Film Talk: Latest reviews - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch and The Phoenician Scheme
The ‘Cruise Missile’ is back, and it’s safe to say our boy Tom is as on-target as ever.
“There is never an easy day on Mission: Impossible. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” smiles Tom Cruise, speaking of the final instalment in the nearly 30-year-old franchise.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning stands as a stunt-filled, action-packed finale for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his motley crew of spies and associates. Despite Cruise being 62 years old, he has still crammed the film with some of the most jaw-dropping, hair-raising and death-defying stunts of his career.
“This new movie is a gargantuan accomplishment,” Cruise says.
“It’s a culmination of everything, and I mean everything, that me and Mc Q (Christopher McQuarrie, who has directed its last four instalments) have learned in storytelling over the course of making these movies. The Final Reckoning is very elegant, very layered and incredibly epic.” Cruise has confirmed that The Final Reckoning marks Ethan Hunt’s last mission – and he certainly goes out with a bang.
“Because it’s a culmination of all of Mission: Impossible, you’re going to see Ethan from the very beginning and understand him in a whole different way,” the star teases. Following on from the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning, we catch up with Hunt and the IMF team as they race against time to find and stop the Entity, a rogue AI that could destroy mankind both in its current form, and if it is captured by the wrong people.
As ever with Mission: Impossible films, the odds of success are incredibly slim, requiring the team to time their actions down to the millisecond to avoid catastrophic consequences.
With a new and intriguing effort from Wes Anderson also dropping this week, as well as Disney’s latest live action adaptation hitting the flicks, there’s something for all as the summer begins to dawn. Let’s take a closer look...
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (UK 12A/ROI 12A, 170 mins) ****
Released: May 21 (UK & Ireland)
Considering Tom Cruise’s willingness to hurl himself into the slavering jaws of death for our big screen entertainment in the Mission: Impossible films, the franchise’s bombastic title has always seemed like a slight exaggeration.
The Hollywood star broke his ankle performing one daredevil stunt for the sixth film but still managed to complete the take before heading to hospital. Anything is possible.
The stakes feel monumentally high in the eighth chapter, which welcomes back director Christopher McQuarrie to tie up narrative threads from Dead Reckoning and circle back to the 1996 reboot that suspended Cruise on cables inside a maximum-security CIA vault.
The ripple effect of that nerve-jangling heist generates an extinction-level tsunami in The Final Reckoning and empowers a rogue artificial intelligence dubbed the Entity to seize control of every nuclear arsenal on the planet.
In response, Cruise risks life and limbs to perform two of the most thrilling stunt sequences of the entire series: scrambling through the flooded belly of a submarine rotating through 360 degrees in the uncharted depths of the Arctic Ocean; and clinging on to the wings of two airborne biplanes as they somersault, swoop and dive over the breathtaking Blyde River Canyon in South Africa.
Cameras remain thrillingly close to the actor so we can see he’s genuinely in the midst of these jaw-dropping sequences, flaunting a gym-toned physique that boggles the mind given Cruise will celebrate his 63rd birthday this summer.
Defying time’s natural wear and tear and career-ending injuries has surely been the real mission: impossible.
As a pulse-quickening spectacle, The Final Reckoning exceeds many previous instalments.
As a satisfying narrative experience, McQuarrie’s script co-written by Erik Jendresen is overly earnest in the opening 10 minutes and montages of Ethan Hunt’s earlier missions are nostalgia overkill, accounting for the unwieldy 170-minute running time.
IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is in exile with both halves of the 3D cruciform key that can unlock the source code of the Entity.
“Surrender, or the blood of the world will be on your hands,” pleads US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) in a VHS message that self-destructs in time-honoured fashion after five seconds.
Instead, the IMF agent returns to London to reunite with Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and former thief Grace (Hayley Atwell).
The Entity’s human henchman, Gabriel (Esai Morales), is still on the loose so Hunt bolsters his ranks with vengeful French assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) and US intelligence agent Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis).
