SPENCER : Monday 24th January 2022

I saw the M Rated 'SPENCER' at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, in Sydney earlier this week. This work of historical fiction is a psychological drama film Directed and Co-Produced by Pablo Larrain, whose prior film making credits include his 2006 debut 'Fuga' and then 'No' in 2012, 'Neruda' in 2016 and the critically acclaimed 'Jackie' in 2016 also, with 'Ema' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year before its release in the US and UK in early November. Having generated largely positive Critical Reviews, 'Spencer' has so far recovered US$16M from its US$18M budget outlay, and has picked up thirty-four awards and a further 106 nominations (many of which are still pending an outcome) from around the awards and festival circuit. 

Set during the Christmas holiday 1991 with the royal family all gathering at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. Among the invited guests are Diana, Princess of Wales (Kristen Stewart), whose ten year old marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) has reached the point of no return because of his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (Emma Darwall-Smith). As the staff of the Sandringham Estate prepare for the imminent arrival of the royal family and their entourage, led by the very capable Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall), Diana drives around the Norfolk countryside in a haze. Being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she avoids driving into the grounds of the Estate until she meets Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady (Sean Harris) claiming that she got lost en route. 

Diana duly arrives to a less than warm greeting on Christmas Eve. Her sons William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry) are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to mix with the royal family, who for the most part ignore her. Diana's only friend at the Estate is Royal Dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins), who encourages her to combat the royal family and fulfil the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her designated bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn, eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost (Amy Manson) is haunting her in her capacity as a fellow betrayed and abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her now abandoned and boarded up childhood home of Park House, which neighbours the Sandringham Estate, but is stopped by the royal security, who initially mistake her for an intruder.

On Christmas morning, Diana joins the service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, where she observes Camilla among the attendees and is photographed by hundreds of gathered paparazzi. She later has a stilted conversation with Charles, who rejects her concern over William and Harry's joining in a pheasant shoot the next day. Charles secretly arranges for Maggie to be sent back to London and spreads rumours that she had planted the Boleyn book in Diana's room and made critical comments about her mental health, to which McGrady denies that she had done so when questioned by Diana. 

Major Gregory attempts to encourage Diana to observe the pressures of royal life by reminding her that the soldiers of the British Army die attempting to protect the interests of the Crown, and therefore her also. Diana responds by stating that she never asked anyone to die for her. After imagining wounding herself with a pair of wire cutters given to her by McGrady, Diana avoids the formal Christmas Day dinner, instead running to her childhood home and gaining access to it with the wire cutters. Memories of her happier childhood overtake her, and she dances from room to room while imagining her younger selves. She considers committing suicide by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, but the hallucination of Boleyn prevents her from doing so. 

On Boxing Day morning, Diana awakens in her room to find that Maggie had been called back from London. The pair drive on to a nearby deserted beach and walk along the sand where Diana talks about her mental and marital challenges. Maggie responds by confessing that she is in love with Diana. After leaving the beach, Diana rushes to the pheasant shoot and walks out in front of the crowd of royal shooters, imitating the movements of the birds. She tells Charles that she is leaving the royal entourage and taking William and Harry to London, an arrangement to which Charles reluctantly agrees. 

Diana bids farewell to Maggie and McGrady and Major Gregory returns the Boleyn book to the library. As they drive away, in the distance, a scarecrow that Diana had created when she was younger is seen, now dressed in clothes from her early adulthood. After stopping en route for some fast food, Diana drives to London, where she begins the process of raising her children independently. She looks out over the River Thames in the shadow of Tower Bridge as the boys chow down on a bucket of KFC, uncertain of her future but no longer burdened by memory or the responsibilities of being a royal.

I have to say that I came away from 'Spencer' feeling a little nonplussed. I neither loved it, nor did I hate it. There is no doubt that Kristen Stewart nails her depiction of Princess Diana to a tee from her vocal inflections, her ticks and foibles, her mannerisms and the way in which she would tilt her head - an Oscar contender here for sure for Best Actress I would think. And Timothy Spall also gives a strong, stoic, stiff upper lip performance as the Queen's Equerry, as does Sally Hawkins as Diana's dresser in the all too brief screen time she enjoys. But for me the film is all too repetitive with Head Chef Darren telling us what every meal over the three days comprises of, from sandwiches on arrival on Christmas Eve to the lavish picnic in the grounds of Sandringham during the pheasant shoot on Boxing Day and every mealtime in between; to Diana chundering into the toilet bowl after every meal she consumes; to what Diana had to wear to every meal and to every occasion throughout her three day stay; and that she is being portrayed as some spoiled brat of a woman who only want's her way in life and bursts into tears when she doesn't get it, which I'm not entirely sure rang true of the Princess. And as for the soundtrack, the first half is so off kilter with all its clanking cello's, violins and oboe's that it really grated on me, before the second half which moves into more classical territory which I guess is fine, but I would have thought that a more modern soundtrack would be in keeping with the depiction of a more modern Princess, despite her anxiety over her circumstances. Diana Spencer was a Princess who just wanted the fairy tale, and instead she got the nightmare!

'Spencer' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - Tuesday 7th August 2018.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT' which I saw at my local multiplex this week is the sixth instalment in the Tom Cruise action franchise based on the popular '60's television series, that since 1996 has been dusted off every five years or so with another big budget high octane screen offering. The franchise launched with Brian De Palma's first film adaptation in 1996, followed by John Woo's Directed 'Mission : Impossible 2' in 2000; then J.J. Abrams took over Directing duties with 'Mission : Impossible III' in 2006, then Brad Bird assumed the mantle in 2011 with 'Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' followed by Christoper McQuarrie in 2015 with 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. These first five films have grossed at the worldwide Box Office a combined US$2.8B from a collective Budget of US$650M. Now in 2018 Christoper McQuarrie returns to the Directors chair for 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' which he also wrote. Tom Cruise Produces too, as he has all other films in the series to date. The film has received universal acclaim from Critics, with many praising it as the best in the series so far with the cinematography, action set pieces, stunt work, storyline and cast performances as being particularly credit worthy. The film cost US$178M to Produce and has so far raked in US$360M since its release Stateside last week.

The film opens up with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) woken from his slumber in a Belfast safe house. He is delivered the ubiquitous package detailing his next mission . . . .  should he choose to accept it. Set two years following the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation' in which Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) was captured with what remains of his secretive anarchic organisation 'The Syndicate', reformed into a terrorist group operating across the world known as 'The Apostles'. Hunt's mission is to prevent the sale of three plutonium cores to the group on behalf of their client, one John Lark whose true identity remains a mystery. Hunt's pre-recorded message self destructs within five seconds, and next we find him in Berlin where he meets up with colleagues Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to arrange the purchase of said plutonium cores. However, the mission goes awry, leaving Hunt a choice to either sacrifice the cores or sacrifice Luther being held at gunpoint. He chooses to save Luther's life, and lo and behold the cores disappear into the night, courtesy of The Apostles.

The team quickly home in on Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner) and set an elaborate trap to make him confess his involvement and hand over the blueprints for his three portable nuclear weapons as well as releasing valuable information relating to The Apostle's next move. Director of CIA Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) instructs Special Activities Division operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium, much to the distrust of IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Hunt and Walker HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) parachute jump into Paris, where they infiltrate a fundraiser party at a lavish venue where John Lark is set to buy the cores from The Apostles. They track a man whom they suspect to be Lark to a Gents WC, where a fight breaks out between Lark, Hunt and Walker in which Lark gains the upper hand over the other two, but is shot dead unexpectedly by the emergence of Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson).

To ensure the successful execution of the mission, Hunt impersonates Lark and meets with an arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) acting as a broker, on the basis that she will not be aware of the true identity of Lark. Agents of The Apostles have been sent to kill John Lark and The White Widow, but she and Hunt escape from the private party in a hail of bullets, knives and fist fights with a room full of guests and panicked onlookers. The White Widow has fallen for Hunt's rouse.

Believing Hunt to be Lark, and in order to secure the plutonium, The White Widow tasks him with extracting Lane from an armoured convoy transporting the fugitive through Paris. She hands over one of the plutonium cores as a payment in kind for the mission. Hunt and his team attack the convoy but not as planned, pushing the armoured vehicle into the Seine so saving the lives of numerous Police Officers who would have been collateral damage, and sending the perpetrators into complete disarray. A straight jacketed Lane is extracted from the now completely submerged armoured vehicle by Benji Dunn and bundled into the back of a waiting speed boat and Luther Stickell.

Walker and Hunt drive a panel van as part of their getaway chased down the back streets of Paris by The White Widows henchmen. They then decamp to getaway motorcycles as the van becomes wedged at the end of a narrow street. Successfully evading the Police, but only narrowly, Hunt is picked up in the speed boat by Dunn and Stickell and a hooded and still straight jacketed Lane.

The team of three and a captured Lane now make for a lock up garage in which is stowed their getaway car - an olive green BMW from yesteryear. Upon raising the garage door they are greeted by a random female Police Officer who suspecting that something is not quite right pulls her gun and orders the three and their hooded and bound captive to freeze. Whereupon four of The White Widows goons arrive to take charge of the situation and reclaim Lane. In the standoff the Police Officer is shot but in a non-life threatening way, and the four goons are all rapidly dispensed with courtesy of Hunt. A high speed car chase ensues across Paris, with Hunt skillfully dodging traffic, pedestrians, motorcyclists and all manner of obstacles while also avoiding The White Widow's forces, the Police and Ilsa, who is under orders to kill Lane to fulfil her mission for MI6 and to be able to walk free following her exploits of two years ago when she joined the IMF and Hunt's team. The mission to extract Lane remains successful, whereupon The White Widow instructs the team to deliver Lane, and Ilsa, to London.

Meanwhile, also in Paris, Walker has secretly met with Erica Sloane and spun her a yarn how Hunt is in fact the elusive Lane, and has framed him by doctoring the evidence found on the man they believed to be Lane and who they killed at the party earlier. Walker hands over the dead mans mobile phone containing all the 'evidence' that Sloane needs to incriminate Hunt. Sloane needs little convincing and orders Walker to put an end to the mission by whatever means necessary, even if it means taking Hunt, and his team, out.

The action now moves to a London safehouse in which Alan Hunley confronts Hunt about being John Lark, based on the fabricated evidence presented by Walker to Sloane. Hunt denies these accusations naturally and incapacitates Hunley to continue with their mission. Benji Dunn masks up as Lane for the purposes of the trade with The White Widow, leaving the real Lane under the charge of Walker while Hunt and his crew go off to make the deal. After being asked to monitor Lane, Walker unwittingly reveals himself to be the real John Lark, in association with Lane. But Benji Dunn and the real Lane did the switcheroo and pulled a fast one on Walker which they recorded for all posterity, with Sloane watching in remotely, while Hunt, Stickell and the real Lane were still in the building.

At this Sloane has instructed a shadow CIA team to take Lane, Walker, and Hunt’s team in. The CIA team though has been infiltrated by The Apostles and Walker orders them to attack the IMF team. Hunley is stabbed and killed in the ensuing fight by Walker, who then escapes on foot across London.  Hunt, after bidding a fond farewell to a dying Hunley, chases Walker on foot aided by Benji Dunn guiding him remotely as a result on implanting a tracking device in Walker's neck during the fracas at the safehouse. Walker leads Hunt on a chase across roof tops to the Tate Modern art gallery, where Walker escapes with Lane in a waiting helicopter on the rooftop, but not before making a threat against Hunt's ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) as added security for Hunt to no longer meddle.  

Using the tracking device still in Walker's neck leads the team to a medical aid camp somewhere in the foothills of Kashmir. Faust deduces that Lane intends to detonate the two remaining nuclear devices at a river that crosses the borders of China, Pakistan and India so contaminating the water supply to a third of the world's population. Upon arrival at the camp, Hunt comes face to face with Julia and her new husband Patrick (Wes Bentley) who are both working as Doctors providing voluntary medical aid to the locals. Walker had set up Julia to be there to raise the incentive for Hunt. 

Lane activates the nuclear weapons choosing to stay behind as his work is now done, but seeing to it that Walker leaves quickly so as to be out of harms way when the atomic blasts come, which is counting down to fifteen minutes hence. Lane hands the detonator key to Walker who exists in a helicopter. Hunt takes off in a second helicopter clinging to a payload hanging below, leaving Dunn, Stickell and Faust to locate the two nuclear devices and attempt to disarm them within the next fifteen minutes. Hunt clambers up the dangling payload and into the cockpit of the helicopter dispensing with the pilot and co-pilot before taking the controls. All the while Hunt is negotiating mountainous terrain, cavernous ravines, glacial landscapes and deep valleys under a barrage of machine gun fire from a mightily pissed off Walker in hot pursuit. 

Hunt and Walker continue to engage in aerial combat each from their own helicopter, before Hunt uses his chopper to ram Walker's helicopter out of the sky, causing the two downed aircraft to come to rest on a snow covered cliff edge. Narrowly escaping the remnants of two destroyed helicopters, the pair fight high up on a flattened cliff edge, where Hunt eventually kills Walker by sending him to his death wearing a helicopter necklace that explodes in a ball of flame a couple of hundred metres below. Ethan gains control of the detonator while Stickell, Dunn, Faust aided by Julia, deactivate the bombs with one second to spare. With the two cores safely recovered, Sloane arrives on the scene having sent a rescue helicopter to air lift Hunt off the precipice. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 aided by The White Widow who has secretly been working undercover for MI6 to infiltrate Lane and his network. Faust is cleared of any wrongdoing and is off the hook with MI6. Hunt, Stickell and Dunn can say Mission : Accomplished, and the world is safe, for another day at least!

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' is by far and away the best in an escapist action franchise that just keeps on improving with age. Here the Cruisemeister just reaffirms his position at the top of the ladder in terms of balls out epic big screen action commercial cinema where he chooses to do all his own practical stunts for added realism instead of giving way to green screen CGI enhanced effects, and all credit to ya Tom. He jumps, leaps, runs, climbs, clings, fist fights, kicks, shoots and is involved in a foot chase, a car chase, a motorcycle chase, a helicopter chase, jumps from a plane at 25,000 feet and saves the world all in the space of two and half hours of action packed adrenalin fuelled high octane fast paced drama. All the while, the story is believable, the action sequences of which there are many are delivered with a deft touch, the locations spectacular, and Hunt is presented as human after all with emotions, regrets, feelings and a vulnerability that perhaps we have not seen in previous instalments. This is a well rounded film in every respect - from the performances, the pacing, and the practical effects and the McQuarrie/Cruise combo has proved a sure fire winner here that elevates this franchise much further up the food chain. See it on the big screen while you can - you won't be disappointed.

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' warrants five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION - Thursday 6th August 2015.

'Mission : Impossible' as an original television series ran for 171 episodes from late 1966 until early 1973. The television franchise was relaunched in 1988 for two series with only Peter Graves returning from the original line-up as Jim Phelps. It was only a question of time therefore before someone would grab the concept and bring it to the big screen, and that fell to Tom Cruise who launched the successful movie franchise that has just seen its fifth reincarnation in 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION' which I saw earlier this week.



With five films over 19 years Tom Cruise has Produced all five, with  only two characters having gone the distance and appeared in all films - Tom Cruise as action man Ethan Hunt, and Ving Rhames as electronics wizard and sidekick Luther Stickell. There too have been big name Directors that have helmed each instalment - Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J.Abrams, Brad Bird and last up Christopher McQuarrie - however, the themes, the action quotient, and the 'impossible' set pieces have remained a constant. With a combined production budget of US$650M, the series has so far generated US$2.22B which takes in the most recent film that has grossed already US$152M since its release less than two weeks ago.

And so to 'Rogue Nation', Directed by Christopher McQuarrie for US$150M, in which we we have our intrepid team once again saving the world and saving themselves from all manner of evil foe as they go head to head with a previously secretive force known as 'The Syndicate'. The film opens with a spectacular stunt that sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) hanging off the side of an A400 military airbus as Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg back for his third outing) attempts to engage the planes computer system from the ground to open the side hatch to permit Hunt access as the plane takes off carrying a cargo of deadly nerve gas. Naturally, Hunt succeeds, terrorists are thwarted and the world is saved from being gassed to death.

As Hunt readies himself for his next mission at an IMF sub-station, he is ambushed and then abducted after receiving his all too familiar message which self-destructs in five seconds, but after telling him that unless he turns himself in 'The Syndicate' will hunt him down and wipe out all those closest to him. When Hunt comes round he is tied to a pole in a darkened underground room surrounded by a bunch of eastern European looking heavies who are intent on inflicting all manner of harm on our hero. Aided by undercover disavowed MI6 Agent Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson) he escapes, but now knows that 'The Syndicate' is real and that they operate in the shadows undertaking covert international criminal activities often on a large scale, often complex and heavily funded.

The Syndicates mission is also to bring down the IMF, but, in the meantime CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) has mounted a campaign to close up the IMF operations as an outdated, dangerously autonomous, renegade organisation that is out of control and not answerable for the carnage it often leaves in its wake (referencing the previous films here). Hunley is successful and IMF is closed down and absorbed into the CIA - leaving William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) answering to Hunley and tasked with bringing in Hunt who is now on the run; Dunn as an IT desk-jockey; and Stickel in semi-retirement.

With Hunley failing to track down the elusive Hunt, six months pass and we find Hunt holed up in a Paris apartment having amassed a catalogue of Syndicate Agents, their history, movements and operations that all follow a theme of wonton death & destruction. But Hunt has reached a dead end in trying to identify the king-pin, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who was responsible for his abduction earlier on. As Hunt enlists the help of Dunn the action takes us to Vienna where the two meet up and cross paths with Faust after an assassination attempt at the Vienna Opera. From here we move to Morocco where Hunt and Faust must infiltrate an underwater server to ultimately allow Dunn to retrieve a ledger that contains transactional data on how The Syndicate is funded and by whom. Meanwhile Brandt and Stickle have located the other three in down town Morocco and jump headlong in to lend their unofficial support which sees the IMF crew chased down through the back streets and highways of Morocco by the armed, dangerous and motorcycle mounted Syndicate.

After a well executed car and motorcycle chase Faust makes off with the retrieved ledger on a USB stick given chase by Hunt and several other Syndicate heavies. It doesn't end well for the heavies and Faust eludes Hunt which sees him crashing off his bike at 120mph in spectacular fashion wearing no skid-lid, jeans, sunnies and and a Hawaiian shirt - shaken but not stirred with barely a scratch . . . now that's impossible!

Although Faust made off with the USB stick Dunn made a copy which however, is triple encrypted, and only the British Prime Minister can open it with his palm scan, retina scan and voice recognition. How then do they convince the PM to do this . . . sounds impossible too, but naturally, nothing is impossible for our IMF boys. And so we move to London and a charity auction attended by the PM (Tom Hollander) at which Hunley is closing in, tipped off by Brandt as part of the plan to have the PM open the encrypted files.

Through this we learn that The Syndicate was supposedly closed down in its early planning stages as it was believed to be too extreme and not supported by the PM, but Solomon Lane hijacked the project, went rogue and progressed with it anyway. In the meantime Lane kidnaps Dunn and straps a motion sensitive ticking bomb to him that will explode in a crowded restaurant unless Hunt releases the file to him within a certain time. With Hunt thwarting this attempt on Dunn's life, a foot chase follows through the nighttime streets of London that sees Lane face off against Hunt, with the latter as you would expect rising the victor but only after getting punched, beaten and shot at several times by Lane and his henchmen.

In the final analysis the IMF is reinstated, with Hunley having to explain that its closing down was all part of a grand plan to allow Hunt to go deep undercover, off the radar, and incommunicado in order to bring down The Syndicate . . . at any cost! Of course all's well that ends well, and Faust is cleared, the IMF serves another day, the gang are all still together as a tight unit, and Hunley is announced as the new Secretary of the IMF.

I enjoyed 'Rogue Nation' and it has to be said Tom Cruise does it well, the action set pieces are solidly executed, the story line moves along at a good pace, the locations well chosen and the drama is interwoven with just the right amount of humour and emotion to keep it grounded. This is worth seeing on the big screen, and with 'M:I 6' already announced for pre-production in 2016, for me, it's up there with Bond as the must-see franchise when a new instalment is released.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-