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I have no doubt that—like every entry in this series—it will be reclaimed as "secretly the best one" by fans later on. In fact, both Dead and Final Reckoning feel like Cruise and McQuarrie saying: We perfected the formula with Fallout, now let's do something different. And "different" can feel weird and awkward at first. For instance, I was lukewarm on Dead Reckoning when it first came out: too long, convoluted plot, too much talking. And all the same complaints can (and will) be thrown at this movie. But after seeing it again, I fell into its rhythms. The crisp, mannered dialogue. The perfect blocking and shot composition. The way action set pieces build and build and build to comical proportions. The way the plot circles back and eats itself. But most importantly, the hollow, terrified core of this two-part monster movie (the Entity is more-or-less an evil ghost). These two movies are about something. There's a sincere (if too-earnest) concern about the future of our species. AI and its death-cult has no concern for humans, for anything. It's psychopathic, all-knowing, meaningless. This over-the-top, silly action franchise is taking on what it means to be human, what it means to love and have friends in the face of the meaningless waste of our digital future.

So here comes The Final Reckoning. To my surprise, this is the darkest, meanest, saddest entry in the franchise. As if Cruise and McQ are struggling to maintain that perpetual wink and grin. The world is too dark for that. No other MI film concerns itself so much with the media, with cult-like devotion, with political scheming, with the responsibility placed on global leaders. Ethan Hunt has never been more isolated, alien, and unreachable. The most thrilling sequence of the movie involves only him. Instead of quips and competition, it's a 20 minute, dialogue-free nightmare. Nothing in the franchise compares to it. There's a dark extended joke before the title sequence that basically highlights Ethan's sociopathy, the anger and violence McQ is too afraid to show us. It's tonally strange, unsettling, and exciting. Ethan makes with the Entity early on, in a sequence I could only describe as: a psycho-sexual Frankenstein-monster brain-washing horror sequence. 

Much has been said about the "slog" of a first hour. This is where most of the interesting stuff happens. Are the constant flashbacks to earlier movies a studio mandate? No idea. But they're edited expertly and build the sense of paranoia about Ethan's past and future. Too much is happening. No one can trust anyone. The entity is everything and nothing. What are we doing here? 

Sure, these new elements make the experience bumpy on a first watch. But that first hour builds to maybe the most thrilling sequence of the whole series. And the film keeps doubling down on itself. When we aren't concerned with Ethan's mission, we're worrying over Angela Basset's Fail-Safe-style nuclear war thriller. And when it all feels like it will collapse under its own weight, the movie overcomes these bleak, relentless sequences with a climax that tops anything in Cruise's career.

There's a Gulp Shitto character who gets way more screen time than I think he deserves. A couple of rushed storytelling choices. Is it a good movie? Mostly. Is it a great movie? Absolutely, without a doubt, 100%.  It takes action filmmaking to new heights (and depths?) and dares to say more about this time in history than any other big-budget movie of its kind. 

This one will stick with me.

First ever FD movie I've ever seen. This is like Halloween 2018 if Michael Myers killed people with Rube Goldberg machines. Loved it.

Perhaps the greatest piece of art made about the American prison system and the cultural impact of Sheriff Joe Arpaio (AZ). Also it is bad.

british people be like: she put the centipede up me bum

i like the badly photoshopped dog-centipede photo. he's kind of whimsical, you know? wes anderson evil surgeon

Undeniably THE BEST marvel movie of the last five years.     Three stars.

starting to think war isn't a good thing

a sprawling John Carpenter siege action thriller creature feature hang-out movie musical about the power of love. with vampires.

what more can you ask for?

great script, great acting, stylish, good cinematography, concise, funny....

no wonder it flopped

they just don't make em like they used to anymore 😔

i fell asleep in the theater halfway through. hope he found his wife tho

Watched on Wednesday April 9, 2025.

there's a character named "general chungus"

Never ever loses its magic. Ronee Blakley gives a miracle performance. Seen it maybe a dozen times, and each time is like watching a new movie.

Connor O'Malley but boring and unfunny

*standing 2 centimeters in front of the camera lens*
david lynch: "closer"

*going 95mph in my F-450, my three daughters all named McKeighlah in the backseat crying, my wife screaming at me to slow down* 
"Get off the road you old sack of shit"

jesus christ

Amazing what time does to you. I first saw this in 2015. Thought it was the most disgusting, mean-spirited trash I had ever seen. It was the first Lynch movie that really challenged me, that made me see a part of the world I didn't like, and I thought Lynch made that world a stupid joke. I was aligned with Roger Ebert's famous review: "It’s all a joke, you see, and so if the violence offends you, you didn’t get the joke."

