need to watch them all again to get the full perspective, but just based on what I remember, it could still work without being an actual retcon...

Perhaps his criminal past lead to him joining the IMF as a lowly technician because they realized he couldn't hack it as a field agent. Then later when he becomes useful to Ethan, he finally becomes a field agent. Not by choice but by necessity.

And I think the IMF is more than just field agents. Some go field, some go office. Benji definitely started out going office.

I have a few criticisms. One is that I felt Pegg was a little under utilized in the film toward the second half. I also didn't like some of the shakey cam used in the film. There are also two aspects of the film that sort of bothered me.

the eye color change when Grace disguises herself as white widow goes unnoticed by everybody. Also, they set up the big over the top skydive stunt to get on the train, however Klementieff gets on the train in a much easier way.

I also didnt think the film felt quite as "complete" as I wanted it too. Maybe it's more the note that it ends on lacks something for me. But the set up for the next was great.

I'd give it around a 7.85/10 extremely good.

I chalk it up to being Part 1 as to why it may have felt somewhat incomplete and not fully fleshed out.

I feel like the whole eye thing was made for stupid people in the audience. It was far too on the nose and spelled out that THIS IS GRACE AND NOT THE REAL WHITE WIDOW....DEEEERRRRRRRRR. I wish they would have trusted the rest of the audience more and not made it so obvious. Ideally, they would have had Grace use contacts to match the White Widow's eyes perfectly and left some doubt as to who was who (for a short period of time) in true M:I fashion. Instead, it was spelled out to us at 3rd grade level from the first second. For a Mission: Impossible movie, that's a damn shame.

As for Paris getting on the train with ease, she knew right where to be, and when, and it was planned for her to get on. And I believe this was before the train was sped up. For Ethan, he was totally in the dark in an unfamiliar place trying to get on the train with very little help and it just kept on not working out.
 
I was disappointed after Tom Cruises last 2 movies. This one was overly long.

Got bored with everyone stealing the key. It just kept going and at the end, I didn’t care who had it.

Highlight was the De Palma inspired cinematography in the Venice (?) scene. The Dubai airport scene was cool as well. Score was good too. I appreciated the practical stunts.

The bad guys were corny and lame. Stoic and taking their time kicking ass. Desert scene also sucked, Ethan Hunt killing everyone without much tactic. Oh yeah, the 1st scene was weird. They were speaking Russian and it transitioned to English, which I get. But then all of them still had Russian accents.

6.75 out of 10.
 
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I've always liked Ving and didn't care for Pegg one way or another. Disliked them both in this. Pegg was a whiney bitch. Ving who plays the cool dude, was not a cool dude here. He looked like complete shit and must be in poor health bc he was sitting down the entire movie. Ving delivers one of the worst expositions I've seen in a movie in s long time
 
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Saw it last night. I enjoyed the hell out of it because I knew it was Part One going in just like Dune. Knowing there’s not a ‘true ending’ lowers expectations for most people.

Hayley Atwell was a nice addition
Mantis from GOTG was good as the villain
Esai Morales back on the big screen was kinda cool. Him and Cruise are both aging well

Speaking of Tom, he was solid as usual. Major props to this man for continuing to raise the bar at 60 years old

9/10
 
I've always liked Ving and didn't care for Pegg one way or another. Disliked them both in this. Pegg was a whiney bitch. Ving who plays the cool dude, was not a cool dude here. He looked like complete shit and must be in poor health bc he was sitting down the entire movie. Ving delivers one of the worst expositions I've seen in a movie in s long time

I thought Pegg was great especially in the airport scene. He knows his strengths and limitations and plays them well

Yeah Ving was sitting down the entire movie. I just realized that LOL Maybe it is for health reasons.

“I’m pretty fucking far from okay.” *Marcellus Wallace voice*
 
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