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a globe-trotting gallivant designed for the largest cinema screen that puts Cruise front and centre of each outlandish set piece.
Scriptwriters aren’t afraid to sacrifice key characters in the melee and a callback to the first film is unexpectedly poignant.
If this is Cruise’s breathlessly staged swansong then he departs before the action-packed series self-destructs.
LILO & STITCH (UK U/ROI G, 107 mins) ***
Released: May 21 (UK & Ireland)
If cherubic cuteness could be bottled and sold, Maia Kealoha would be a multi-millionaire.
The eight-year-old Hawaiian actress oozes adorability from every sun-kissed pore in a title role of director Dean Fleischer Camp’s feel-great live-action reworking of the acclaimed 2002 Disney animation, which remains faithful to beloved source material but isn’t afraid to upcycle and refurbish for modern tastes.
Screenwriters Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes appropriate meaningful dialogue from the original including a heart-tugging life lesson about togetherness (“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind”) and Stitch’s wholesome declaration of love.
The script also hulas with the times (Lilo quips that she knows about her sister’s crush because she reads text messages), reconfiguring existing characters and introducing new faces including an elderly neighbour for broad comic relief.
Tia Carrere, Jason Scott Lee and Amy Hill, who voiced older sister Nani, boyfriend David and forgetful fruit vendor Mrs Hasagawa in the 2002 picture, invest warmth and bountiful humour to their supporting roles and provide a nostalgic connection between old and new. Chris Sanders reprises the voice of Stitch and the digitally rendered incarnation of his alien rapscallion is almost as irresistibly cheeky as its hand-drawn counterpart, seamlessly gelling with human co-stars to elicit gurgles of glee from the target audience.
The new Lilo & Stitch is a close encounter of the lovable kind.
Illegal genetic experiment 626 (voiced by Sanders) escapes United Galactic Federation (UGF) confinement, steals a red spaceship and crash-lands on a wildlife reserve for endangered mosquitoes known as Earth.
The “flawed product of a deranged mind” ends up in an animal rescue centre in Hawaii and escapes recapture at the hands of creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) and UGF agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) by pretending to be a dog so it can be adopted by six-year-old orphan Lilo Pelekai (Kealoha).
The girl christens her mischievous companion Stitch and the pair wreak havoc on Lilo’s legal guardian, older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), who is struggling to pay bills and appease child protective services represented by social worker Mrs Kekoa (Carrere).
“You’re not bad. You just do bad things sometimes,” Lilo sweetly informs Stitch.
Kindly neighbour Tutu (Hill) and surfer grandson (Kaipo Dudoit) provide emotional support to the Pelekais but the sisters’ movements are being tracked by US government agent Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B Vance).
Lilo & Stitch is a wholesome and charming remake that leaves a lump in the throat by retaining the underlying sentiment and replaying memorable sequences such as the alien’s exhilarating introduction to surfing.
Newcomer Kealoha is a wonder, confidently riding waves of comedy and tragedy to endear us to her bullied and lonely heroine.
Breathtaking Hawaiian locales will make you wish you were there, even with Stitch unleashing chaos across Oahu.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (UK 15/ROI 12A, 101 mins) ***
Released: May 23 (UK & Ireland)
Writer-director Wes Anderson assembles another impressive ensemble of regular collaborators and fresh faces for a quirky 1950s-set comedy thriller.
Powerful businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) is a titan of commerce in eastern Europe with many jealous rivals who wish to oust him.
He is the target of assassination attempts and succession planning is vital to ensure his legacy.
Blessed with 10 children from three wives, Zsa-zsa pins his hopes for the future on his only daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a novice who has been raised in a convent by a Mother Superior (Hope Davis) to cast aside earthly possessions.
Liesl joins her father on a daring new enterprise alongside Norwegian tutor and insect specialist Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), who has been hired as a tutor for Liesl’s siblings.
When the price of key components of the construction trade skyrocket, Zsa-zsa, Leisl and Bjorn travel around Europe to haggle over price.
The cast also includes F Murray Abraham, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Jeffrey Wright.