Seeing it now, ten years later, and with the added context of Lynch's body of work, it's clear that this movie is not one big joke - in fact it's painfully sincere. Maybe Lynch's most overtly sincere and romantic movie he's ever made. Sailor and Lula are holding onto the last pure love in the world - and everyone is out to destroy it. It's adventure, tragedy, romance, epic, and yes, comedy, all rolled into one. The exaggerated violence is perfectly in-line with the operatic, melodramatic tone of the whole thing. Lynch really loves these characters. When Harry Dean Stanton tells Diane Ladd he loves her, it's one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful line reads I've seen.

So much I could say about it. One of my new favorites. Can't believe I gave it 1 star back then. (btw Shout Factory blurays seem to be in stock again - that's how I watched this - and it looks like the only way to watch this movie right now.)

Still perfect after all these years. The first Lynch I ever fell in love with.

Seen this in bits and pieces growing up, finally sat down for the whole thing. More entertaining and watchable than I , considering it is 90% exposition. Sci-fi and fantasy as depicted on screen have evolved so much - audiences are given more trust these days. I love the weirdness, the goofiness, the insane sets and costumes - but this movie is weirdly stuck in a 1960s costume drama. Stilted dialogue and performances, timid camerawork, flat lighting. A really good time, and sort of closer in tone to Herbert's writing than Villeneuve gets with his polished "emotions" and "strong characterization." It's amazing how central the new Dunes make Chani and Jessica, such a vast improvement over what we get here.

Gal Gadot unlocking unseen levels of "finger acting"

Could tell within the first 10 minutes this wouldn't be my jam. It's a tone thing. Let's call it dark whimsy? Lemony Snicket sci-fi? Don't Look Up broad satire meets EEAAO's earnestness? That's on me. I could see plenty of people connecting with this. Regardless, some set-pieces blew me away (dinner with Ruffalo) and the filmmaking is technically great. The story left a lot of philosophical questions unexplored in favor of silly hijinks and Avatar-style moralizing (and too-obvious satire). Mostly fun, but the third act is a chore to get through. It's going to acquire a small but VERY ionate cult of fans in the coming years, let me tell you. Who knows? Maybe I'll become one of them.

Hold on, this is a literal masterpiece. Made me feel a deep pain in my soul (complementary)

Fourth time watching this? One of Lynch's most airtight, suffocating works. Gathers all the tropes of noir fiction and explores them with the sincerity and dread of a convicted killer. Renee/Alice is the key to this movie. A movie about the suffering of a femme fatale seen through the eyes of her abs. We try to externalize our guilt onto Mr Eddy and the Mystery Man, but we can't escape the recorded document. We're all guilty in Lynch's world. No transcendence here, only dread.

Adam Scott set the tone for me in that first scene, and after that I sat back and enjoyed this deeply stupid and unserious movie (complementary).

Osgood Perkins I'm sorry I hated Longlegs, because this was a great time.

Marvel is BACK. Forget the naysayers, this film has the old marvel magic we haven't seen since 2023's The Marvels. I literally pissed and shitted my pants before, during, and after every single line of dialogue. for because of good reasons.

Based on all the memes, I thought this would be a lot sillier than it actually is. Why are you making cardinal fancams. The movie is fine.

Watched on Friday February 7, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 7, 2025.

For whatever reason, this film evades me unlike other Bressons. One of his most religiously symbolic. Very complex, always feel like I'm scratching the surface. Maybe one day

Dogshit movie. Fucking awful.  But Karla Sofia Gascon was fantastic, and seems like a super cool person. Hope nothing bad comes out about her

Rap #1: *devastating insults, allusions to shakespeare*

eminem: THATS RIGHT MY FRIENDS ARE ALL LOSERS

A thousand times more depressing, confrontational, and bitter than I expected. The second half (and epilogue) scramble any attempt at a didactic "this is the movie" moment. Is art worth it? Is anything worth it? What matters beyond the people we choose to spend our life on earth with?

when the generational trauma traumas so freakin hard you just gotta trauma some more

Most of Eggers movies feel like those productions of Shakespeare that demand perfect fealty to the historical production: original pronunciation, original casting (all men), original costumes and effects. The result can be fascinating, and can result in unexpected beauty...but it's not the only way. And Eggers isn't even doing Shakespeare here - he's doing pre-Shakespeare. Hamlet before Hamlet. The curiosity of seeing this myth AS history, ultimately saps it of myth. The effect grows tiresome: another symmetrical, fire-lit scene. Another screaming battle, another declaration of revenge. A memorable experiment, but I grew bored fast. I think Eggers would prefer making movies for a pre-modern audience. That's the problem, he can't show this movie to folks in 900 AD.

I ire this more than I like it.

This review may contain spoilers.

I wouldn't let a goat ruin my family. I simply wouldn't let it happen. Ever.

most quotable buddy comedy in history??

I love the idea of real Bob Dylan reading this script about how he was a psychopath shapeshifter and being like, yeah, pretty much

This review may contain spoilers.

you're laughing. Nosferatu has a mustache and you're laughing.

i got confused because of too many lions. but then the white lions were there and i knew who the bad guys were.   seth rogen.

