Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning

Actors: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett.

Rating: 8 out of 10, If this truly is the last film in this series, it goes out with a bang. While that is predictable given the series DNA, somehow they’ve taken the stunts and sheer “impossibility” of some of Tom Cruise’s exploits to even higher levels. The run time is really, really long as they crammed as much as they possibly could into the nearly three hours. They spend a lot of time reconnecting to the prior movies, including an extremely cool reach back to one of the minor characters from the very first movie. They could have and probably should have trimmed some of the underwater work which dragged on way too long, stretching incredulity beyond even what a dedicated MI fan can accept. You have to go into these movies prepared to suspend disbelief but there were times I was just shaking my head as we left reality behind decisively. The final half of the movie, with the world on the brink of nuclear immolation (of course), makes anything leading up to it easy to forgive. A great, glossy, overblown, overlong, but completely entertaining epic, I loved it.

MVP: Cruise as Hunt (of course)

Working Man

Actors: Jason Statham, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Andrej Kaminsky, Jason Flemyng,  Ninidze

Rating: 8 out of 10, A Working Man is an excellent action flick with Statham’s once again playing the everyman blessed with a back story involving elite military skills. The bad guys, once again, fail to take that into account when they kidnap the daughter of a close family friend. The expected carnage follows but this is so well done and Statham is so believable in both his acting and his athleticism that it is a joy to sit through. You almost feel sorry for the bad guys as they make the mistakes leading to their eventual comeuppance and loss of body parts. David Harbour shines in a small role as a former military buddy. This is an excellent follow-up to last year’s Beekeeper and proves Statham is still at the top of his game.

MVP: Statham as Levon, lost nothing off his action creds

Fantastic 4 First Steps

Actors: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson

Rating: 9 out of 10, They finally got the Fantastic Four right. Although I liked the Jessica Alba version, this newest outing was, well, fantastic. They set up the four in one of Marvels’ endless alternate earths with a 1960’s flavor which didn’t distract but added to the story. The extremely strong cast was tone perfect; they faced a seemingly impossible task of beating a world eating alien bent on devouring earth. Pedro Pascal can do anything and Vanessa Kirby is more than his match as his wife. The other two of the four were both excellent as well. Marvel seems to have gotten back on track with this latest outing, once again creating characters we can invest in. Another great summer epic.

MVP: Kirby as Sue Storm, heart of the movie

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

Actors: Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel

Rating: 8 out of 10, A predictably good action flick. Predictable because of the Gerard Butler O’Shea Jackson pairing. Butler plays a disgraced cop who joins up with an international criminal ring, led by Jackson, the only one who got away in the first film, to rob a diamond market. There are some huge plot holes, like why the organized criminals so readily accept a former cop into their team, but with action movies you forgive a lot. The two leads make a very good buddy pairing, from opposite ends of the law enforcement spectrum. This is a lot less gritty than the original, but the robbery was great cinema keeping the audience on the proverbial edge of the seat. A great addition to the action genre.

MVP: Butler owns action hero roles

Thunderbolts

Actors: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Rating: 8 out of 10, This latest Marvel flick harkens back to their earlier films which were so entertaining. The blame for this return to quality lays squarely on Florence Pugh and David Harbour. They are standouts in a cast of misfits called upon to, you know, save the world. They’re not as well endowed with supe abilities as their preceding Avengers but they are a lot of fun, especially Pugh and Harbour who play a difunctional parent/daughter. The action is non-stop as is the lively dialogue. The only downside was the villain, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who’s only superpower was being obnoxious versus dangerous. Still, a welcome return to form for Marvel, a really enjoyable watch.

MVP: Pugh is heart of the movie as anguished anti-hero

Accountant 2

Actors: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and J. K. Simmons, Daniella Pineda

Rating: 8 out of 10, I loved the first Accountant movie with Affleck playing a lethal auditor operating at a high level of the autism scale. The lack of aspect the character requires leads perfectly into Affleck’s acting style an he delivers once again in this sequel. One of the best arts of the original was the relationship he had with his estranged brother, played by the latest Punisher, Jon Berthal, an assassin in his own right. Th filmmakers must have liked that also because the sequel is centered around that relationship. The very few moments bodies weren’t flying about were amply filled with the two reconnecting as brothers. The accountant is called in to identify a missing immigrant family which has also caught the attention of a dangerous female assassin. There are some neat twists at the end involving the climactic battle with the villains. They obviously set themselves up for another sequel which is welcome news. A great action flick with fully developed characters.

MVP: Affleck is perfect as the autistic assassin

Fight or Flight

Actors: Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Julian Kostov, Katee Sackhoff, Marko Zaror, Rebecka Johnston

Rating: 9 out of 10, This movie truly surprised me. It’s a goofy action comedy with Josh Hartnett starring as a disgraced secret service agent who’s coaxed back into the business to capture a wanted cyber terrorist on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. There are too many plot twists to describe other than to say Hartnett is awesome as he kills his way through the plane loaded with assassins. He’s ably assisted by Charithra Chandran as a spunky flight attendant; she manages to steal the majority of scenes that she’s in. I would hazard a guess that we’ll be hearing a lot more about this actress in the near future. She was great. As was the entire movie which had me laughing as well as cringing as the carnage unfolded. I texted my son as soon as I got home, telling him this was our kind of movie.

MVP: Hartnett as Reyes as an “excuse me” John Wick clone