MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' - Tuesday 11th July 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' earlier this week, and this eagerly awaited American action spy film is the seventh film in the 'Mission : Impossible' franchise, and is a sequel to 2018's 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout'. This film is once again Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Christopher McQuarrie who also helmed 'Fallout' and 2015's 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. The first six films in the ever popular franchise grossed worldwide US$3.57B at the Box Office off the back of combined production budgets of US$828M. 'Dead Reckoning - Part Two' is slated for release on 28th June 2024 with Christopher McQuarrie again in the Director's chair with Parts One and Two being filmed back to back. This film cost US$290M to produce, and has so far grossed US$20M.

Here the film opens up on board a Russian nuclear submarine under the pack ice of the Bering Sea - The Sevastopol - with two high ranking naval officers each with one half of an interlocking key forming a crucifix like shape, insert said key into an AI device that renders the submarine invisible to other foreign vessels so allowing it to stealthily potentially invade any other country's naval fleet undetected. Up on the radar screen comes the sighting of a foreign submarine that the Captain gives the order to arm the torpedo tubes and engage. But the foreign vessel has already launched a torpedo attack on the supposed invisible Sevastopol. As the crew prepare for impact in the closing seconds the torpedo's simply disappear, as does the foreign submarine that the Sevastopol had already sent torpedo's toward. The AI device is seen going into overdrive, as its own torpedo's turn around and head back in the direction from whence they came, detonating on impact and killing every crew member on board, many of whom float to the surface only to be trapped under thick sea ice, with the Sevastopol sinking to the bottom of the sea. 

IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, who also Co-Produces here) is assigned to retrieve half of a key from his ally and disavowed MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who has a bounty of US$50M placed on her. He travels to the Arabian Desert, engages in a gunfight during a sand storm with a bunch of bounty hunters and briefly reunites with Ilsa with them both having seen off all the hunters. After staging the scene, he tells her that to all intents and purposes she is now dead, and therefore to lay very low. 

Back in the US, Ethan infiltrates a meeting of the Community, where officials of various intelligence agencies, including former IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes), discuss an experimental AI called the Entity. Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the Entity turned rogue, expanded to potential sentience, and infiltrated all major defence and military systems and intelligence networks worldwide. The worlds key power players are now racing both to prevent sabotage and to gain control of the Entity, which rests with both halves of the key, although no one knows at this point what the key is for!

Ethan firmly believes that the Entity is too powerful for anyone to control, and so he vows to destroy it. He and his teammates Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key. Ethan evades Community agents as well as Gabriel (Esai Morales), an Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past, before losing the half-key to professional thief and expert pick-pocket Grace (Hayley Atwell). Meanwhile, Benji identifies an item of luggage containing a suspected explosive device sent by the Entity, and he races through the back of house baggage conveyer to locate it and defuse it. With the device counting down from four minutes with a series of riddles to answer, Benji is successful in disarming what turns out to be a fake nuclear device. Rattled by the Entity's seeming foresight and the appearance of Gabriel, Ethan goes after Grace alone, and tells Benji and Luther to abort their mission. Ethan is able to dodge past the Community agents with Grace evading Ethan who boards her planned flight to Rome. When in Rome however, she is picked up by the local Police revealing that she is wanted in several countries for theft, extortion, bribery etc. and is in possession of about a dozen different passports all bearing photographs of her likeness. 

In Rome, Ethan tracks down Grace by pretending to be her lawyer, before Community agents and Gabriel close in. After a lengthy high speed car chase through the streets and alleyways of Rome Grace escapes again, but Ethan is picked up by his team and Ilsa. With Benji and Luther providing support, Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a party held by arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), aka 'The White Widow' in Venice, hoping to find the buyer for the complete key, as well as what it unlocks. Grace is also present as is Gabriel. Grace delivers the half-key to Alanna while Ethan fails to talk Alanna out of selling the key. 

Gabriel delivers an ultimatum to Ethan, saying that he must choose which one of Grace or Ilsa is to die. The team scatters, with Ethan being chased down on foot by Paris (Pom Klementieff), a stone cold French assassin working for Gabriel. Ethan faces off in a gated at either end narrow alleyway against Paris and one of her colleagues, overpowering them both, but sparring their lives. Gabriel meanwhile knocks Grace out and kills Ilsa before Ethan arrives on the scene. He is devastated by her loss.

Grace is wracked by remorse over the death of Ilsa and is convinced to join Ethan's team. They prepare to board the Innsbruck-bound Orient Express train where Alanna plans to meet the buyer. Luther leaves for an off-grid location to investigate traces of the Entity on his hard drive. On the train, Gabriel kills the conductor, destroys the brakes and fires up the engine to gain maximum speed. He meets Denlinger, who proposes an alliance between himself and the Entity. Denlinger explains the complete key unlocks the chamber containing the computer of Sevastopol, a Russian submarine sunk by its own torpedo. An early version of the Entity was injected into the system with the task of sabotaging the submarine's stealth capability, but it instead tricked the Sevastopol into destroying itself. This early version is still on the submarine, and whoever can access it can devise the means to either control or destroy the Entity. Gabriel kills Denlinger and attempts to kill Paris to ensure only he knows about the key’s purpose. He further says to Paris that she will betray him to Ethan, because he spared her life. Grace reluctantly agrees to impersonate Alanna, as long as Ethan is standing right beside her in disguise, but the machine which 3D prints their face masks fails as Ethan's masks is being printed. Grace goes it alone disguised as Alanna and brings the complete key to the buyer, who turns out to be Kittridge. Though tempted to betray Ethan for a reward of US$100M and protection for her very good friend Grace, she sides with Ethan just as the bank transfer gives the command to accept or decline the transfer of monies, and so presses decline. She then pickpockets the key from Kittridge, and flees back up the train. 

Ethan, meanwhile, in constant radio contact with Benji is riding his motorbike alongside the Orient Express with the intention of jumping onto it when it slows down to take a bend in the tracks. Little do the pair know that Gabriel has sabotaged the train and it is accelerating uncontrollably. Ethan misses the crossing point and so Benji directs him up to the next point when he can intercept the train. This leads Ethan to ride up narrow mountain paths and fire trails, until he comes to a halt on the edge of a perilous cliff. Benji asks Ethan if he can see the train to which he responds with a yes, and then tells Ethan to jump off the cliff as he has a parachute on his back. And so Ethan does just that, and rides his motorbike off a cliff and successfully lands in the train saving Grace from being shot by Zola Mitsopolis (Frederick Schmidt), Alanna's brother, but Gabriel escapes with the key. 

Ethan overpowers Gabriel on the roof of the speeding train but is prevented from killing him by Community agents Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Gabriel escapes the train and initiates a countdown to detonate the viaduct bridge crossing ahead. Grace and Ethan detach the locomotive from the other carriages and save the passengers, but they are not able to escape. 

Just as they are about to plunge down the broken bridge, they are saved by Paris, who is near death. Paris mutters to Ethan of the Sevastopol before falling unconscious. As Ethan flees the train with a one-man chute, he tells Grace that she can trust Kittridge and that she should join the IMF. Grace then informs Kittridge that she has chosen to join IMF. Ethan meets with Benji when he lands at the bottom of the valley and they drive off with the key that Ethan pickpocketed during the fight with Gabriel, who is seen very angry indeed that his precious key has been replaced with a Zippo lighter. 

With 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' Writer, Producer and Director McQuarrie and Producer and star Cruise have crafted another non-stop, heart pounding action joy ride in this franchise that is now 27 years old, and for which Cruise has been playing the titular lead character for almost half his life. And at age 61 now, Tom Cruise does not seem to be letting up on the action set pieces as he prefers to work all his stunts, firmly in the belief that this is what the audience wants to see, and it's what gets bums on seats. And who can argue with that, because it seems to be paying off as 'Top Gun : Maverick' and early reviews of this latest 'M:I' offering would attest to. The film boasts a stellar cast who are all on point, a plot-line that is firmly planted in the present, well choreographed action set pieces that will keep you glued to the screen, stunning locations, a smattering of suspense, some occasional wry humour, and at a run time of just above 160 minutes that flies by and will never leave you wanting. My only criticism is all the angst ridden dialogue around 'The Entity' which if it is mentioned once, it is referenced a hundred times rendering it more like gobbledegook mumbo jumbo rather than the creation of a whole new world order that is implied. That said, next years 'Part Two' can't come soon enough.

