What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with Friendship, which opens at Cinemapolis tomorrow, and Holy Motors, which will screen there on Wednesday as part of their “Staff Picks” series. My loving wife and I are also planning a date night outing to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning at Cinemapolis, the Regal Ithaca Mall, or possibly the IMAX screen at the Regal Destiny USA in Syracuse, but we’re not sure yet when.
Also in Theaters: Sinners is proving hard to knock off its perch as the best new movie now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen, but maybe this is the week! It’s also pretty quiet on the repertory fare and special events fronts, aside of course from the screening of Holy Motors mentioned above.
Home Video: Speaking of my loving wife, she and I recently rewatched the first seven Mission: Impossible movies on Paramount+ in preparation for The Final Reckoning and I am happy to present the following definitive ranking from least to most essential:
With all due respect to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the part he was given extremely well, this movie is too damn mean. But the fact that it’s last place on the list is precisely why I’m bother to compose it in the first place: these are some lofty heights for a nadir!
6. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
The one where Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is described as “the living manifestation of destiny” and “sometimes […] the only one capable of seeing the only way,” establishing him as a sort of demigod who, more than having a preternatural ability to understand and play the odds, can actually *manipulate* luck. Which, in the words of Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn, “[takes] things too far.”
Only fifth on my list, but if it’s true that many people regard *this* as the series’ weakest link, then it may be underrated! The Ethan Hunt free-climbing Dead Horse Point opening credits sequence remains the best beginning to a M:I movie.
4. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
We don’t have to call this “Part One” any more now that its sequel has a different name, right? Anyway, the golden light, hushed tones, high ceilings, and columns of the otherwise apparently extraneous DoorDash sequence near the beginning evoke a cathedral and mark black-clad Hunt as the Bishop of Bon Chance, which I hope represents the final evolution of his relationship to luck, but we’ll see! The Oriental Express sequence is also one of the franchise’s finest set pieces, and the Rome sequence contains its best car chase.
3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Although Hunt is still frequently bathed in light in director Christopher McQuarrie (M:I‘s first repeat helmer) follow-up to Rogue Nation, that film’s erroneously audacious suggestion that he may in fact be divine is thankfully withdrawn in favor of reconnecting with all its other predecessors, including the only two that I consider to be true must-sees:
2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
The one where Hunt fully emerges as the Bob Montagné of the secret agent set: a legend in his own time trapped in a never ending game with rapidly escalating blinds and a growing family of followers to look after which forces him to chase longer and longer odds to keep up. The energy behind his unhinged smile in the movie that started it all (see below) is still there, but now all of it is channeled into his work, which includes keeping things light and making it look easy. Featuring my favorite combination of his teammates, two of the series’ best ancillary characters in Anil Kapoor’s Brij Nath and Léa Seydoux’s Sabine Moreau, and probably its most impressive stunt (climbing the Burj Khalifa), Ghost Protocol can make a legitimate claim to not just be number one on this list, but also an all-time great action movie. Of course, that label doesn’t really describe:
I definitely remembered this as being as not quite of a piece with the films that followed it, but the big pleasant surprise of our rewatch project is that this is more similar to the way Friday Night Lights the movie is completely different from but equally enjoyable to Friday Night Lights the TV series than it is to the way season one of The Simpsons is a very rough draft for the seven seasons that followed before the show was tragically cancelled right in the middle of its prime. The Channel Tunnel sequence is also a masterpiece of cutting–but not bleeding–edge special effects, the exploding fish tank and the Langley break-in remain among the franchise’s two most memorable single moments, and there is a stick of green light/red light “chewing gum” enshrined in my personal movie prop hall of fame. Add it all up and you’ve got one of the most entertaining movies I’ve ever seen!
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 