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A Fun, Wild Ride: A Review of Knight and Day by Michael Hall

I grew up in a very musical household. I was raised on a steady diet of songs from all genres, particularly classic rock. I can't remember a time when The Beatles, The Doobie Brothers, Dire Straits, Heart, Kansas, The Alan Parsons Project, and others in that vein weren't in heavy rotation on the CD player in my dad's car. As for my mom, she's more knowledgeable and passionate about stage musicals than anyone I know, except maybe my sister.

Yet in such a family, I somehow wound up the only one who hasn't yet seen "Rock of Ages" live. I don't remember how that happened, but I'm guessing it was some kind of scheduling mix-up. Anyway, I made sure to have my mom on hand as I watched the film adaptation, to provide some perspective and knowledge about both versions. She was of the opinion that Rock of Ages was an outstanding adaptation... though it was pretty much a completely different show. Thanks for clearing that up, Mom.

For my part, I'll put it to you this way: In the movie's very first scene, we meet Sherrie (Julianne Hough) on a bus to Hollywood. She starts singing a bit of "Sister Christian." Her fellow passengers -- one at a time -- each sing a line from the song, then continue about their commute like nothing happened. I tell you this -- and the movie shows you this -- as a warning of just how low the bar for logic has been set.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol stars Tom Cruise reprising his role as agent Ethan Hunt from the last three series leading with his new team agents Jane Carter and Benji Dunn to infiltrate the Kremlin to identify files that can explain the identification of a Russian assassin and a group involved in killing of a IMF agent whilst on a mission. In a rather flamboyant twist to the plot Tom Cruise and his team end up gaining chase against a terrorist cell that have stolen Russian missile codes from within the Kremlin Walls which will allow them access to the Russian missile base and effectively allow control of missiles to target anywhere in the world (You would have thought that since the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian authorities would have upgraded their computer technology to at least a Windows XP model?). The Russian authorities are lead to believe that Ethan Hunt and his team are involved so this leads to the US Government closing down all operations for the IMF team thus pushing Ethan Hunt and his team underground on pursuit to find the missing codes. Ethan is joined by Jeremy Renner's character a seemingly faceless government buearcrat to join them in the chase which leads to exciting suspense, amazing visuals and some terrific action.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol encase anyone is not familiar is the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise that started in 1996 and in an era of reboots and where sequel numbers have been avoided by movie producers like the black death it is rather bold and ambitious for any producers these days to do another sequel with the same star from the original and Mission Impossible seemed no exception to this. When the first mission impossible film was released in 1996 at the time when people were growing tired and bored by the seemingly exhausted spy-flick James Bond films and with nothing else new to replace it Mission Impossible became a massive and mostly critical success for critics and movie-goers alike. Despite complaints raised about it's complex plot and not keeping it faithful to the original TV series it still had it's merits offering something new, exciting, modern and clever in an action-spy flick for a long time. Mission Impossible was brisk, suspenseful and a great thrill ride whilst keeping the auidence engaging in it's clever storyline, great characters and twisting plot that quickly grabbed auidences attention in offering a basic, action-thriller that delievered drama and great action. So MI was a great film that made loads of money so a sequel was on the table and raised all possibilites of this becoming a new action franchise similiar to James Bond but it did not take the MI franchise long, in fact, only in it's second film that it would soon fall into the sequel trap.

Mission Impossible 2 considered just a massive insult to the first film, a massive action packed ego trip that ignored the sensiabilites of providing good character development, substance and a great storyline that was found in the first film over blanted over the top action CGI effects and scenes whilst at the same time being a very big borefess. Although it made more money than the first film, as most sequels do, it left a bittertaste for most fans and critics alike leaving the impression that a lot of people did not like this film and for those who did like the film do agree that it was not as good compared to the first film and lost the originality found in the first film and retreated to over-the-top action over dialouge and substance. It made possibilities of carrying on MI as a franchise seem dead. 

If you love Minority report, then we do not share our tastes I can tell you that much.

I recently saw a list of top sci-fi films and Minority Report was included and I did a double take: because, while the film Minority Report was commercially successful, and many critics liked it, and while I wouldn't say it's the worst thing that I've ever seen: I have no respect for it.