'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 13th July 2023.

The 35th Galway Film Fleadh (Festival) kicked off on Tuesday 11th July and runs through until Sunday 16th July. It is Ireland’s leading film festival, is a six-day international event, and is held every July and welcomes a diversity of films from across the world. 2023 marks the 35th Galway Film Fleadh, and the central goal of the festival remains unchanged: to bring together audiences and filmmakers within an intimate environment and share a common experience. This years festival will offer eighty foreign and Irish feature films, with World Premiere screenings making up a about a quarter of these. The majority of the selected films are from debut feature film Directors and there are also over one hundred new short film. The main aim is to highlight diverse and up-and-coming voices in cinema while serving as a launching pad for fresh talent. The Galway Film Festival is very much a filmmaker’s festival and attracts Directors, Actors, Cinematographers and artists of all generations and cultural backgrounds, who present their work before their peers, with a diverse audience comprising the general cinema-going public, film buff’s, student film makers, industry professionals and invited guests.

With ten feature film Awards, three Oscar-Qualifying Short Film Awards and six Short Film Awards, the line up of feature film awards includes Best Irish Film, Best Cinematography in an Irish Film, Best Irish First Feature, World Cinema Competition, Peripheral Visions Competition, Best International Film and Best International Documentary.

The ten titles competing in the World Cinema Competition, whose films have screened and won awards at Berlinale, Busan, TIFF, SXSW, Sundance and Seattle, are as follows :-

* 'Past Lives' - Drama romance from the USA and Written and Directed by Celine Song, Irish Premiere.

* 'Here' - Drama from Belgium and Written and Directed by Bas Devos. Irish Premiere.

* 'Daughter of Rage' - Drama from Nicaragua, Mexico, Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Spain and Written and Directed by Laura Baumeister. Irish Premiere.

* 'Sister & Sister' - Coming of age drama from Panama and Chile and Witten and Directed by Kattia G. Zuniga. Irish Premier.

* 'One Bullet' - Documentary from the UK, Denmark, USA and Afghanistan and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Carol Dysinger. European Premiere.

* 'On the Adamant' - Documentary from France and Written and Directed by Nicolas Philibert. Irish Premiere.

* 'Mutt' - LGBTQIA+ drama from the USA and Written and Directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. Irish Premiere.

* 'Slow' - LGBTQIA+ drama from Lithuania, Spain and Sweden and Written and Directed by Marija Kavtaradze. Irish Premiere.

* 'A House in Jerusalem' - Drama from Palestine, the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Qatar and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Muayad Alayan. Irish Premiere.

* 'The Forest Maker' - Documentary from Germany and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Volker Schlondorff. Irish Premiere.

The Galway Film Festival prioritises Irish Film, and in 2023, a bumper thirty-four Irish films will screen in the Irish Cinema section with twenty World Premieres, seven Irish Premieres, two Irish films from the vault and an additional five Irish films. Themes around family, artists, farming, music, the political landscape of past and present alongside comedy, suspense and thrillers.

The Peripheral Visions Competition is for European first and second feature filmmakers with films from Slovakia, Kosovo, Germany, Greece, North Macedonia, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania and Romania.

To see the titles in these two above mentioned competitive strands, plus the other sections within the 35th Galway Film Festival, you can go to the official website at : https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/

Turning attention back then to this weeks four latest new movies gracing a big screen Odeon close to home, we launch with the seventh instalment in this hotly anticipated spy action thriller that sees this intrepid IMF agent and his team needing to track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. This is followed by a biographical drama offering set in 1974 when a young gallery assistant is drawn into the wild, never-ending party that is this famed Spanish surrealist artists life in New York City, and as he helps the ageing genius prepare for an important show, he discovers not everything is as it seems. Next up we turn to a modern telling of a classic 1875 opera that sees a woman on a quest to find freedom embarking upon a dramatic and life-changing journey from Mexico to Los Angeles. And closing out the week we have a Japanese anime based on a popular TV series and film franchise that sees an Inspector with the Criminal Investigation Department using weapons called Dominators, and her coworkers, who are able to read people's 'crime coefficient', or how likely they are to commit a crime in a future Japan set one hundred years from now. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' (Rated M) - this eagerly awaited American action spy film is the seventh film in the 'Mission : Impossible' franchise and is a sequel to 2018's 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout'. This film is once again Directed and Co-Written and Co-Produced by Christopher McQuarrie who also helmed 'Fallout' and 2015's 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. The first six films in the ever popular franchise grossed worldwide US$3.57B at the Box Office off the back of combined production budgets of US$828M. 'Dead Reckoning, Part Two' is slated for release on 28th June 2024 with Christopher McQuarrie again in the Director's chair with Parts One and Two being filmed back to back. This film cost US$290M to produce. 

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise who also Co-Produces here) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet - to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most. Also starring the returning Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Henry Czerny with Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mark Gatiss, Shea Whigham and Cary Elwes all joining the franchise for the first time. 

'DALILAND' (Rated M) - this American biographical drama film is Directed by Mary Harron whose prior feature film making credits take in her debut with 'I Shot Andy Warhol' in 1996, followed up by the likes of 'American Psycho' in 2000, 'The Notorious Bettie Page' in 2005, 'The Moth Diaries' in 2011 and 'Charlie Says' in 2018. Here, Sir Ben Kingsley portrays the titular Salvador Dali, one of the most world-renowned surrealist artists of the 20th Century and focuses on the later years of the strange and fascinating marriage between Dali and his muse and wife, Gala (Barbara Sukowa), as their seemingly unshakable bond begins to stress and fracture. Set in New York and Spain in 1974, the film is told through the eyes of James Linton (Christopher Briney), a young assistant keen to make his name in the art world, who helps the eccentric and mercurial Dali prepare for a big gallery show. Also starring Ezra Miller as the young Dali with Rupert Graves, Suki Waterhouse, Mark McKenna and Andreja Pejic. The film has garnered mixed or average reviews and has so far grossed US$460K since its World Premiere screening at TIFF in mid-September last year and its subsequent release in the US in early June. Also starring Elsa Pataky and Rossy de Palma.

'CARMEN' (Rated M) - is an Australian, French and US Co-Production that is Co-Written and Directed by Benjamin Millepied in his feature film making debut. Although the film has been described as Millepied's take on Bizet's 1875 opera of the same name, it is 'a complete re-imagining' that ignores the opera's plot and setting; all that remains are 'selected lyrics' from the opera's libretto sung in the original French by a choir as background to one scene between the two leads. This gritty modern day story follows a young and fiercely independent woman who is forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert following the brutal murder of her mother, another strong and mysterious woman. Carmen (Melissa Barrera) survives a terrifying and dangerous illegal border crossing into the US, only to be confronted by a lawless volunteer border guard who cold-bloodedly murders two other immigrants in her group. When the border guard and his patrol partner, Aidan (Paul Mescal), a Marine with PTSD, become embroiled in a deadly standoff, Carmen and Aidan are forced to evade the local authorities as they head towards Los Angeles. The film has generated mixed or average reviews and has grossed US$259K since its World Premiere showcasing at TIFF in mid-September last year and its release Stateside towards the end of April this year. 

'PSYCHO-PASS : PROVIDENCE' (Rated MA15+) - this Japanese anime Sci-Fi crime film is Directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani who helmed all twenty-six episodes of the 'Psycho-Pass' TV series between 2012 and 2014, plus 'Psycho-Pass : The Movie' in 2015, then three TV movies titled 'Psycho-Pass : Sinners of the System Case 1, 2 and 3' all in 2019, and 'Psycho-Pass 3 : First Inspector' in 2020. Here then, set in January 2118, while attending a meeting as a Chief Inspector of the Public Security Bureau, Akane Tsunemori (voiced by Kana Hanazawa and in English by Kate Oxley) received a report that an incident had occurred on a foreign vessel. Akane and Atsushi Shindo (Yuki Kaji) head of the Statistics Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, who was also attending the meeting, rush to the scene, but for some reason, the authority to investigate is delegated to the Action Division of the Overseas Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From the ship, Dr. Milicia Stronskaya, whom Atsushi had invited as a guest for the meeting, is found dead. This marks the beginning of a big and unexpected case. The film saw its World Premier screening in mid-May, is released here in Australia and in the US from this week and in the UK from early August. 

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-