(opens bag with DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT written on it) I don't know what I expected.

Junk food for kids. Struggled to keep my eyes open, even through the endless opening act that sets up: Moana needs to accept a mission. Character growth? Who needs it. Flaws? Waste of time. 
         Very obvious this was converted from a planned TV show. A possible antagonist sings a song about...being chaotic? Is Moana going to reject her "destiny" to focus on selfish desires? No. Because she has to be perfect. 
        She has a team of lovable morons, just as predictable as you'd expect. The fun tension between Moana and the Rock has been erased. Everyone loves everyone. The only antagonist is a storm.
      Oh, also there were songs. 
      Lin Manuel Miranda redemption arc incoming.

Still no closer to defining what gravity is. good movie though

Genuinely shocked at the everyone’s giving this. Worse in every aspect from the original. If Ridley Scott weren’t at the helm, there’d be way less patience for this legacy-quel, by-the-numbers, disted mess.
If I hadn’t seen the first Gladiator a few days ago, maybe I’d be less critical. I don’t know. That movie was tangible, beautifully composed, deliberate in its blocking, effective (and clear) in its writing––but above all, visually GORGEOUS. A true spectacle in the tradition of Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. It’s sad that a movie made 25 years ago is impossible to recreate (though they so clearly tried) even with more money, better technology, etc. There’s a flashback to the end of Gladiator 1, but to make it fit into the new, acceptable gray digital palette, they mute the color, and STILL it's obvious where the new scenes begin because the compositions are worse.
There’s an argument to make for the new Ridley Scott-style of cinematography. Washed out colors, natural light sources, etc. But you have to ask: how much of this is an artistic choice and how much is “it’s faster, and just plain easier?” From what I know, Ridley Scott shoots very quickly, often with many cameras rolling at once. It makes sense that nearly every scene here feels pieced together in the editing room from standard TV-style coverage. Except for the heavy CGI scenes (which require intense planning) the blocking and shot compositions are casual and occasionally ugly.
The movie relies heavily on CGI. Mescal fights weightless baboons. A rhino crashes into the colosseum wall as if it were a car. Sharks attack helpless gladiators. None of it is remotely convincing. This movie shares more in common with Wicked than the original Gladiator.
So the visuals aren’t my thing, clearly. Maybe it won’t bother you. The screenplay feels pieced together from a number of half-good ideas, likely pitched during this sequel’s development hell. The story is both too complicated and lacking in depth. Paul Mescal is motivated by an early tragedy, which quickly feels unimportant in context to the wider story. They wanted the epic revenge of Gladiator, without bothering to set up the personal animosity. Mescal changes the target of his vengeance multiple times, to the point where we’re wondering what he even wants. Our twin emperors are cartoonishly evil. It’s as if the writers said, “Joaquin was pretty evil, but what if he was even MORE evil and there’s TWO of him???”
In every review you’ll see people praise Denzel’s performance, because yeah. It’s Denzel. But without his charisma, the role would be just as bland as the rest of it.
But the biggest disaster (and the thing I’m surprised more people aren’t complaining about) is the retcon of Gladiator’s ending. No spoilers, but they undo the triumphant finale. It’s your classic sequel trope of “if the cameras had only rolled a few minutes longer, you’d have seen that it wasn’t a happy ending.”
It’s a very long movie.
Anyways, Nadia really liked it. So you can watch us argue: youtu.be/J7hZUuFnl0Y

I keep thinking about this one.

Watched on Monday November 18, 2024.

this movie unironically depicts successful torture interrogation methods via a talking polar bear.

sometimes i can't believe movies used to look this good.

this guy seems really weird. like a weird dude

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
2. Mission: Impossible
3. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
4. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
6. Mission: Impossible III
7. Mission: Impossible II

1. Nashville
2. My Darling Clementine
3. The Night of the Hunter
4. PlayTime
5. Bringing Up Baby
6. Touch of Evil
7. It's a Wonderful Life
8. Grand Illusion
9. Pather Panchali
10. No Country for Old Men

...plus 106 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Full video ranking on the channel:
youtu.be/18_8fI27yeQ

If my ratings don't match their ranking on the list, that's because this is vibes-based. For instance, Eraserhead is 5/5 stars, perfect movie, but I rank it lower than 4/5 Inland Empire. Some movies I love more for their imperfections (whatever that means).

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Wild at Heart
4. Blue Velvet
5. Inland Empire
6. Lost Highway
7. Eraserhead
8. The Elephant Man
9. The Straight Story
10. Dune

1. My Darling Clementine
2. Red River
3. The Searchers
4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
5. Fort Apache
6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
7. Unforgiven
8. Rio Bravo
9. No Country for Old Men
10. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance