Fabulous Film & Friends
A podcast for the true cineaste. This podcast examines the impact great or memorable films have on us both personally and culturally. If you've ever bonded with someone or joined a lively discussion circle based on your love of cinema, this is the podcast for you.
Fabulous Film & Friends
Ep. # 105 - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - A LAUGH RIOT!
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Flashing back to episode #72 of Fabulous Film & Friends way back in 2023, we covered Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 and so we here on FFF felt duty bound to our fans to give our take on its follow up and what could very possibly be the final sequel to the entire M:I franchise, 2025’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett.
Keeping continuity, my guests this week are returnees from the 2023 podcast, my blockbuster crew David Johnson, DMD and Burton Brown.
Does anyone remember what happened in Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1?
Here’s a callback to my synopsis from that podcast:
Ethan Hunt and his team of Mission Impossiblers have to go rogue yet again to stop the world from yada yada yada. Same old crap megalomaniac with a weapon this time it’s AI. Or something. Esai Morales is involved. I fell asleep twice so I didn’t quite catch the relationship between the AI and Morales’ Gabriel character.
This movie seemed like more of the same old same old. But as a Tom Cruise running movie, it’s a masterpiece, reaching an operatic Death in Venice level of running sophistication.
So how does 2025’s big follow up differ?
This time Ethan Hunt and his rag tag team of crack superspies have to stop the AI Entity from blowing up the world as well as Gabriel from trying to harness its unbelievable power.
Yet, instead of running extravaganza, we are treated to the biggest boldest, hands down, accept no substitutes granddaddy of all info dump and flashback movies.
Is it the best, the worst or somewhere in the middle of the series?
Find out!
Watch the video podcast on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/dZfi-Cr8v20
And now it's time for Fabulous Filmin' Friends. Flashing back to episode 72 of Fabulous Filmin' Friends, way back in 2023, we covered Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part 1. And so we here on FFF felt duty bound to give our fans our take on its follow-up and what could very possibly be the final sequel to the entire MI franchise: 2025's Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Bing Rames, Tom Clementef, Isai Morales, Shea Wiggum, Greg Tarzan Davis, Henry Cherney, and Angela Bassett. Keeping continuity, my guests this week are returnees from the 2023 podcast, my blockbuster crew, David Johnson DMD, and Burton Brown. Welcome, gentlemen.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00Happy to have you guys. We ran right over it. Do either of you remember what happened in Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1?
SPEAKER_03Lots of running. That's all I remember.
SPEAKER_00Bert? No. No, I mean I remember.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Well, we got all the flashbacks in this next movie.
SPEAKER_00I saw those flash. Well, funny you should ask. So let me continue my script read. Ethan Hunt in 20 in Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part 1, Ethan Hunt and his team of Mission Impossiblers have to go rogue yet again to stop the world from yada yada yada. Some cra old crap megalomaniac with a weapon. This time it's AI or something, Isai Morales involved. I fell asleep twice, so I didn't have quite catch the relationship between the AI and Morales' Gabriel character. This movie scene might like more the same old sample, but as a Tom Cruise running movie, it's a masterpiece reaching an operatic death in Venice level of running sophistication. So how does 2025's big follow-up differ? This time, Ethan Hunt and his ragtag team of crack super spies have to stop the AI entity from blowing up the world, as well as Gabriel from trying to harness its unbelievable power. Yet instead of a running extravaganza, we are treated to the biggest, boldest, hands-down accept no substitute, granddaddy of all info dump and flashback movies. Is it the best guys? Let's find out. Alright, Bert. How did this movie go? As as an infodump movie, how does this movie raise?
SPEAKER_01Well, I liked it. I I I can't remember what I'm comparing it to. Um but you know, it was uh I don't know how to describe it. It was just lots and lots of action and um like you said, a little bit of nostalgia tossed in and flashback here and a flashback there.
SPEAKER_00A little bit. Yeah. They got a shem from the first movie who has an entire character arc and a marriage.
SPEAKER_01That's true. Well, I didn't want to give all that on me.
SPEAKER_00Well, hey, so anybody listening, this is all spoil. Just a spoiler warning, it's all spoilers. If you're listening, it's if you give a crap about the details of the surprises in this movie, you're on the wrong podcast.
SPEAKER_01The knife is a character in this one, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yes. At least in the flashbacks. No, he that knife was in the in the it's hard to tell what was in the flashback. Like what? Wait, Mission Possible 3? Wait, that super drug was uh was an AI? What?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, they had to tie that in. I didn't know that you were gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00No, it wasn't what you thought it was, it was an AI.
SPEAKER_03Well, and they even tied in John Voigt's son as it's like that was too much.
SPEAKER_00Too much. Anyway, Dave, uh, what'd you think of it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh D plus for me.
SPEAKER_00D plus.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, there was some B. There was some good action. The plane scene was pretty cool. Like you know, yeah. And they were still running.
SPEAKER_00It's like, you know, like I counted three running scenes, guys. That's that's that's that's like half of all the running scenes.
SPEAKER_03But he's like the flash, right? Like he just runs. I'm eight miles on the other side of town. I'm gonna run. I'm not gonna get in a car or take you know any other mode of transportation.
SPEAKER_00I'm running across my friend's dying. You know, I don't I don't know what Luther's dying, Luther's dying. I gotta run, run, Luther. I'm coming. He's dead, man. He is dead.
SPEAKER_03What what bridge he was running on in front of uh Big Ben, right? And it's just like, man, maybe get a car. I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I I thought this, I thought, come on, these are and it was so long.
SPEAKER_03This movie for me was so long. Yeah, anyway, that's what I think. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00I I uh no, I I I'm I don't know about D plus. Uh what's it D plus is pretty close to an F. I mean, right? So what's you're saying? I I don't I'm giving it a C minus, I think. I think it was I was laughing a lot. I was kind of having fun. Well, I mean, I was laughing just for some reason I was having a good time with this movie, as boring as it was, and just how many stern-faced flashbacks there were of like, you know, every time they set up their plot, they had to flash back to like I I wish I could count all the times they started flashing back to the other movies in each scene.
SPEAKER_01Like it was it there was a uh see, this one came from here, and see this one came from here.
SPEAKER_00I thought of a Saturday night live from 1989 with Justine Bateman uh when she was doing family ties, and family ties at the time was pretty notorious. They were you know lazily turning in a lot of flashback episodes. So the Saturday night live episode where they're doing family ties, and each scene they flash back to another episode. I thought of that. I was like, this is like the family ties satire. Each scene they're just flashing back to something. So I don't know. It was pretty boring. The I'd say the the nuclear, like getting the the code or getting the the box, the the the the source code box from the the nuclear sub was pretty cool. I'd say that was a cool sequence. It was a copy of it felt like The Abyss for sure, but okay, the Abyss is one of the great action movies, and not a ton of people sort of rip it off. So I I thought that was a good scene until until they had to he couldn't just go up the tube, he had to like tear off his suit. I'm like, Dave, oh yeah, I'm no scientist, but correct me if I'm wrong. If you're in freezing Arctic waters or even Alaskan waters in that depth without a suit, wouldn't you just die instantly?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you die instantly, yeah, but not Ethan Hunt.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so no, he's super like just oh come on, he tears off his suit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that that was the thing that was frustrating for me. It's like, you know, okay, it's not everything that could go wrong went wrong, right? Like for that, okay, get in the tube. I mean, you know, the subs rolling underwater and these missiles, yeah, I get it. And it's like, oh, torpedo tube. Oh, it's locked. Oh, I can't get through it. I'm gonna rip off my suit, you know? And it's like everything that could go, and then you know, leading up to action.
SPEAKER_00That's all action scenes. Yeah, it's back to the future, it's Indiana Jones. All action scenes, it's a series of oh crap, I'm being I'm being I have a setback, you know. But it was going fine until that. I thought, oh, geez, it had to he's gonna die.
SPEAKER_03It's almost it's almost okay.
SPEAKER_00And now they put they told us he was gonna die. They told us she he would have to be revived, but they didn't say he was gonna be frozen. I mean, would he be a block of ice?
SPEAKER_01I mean, how much time I supposedly that cold slows down your face.
SPEAKER_00Right, but at some point he's just a block of ice.
SPEAKER_01I mean, he's just yeah, how they got him out of the ice or out from under the ice is I don't know how that does.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. I mean, I don't mind him dead for a few seconds like Mary Elizabeth Mastro Antonio in the Abyss. A great one of the great all-time action scenes. Um, but this is just too much. It's just a little too much.
SPEAKER_03And you know, swimming from 500 feet up with no oxygen in freezing, you know, that water is probably like at the bottom, like wouldn't he just go die?
SPEAKER_00There's no reviving him. I just thought, ah, damn it. Yeah, they couldn't even pull that off without thinking it's stupid. Yeah, um, you know, the the plane chase was certainly impressive, certainly impressive. I mean, it was him and Isa Morales up there, and that was I was like, Well, that's that's the actors up there. It's it's like saving Private Ryan or something, like the whole movie's a bunch of crap, but that is one of the finest like directed and and performed stunt sequences I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, at least it wasn't CGI.
SPEAKER_00No, it it looked great, it really looked great. Yeah, you know, it's remind me also. I had another sort of chuckle to myself about sideshow Bob escaping with the kitty hawk, you know, on The Simpsons. You know, remind like why do they have to be on by okay? I get it. They don't, but there's a lot of planes. I mean, obviously, they could have been in look, I don't know airplanes, but they could have been in any number of propeller-driven covered passenger planes from the 40s or any, you know, right? I mean, it'd have to be biplanes, like okay. Yeah, he needs a way to get in, right? So he needs a way to be seen doing those death of bad stunts, yeah. Because he's not gonna be on like a cargo plane from the 50s. One of the planes was probably his own or something, because he had to get that on film. Um uh as far as but yeah, I as far as plot, it was dumb. Like, how many movies, if you count on your on one hand, how many movies does it boil down to the nuclear codes or somebody, oh the mutt the missiles are gonna go off, and oh no, they don't oh we're gonna have to nuke one of our own cities, you know. It was just so like this is just the like Smith it's Sol Lake City, isn't it? I think it was stocked Stockton, California. Uh let's see, Provo. There you go. Or Draper, that's where that is. Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's where the NSA is just hanging. Yeah, just hang it up and throw a dart at it, and that's your city. Hang up a map, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but uh in terms of just this was just like all the other mission possible movies, even the last one, which we thought was pretty dumb, uh, this one just felt okay. The other ones always felt a little cool, like they had a little edge above most crap action movies, but this had the Fast and the Furious sort of they don't even care, they're just doing whatever, you know. It did have that vibe.
SPEAKER_03I didn't think about Yeah, that I I was thinking that was when I was watching this. Okay, so in the whole what are there, eight movies, right? Yeah, like I think when the first one came out, what was that 96? You know what? That was actually, you know, for the time I'm like, oh, this is a cool movie, right? Because it was I didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00I didn't like the first.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you didn't like go ahead. I I just liked it. It was like that one was serious, the second one was a miss, but Thandy, but Thandy Newton looked good in it, and then um, you know, after that, it's like they just become more and more humor.
SPEAKER_00Like there's humor, but there was a sort of brevity, kind of a coolness. You know, you know, like by the by the third and fourth one, there they developed a sort of rapport with Simon Pegg, and yeah, they were all kind of quippy and cool. They it wasn't as serious. It was the first one, it was a legitimate spy movie in a sense. You know, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_03It yeah, just the mood, like it was there was no real joking in the first one, right? Right, and then all of a sudden a little bit, but now it's getting to the point where it's like fast and if you're a super Marvel superhero, but you know corny, like this one was corny.
SPEAKER_00Angela Bassett seeing her son. Hi, mom. Like, oh, this is painful. I mean, it was painful, it just had all these painful and again, it was it had the Anne Shirley syndrome. Do you know no guys know what I mean about Anne Shirley?
SPEAKER_03I don't.
SPEAKER_00Anne of Green Gables. Like Anne Shirley, crocodile Dundee. Think think of all those sort of whimsical characters, those wo and like, oh, what is it you can't do, crocodile Dundee? Like, like so and like in Anne of Green Gables, it's always why Anne Shirley, you are one in a million. You do beat all so this movie had that, like that hokey Ethan Hunt. You're the only guy we could ever depend on to save the world. Like, if it wasn't for you, Ethan Hunt, we'd all be dead. Like, you know, just I don't, it's fine when the character, but at this time it's so obvious. I mean, where was Stallone? You know, like it was one of those just love letters to Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise, only you can save Hollywood. Yeah, like I saw that clip of Steven Spielberg telling Tom Cruise, you saved Hollywood's ass, baby. And you know Tom Cruise that night was a bed going. You know, I'm hoping really good save Hollywood's ass. What's this movie like it's it's you told her told me so? No, it was just by far. I'd say it's by far. If we were went through the eight movies, this was the worst. Worse than Mission Impossible 2. I'd say Mission Impossible 2 was trying to be a movie. This was just a big old pucker up, kiss Tom Cruise ass, let him do whatever the hell he wants, including fan service to all these movies. Like, I don't care about what happened in part three. Jeez Louise, we're on eight. I don't you think I remember I barely remember the plot to any of these movies.
SPEAKER_03Enhance the D plus from my side.
SPEAKER_00I guess. But there I'd take I'd say Mission Impossible movies up to this point are like born I I I said it in the last podcast. They're like born identity, they're all good while you're watching them, except this one. Like most Mission Impossible movies I like, I watch them. I I couldn't tell you which is which. I'm always sort of forgetting. Oh yeah, the like I get when it when it comes when it gets into Rogue Nation and Fallout, I just start for like I don't I don't remember. I don't remember when Alec Baldwin shows up. I don't remember when when uh what's his face? Hawkeye Clip what's not I'm gonna call him Clip Barton. What the hell's his name? Jeremy Renner. When Jeremy Renner, I don't really I know he shows up in some of them, you know, but I I couldn't tell you. Oh, Ghost Protocol, that's the one that started it, you know, where the one in Dubai, where that's that was the one I that was the one where they're going, Tom Cruise does his own stunts, you know. He's like, we always took it for granted before, but then suddenly, hey, here's the big set piece. So he's in Dubai and he's on the magnet. Remember, he has magnetic gloves and he's outside, and that was like, whoa, how's he gonna top that one? And then this time he hangs out of a plane. So that then that became the the thing. Like, what's he doing? Well, this time he's on a putt-putt biplane, and I thought that seemed really stupid, but I have to say, uh, as a stunt show piece, it was pretty good. Yeah, but that was sort of the highlight, like, okay, that that was some good, like, oh, that really is the actor up there. That's that's pretty cool, you know. Both actors. I mean, I Tom Cruise is getting all the all the the the praise, but Esai Morales, he was up there too, so give him credit. I mean, they they were up there. Um, but yeah, I Bert, you wanna you wanna jump in? You want to rank you wanna rank the this one where it's stands in the pantheon of great Mission Impossible movies?
SPEAKER_01Um I didn't really I I mean, like I said, I thought it was good, but uh was it great. No, because at the beginning, you know, you got these super fancy reclining seats, and it's like about the first 15-20 minutes I was falling asleep. And then I eventually woke up and the credits were playing almost, almost.
SPEAKER_00No, the opening credits were playing. No, it was a half. I don't think I missed anything. I looked at my son and I saw my son. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my wife said, We're half an hour into the movie. But I'm like, wait, they're gonna show credits?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's over.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it was funny. Like that. I laughed at that, just the the languorous pace it took to get to the opening credits.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's what they did in the last one. We watched that one the night before.
SPEAKER_00Oh, to catch up.
SPEAKER_01Very smart. Yeah, so we could just kind of remember. And my wife's like, Why are they still showing it's like like you said, we're 20 minutes in. Why are we still seeing credits?
SPEAKER_00Well, you gotta play the theme. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03Well, people who wrote the theme and need their money. Can I say besides from Haley Atwell, man? All the act they looked a little rough.
SPEAKER_00Oh, bravo, Dave. I wanted to say not just Ving. So Ving Rames, uh, date or Bert, you just watched it. Catch us up. Was he dying in the last movie? I just thought, oh, uh, guess what? Ving Rames is dying.
SPEAKER_01Well, he had all he really did was go off. I have to go. I have I have to go. And he had to he had to go solve the the uh you know figure out what needed to happen. So basically he was dying in it too. What was that about?
SPEAKER_00I know, I don't know that just seemed like he does, he's old, he's getting up there, and poor Vigrams, think of him in pulp fiction, he was beautiful, and now yeah, he looked a little worse for wear. And then but Simon Pegg.
SPEAKER_01But he was just supposedly going off to get the to write the code to kill him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He had to be by himself and off-grid and off whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, it killed him. It killed him. Yeah, gave him cancer. He had to use materials that give him. They should have said explained something. Like, yeah, you're just dying? What the hell's that? In the middle of a of a of the suit of the London sewers subway, the subway and sewer system? What the hell's that?
SPEAKER_01He's got a he's got a bed down there.
unknownYeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Got a nurse? He's got a nurse down there. I wouldn't take that job. How does this work? Come down to my little secret lair. No, I'm gonna stay at the the sewers of London. I'm gonna stay at the hiring office, thank you. Yeah. This is stupid. Oh, that's what I'm saying. This movie was stupid. They never really Simon Pegg looked. Look, I I look at myself, I go, ugh. And so Simon Pegg was a reminder of how old I am because he and I we're all the same age. I'm like, I know what that red toupe, Simon. You're not looking good. Just just own the oldness, be bald. He he yeah, I thought he looked awful. He looked like DeForce Kelly. Yeah. He and Carl Urban need to switch parts in the Star Trek series.
SPEAKER_03Hey, there's the Star Trek, you know.
SPEAKER_00Always, always paramount. It's a paramount connection for sure. Uh, yeah, I I agree. I mean, Haley At will look fine, Palm Clement have looked fine, but yeah, yeah, you're you're right. The the three men looked terrible. Tom, and hey, who noticed the all the shadows? They even commented on his hair. How about the movie? Who would like the one movie? How about all the shadow photography? Tom Cruise. Did you notice? Anybody notice? I was kind of chuckling at that. Like, he is shot in shadow a lot. I was surprised they didn't smear Vasily on the lens. They did use the old like uh starlit eye beam on him a couple times, you know, they would do the aging stars. Shot film in shadow with a little beam across their eyes. They had that going. It was like, yeah, they were he he yeah, time to hang it up, Tom. Sorry. He still, hey, he still runs with the best of them, but he didn't look good.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that's I mean, they kind of left it open-ended. I thought this was the final one.
SPEAKER_00It better be.
SPEAKER_03I hope it's gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_01Well, maybe the final one with Tom Cruise, but you know, you know, give him a few years, three to five years, and they'll rehash it with some up and coming.
SPEAKER_00I know. There's no Tom Cruise. I'm uh look, we we may rip on Tom Cruise a lot, but there's nobody replacing him. I mean, who who are they gonna get? Well, I didn't say it would be good. I'm just saying you're gonna have a Fast and the Furious second Fast and the Furious franchise at that point.
SPEAKER_03Uh well it already it already is the MI universe. I mean, that's really what this is, right?
SPEAKER_00I mean, maybe they could have a new Yeah, but I bet okay, gentlemen, how was the crowd when you went? Dave.
SPEAKER_03Uh I was sitting by some old people and they were just talking the whole time.
SPEAKER_00But was it was it packed?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, I was it was packed.
SPEAKER_00Oh I I was in a theater with 10 people. So I read those. And I went a 7:30 Friday night. I went opening night, and it was not packed.
SPEAKER_03I read it did what, almost 80 million. That's that's not enough. I I well, I know. That's not enough. You know, Lilo Lelo and Stitch did 184 million. Right. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, exactly. Like the Avengers movies and all the things. It wasn't so good. All the big movies make had need to make 200 million to like to blow the doors off. This movie's just gonna just do okay. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01We did a matinee before five, and it was I think the only seats that were empty were the front row front a couple of rows. Everything else was kind of there. And we sat by old people who were just kind of like they would gasp. Things and and oh no, you know, it was they were vocal and and they clapped at the end. I'm like, they can't hear. But they're like, okay, they like it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you ridiculous boobs. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no one clapped. Let them clap.
SPEAKER_00I mean, let them enjoy let let the the rabble enjoy their movie, Burton. We're too smart for those dopes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, yeah, they it was an older couple that were like, do you not know how movies work? I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Well, and no one clapped at the end of, you know, at the end of our I I gotta say, I was bored.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, after that point, after the stud show, I mean I I I appreciate it, but when that ending, I was like, oh, get me out of here. Usually I stay and watch the credits out of duty because you know, I used to be one of the one of the schmoes in the credits. So I I I you know I watch this. I'm a credit watcher, plus I like the music. Looking for your name. I I usually just stay out of duty, and you know, in these days you might get a little, hey, look, it's Tony, it's Robert Downey Jr. I might be in the next movie. Wink, wink, and you know, you get these little cutscenes, you know. But no, I was like, let me add it. Like, let's get out of here. You know, I wanted the hell out of it. It's three hours. I still couldn't believe I was like, three hours for that for the old somebody's got to defuse the nuclear bomb gag? I mean, that was like, give me a break. And they had two of them. They had two we need to defuse the nuclear bomb gags. This was like Avatar 2. Remember Avatar 2 when we ripped on the the handcuff gag? That geez, James, James Cameron, let let it go. Let the handcuff gag go. This had okay, diffuse the bomb? For God's sake. I've been watching that since I was a kid on the Hulk. Which wire do I cut? Which wire do I cut? You know, it's like, come on.
SPEAKER_01It's just not the red one.
SPEAKER_03Pass out, not the it's interesting though. You know, Dune 2 was like three hours, and I didn't want it to end. This one, I'm like, I was I was kind of I was bored. I'm like, holy cow, this is long.
SPEAKER_00You have to justify three hours, really. Yeah, and that that the movie did not do it. I mean, info dump and all, I still don't A, I don't give a crap, and B, I don't remember what happened in the first movie. I didn't watch it because I just didn't want to subject myself to it. I don't care because I they're all the same, as I say, they're always the same movie anyway. But this this was a cut below. This was cliche after cliche. That's why this was the biggest turkey of them all. And yeah, 80 million, I'm good, great. It's makes its money, but it's gonna, it's just gonna eke out uh uh a uh box office, and it should. It's terrible, you know. But again, see is it the worst I've ever seen? No. I'm I'm not gonna go that far. So that's that. Uh any standout performers? We're gonna keep this quick for Dave's sake. Bert was how was Tom Cruise's performance?
SPEAKER_01Standard fare. Um I don't know if I've seen better or worse. It was just typical Tom Cruise to me.
SPEAKER_00That's kind of what I think. Points off for looking bad, I think. Just give it up, Tom. You know, wouldn't it been cool if in the first 10 minutes just Ethan's dead. Ethan's dead, crap. We're you know whatever, shall we do it? I guess it's gonna be up to you, Simon Peg. Or Haley Atwell, Haley, you're gonna have to save the world. And here's the here's the gag. You've got to do it by by invading a bikini club. No, it would have been great. Just kill Tom Cruise off. That would have been awesome. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so Dave, how'd you rate uh I'd say this is Tom one of Tom Cruise's worst performance just because he doesn't know how old and dumb he looks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would I would agree with that.
SPEAKER_00I would have been wearing a three-piece suit the whole time. Anyway, go Dave.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I I agree with that. The the most fascinating character like that I thought was like, Oh, I'd like to know this backstory is the French woman. Yeah, and she just had such a small part, right?
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, she was the one who was stabbed by uh what's his face last time. Yeah, I know that because I remember the flashback, and she didn't even get a revenge, she should have been up on that biplane.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't know. I thought she was the most interesting, yeah. She had the most potential for sure.
SPEAKER_00She had something to at least I was going, okay, she's gonna really kill that SOB. Oh, it's gonna be good when she gets a revenge. No, and how about though he dies? Ah killed by the tail of an airplane, man.
SPEAKER_02Like it felt like that.
SPEAKER_00I wish they'd shown the shot where his face is going as he hits the mountain. Yeah, he really did that stunt.
SPEAKER_03It really felt like 70s James Bond. Like Roger Moore, James Bond. Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I love okay, whoa. I love Man with the Golden Gun and Spy Love Me and all.
SPEAKER_03I mean, those, yeah, but those are like 60s, right?
SPEAKER_00I'm talking like Roger Moore. When Roger Roger Moore starts with Live and Let Die.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so oh that's right. So I'm thinking of like Roger.
SPEAKER_00Wait, you got the wrong guy here because I like the Roger Moore movies.
SPEAKER_03I I moot like it just felt I don't I'm just like how he dies just reminding me of something from uh seven. And I like and I like I like uh Roger Moore. I like um Live and Let Die. I thought that was a great James Bond, but um the you know how it just gets sillier and sillier, like like moving on.
SPEAKER_00Well by Moonra by Moonraker and yeah, yeah. Let's not get into James Bond, but by by octopusy, we're done. It's like, yeah, we're done. And this is this is where that by far.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and this is where that movie is for me. It's like, okay, we're done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, two two bomb atomic bombs to diffuse you know, like you said, it could have done without that death scene because it was it was it was out of place, in my opinion. Which one with Bing Rains? No, I'm the only one with the parachute. Oh, you know, and then he and then uh impales himself on the turn.
SPEAKER_03That was going like 15 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_00Oh usually just a hit to the ball. Ow, my balls! No, yeah, I I agree. Okay, there. If you're comparing it to view to a kill, absolutely. It just it had that blackluster sort of, yeah, it just isn't landing the way you think it is. It's just not good.
SPEAKER_01And again, I think I think the people next to us said something like, yeah, or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03A fist pumping, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Look, I always think of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Roseanne and I were sitting next to little kids screaming, Fink, Fink! When Robin Hood hits three guys with two guys with an arrow, with two arrows or something, and he just cake! You can you can't judge the movie based on the the little simpleton sitting next to you. Let them enjoy their their bread and circuses, right?
SPEAKER_03We're too refined for you know to stupid up to the movie.
SPEAKER_00I was but look, somebody somebody be mad at me. I was chuckling through the whole movie. I was getting a good laugh. What's so funny? Reminded of when I was in college, it was always no commentary dork, no commentary dork in the in the in the common TV room in the dorms because I was always jumping on their favorite movies like Pretty Woman and Die Hard 2. No commentary dork.
SPEAKER_01You spoil everything. Anyway, um, yeah, uh the it's funny, all I've read a handful of reviews, and they all rely. I mean, they don't, it's like they don't certainly don't hate it, and a lot of them are like, oh, it was really good, you know, and they really liked it.
SPEAKER_00Hey Chills, Bert. They're all come on, you you can't trust the media, and you certainly can't you could all through the the entire history of the media, you could never trust reviewers, they get paid off. Uh so yeah, so we talked about Tom Cruise. We did uh you like Palm Klementov. I I even Haley Atwell was a little bit of a lot of people. Don't you think this one? Haley Atwell was sidelined. She seemed not, yeah, even though they tried to give her things to do, she didn't have much to do. No, you know, she's like, Oh, oh, let me get snuggle with you, Tom, and nurse you back to health. You know, like do they have a romantic interest or not? I what the hell's going on here? You know, it's just yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, he certainly doesn't want her to.
SPEAKER_00Hey, whatever happened to Michelle? Can somebody tell me? I don't remember. Bert, you're probably up to the minute. What happened to Michelle Monahan? Is she dead? What happened to her?
SPEAKER_01She was in one of the Yeah, she well, she was killed on that's someone that was killed in Venice by No, no, that's that was Rebecca Ferguson. Oh, that was Ferguson.
SPEAKER_03Wasn't she married to Ethan Hunt?
SPEAKER_00Isn't that her Michelle Monahan was married in part three and part four? It's like, oh, they had to fake their death. But then in I guess part five, I think, or she was like one of those. She shows up again.
SPEAKER_03Not no, no, that was dead.
SPEAKER_01That was I can't keep them all separated. No, that was not dead. She's not to my knowledge, she's not dead.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And whatever whatever happened to Jeremy Renner and that other that other girl that was in that one when they were in Dubai, it's like they just vet, they just all a pattern, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, they disappeared. Yeah. They just I guess they crossed the mighty Tom. I don't like your attitude. You're gonna wear that mask.
SPEAKER_03I did I did I have noticed that aside from Rebecca Ferguson, all of the girls, and then the palm, they all look like uh oh, who'd you just say Monaghan?
SPEAKER_00Uh he has his he has his type. I said that in the last one. I as I I just think I remember saying the last podcast, he has his type. Yeah. It starts from Nicole Kidman, and it doesn't really veer from that. Like they're all British. Yeah, but Nicole, but they're they just have they have that sort of vibe, that sort of British looking, Irish, British. He has a thing. You see this taste in women, you know? De Niro likes black women, Tom Cruise likes porcelain British looking women, you know? It's just a certain he hasn't you see his thing. Like it's like Spielberg with kids. Ooh, who is that fabulous new kid? Like, who is that striking Anglo-Saxon woman? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh well, clearly, she must off, you know, she must just be in hiding.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so much that he has other love interests. Like, wait, did they get a divorce? Can you just say it, Tom? Because the whole thing's weird. Yeah, I thought they did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I thought she I thought she remarried in one of the.
SPEAKER_00I don't remember.
SPEAKER_03I like some doctor or something. Right.
SPEAKER_00I thought they were having a spat in in one of the films. Uh in one of the other, I think it was Fallout. I'm gonna say Fallout or I don't know, Rogue Nation. I don't know. I don't remember. I know she just shows up again. You know, I'd have to watch them all. I just don't want to do it. It's just too much of a slog. Yeah, that's that's uh like watching Harry Potter, like, oh my god, just get to Voldemort. Would you kill the stupid guy already?
SPEAKER_03Well, and the other thing is in you know, I don't even know what five, six, four, five, and six. There was that bad guy, yeah. I don't and then he just disappeared. Like, what happened to him, right? Right, and now there's a new bad guy.
SPEAKER_00Did he die? I don't know. They bring it up. That's right.
SPEAKER_03He he fell in uh like in the Arctic Ocean and they revived him. I'm kidding. That's Tom, that's Tom Cruise.
SPEAKER_00Oh, right, that'd be that'd be pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03He was in a submarine and he tried to swim out without oxygen or a wetsuit, and he died, but then they brought him back. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_00That seems really plausible for a bad guy. Oh yeah. Okay, um, so so best, so worst performer. Let's give it the worst performer. Who was the worst? I'm gonna say it was Simon Pegg. I just wanted I did every time he was off the screen, I'd go, uh, not looking good, Simon. Cut him out.
SPEAKER_03And he all and he almost died. Yeah, I was going good, die, die, Damn you, die.
SPEAKER_00Look, I'm an ageist. I'm sorry. I'm uh I got gray hair. I'm I'm his age. Uh no, I'm sorry. You've you've you're you've expired. You're you're no longer movie star material. You've got to get out of there. Now you're part of the stern faces in the boardroom, Simon. You should have been there with all the stern, sweaty faces, all the Washington guys going, mmm, I don't know if we're gonna make it, Madam President.
SPEAKER_03Which city do we bomb?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he should have been on that one. It's bloody, it can't be London, you know. It's gotta be that guy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'd probably say Simon Tag. He just, you know, it wasn't good.
SPEAKER_00I don't want to see him as Scotty ever again, that's for sure. All right, stun recast. What happened to Scotty?
SPEAKER_01As the five uh from the main characters I would have to pick him, there was others that I thought were worse, but uh, I thought everyone was fine.
SPEAKER_00I Simon Peg was the one I kept going.
SPEAKER_01I don't want to I didn't like Nick Offerman and I didn't like this whole McAhlity. Yeah, well.
SPEAKER_00I liked him in other things, but that this is again Bert, I they that's a time honored tradition of actors past their prime get to play the stern faces in the boardroom. That so I was like, uh, Nick Offerman, okay, you're all puffy and fat. Why not play the Secretary of Defense or whatever, whoever he was. I just thought, yeah, that that's all well. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01It just didn't come across as real to me.
SPEAKER_00Well, not like that thawing scene, right?
SPEAKER_01No, I mean, well, I just, you know, I couldn't get past usually, you know, even when I um you know would see some people I know in plays or whatever, I could forget that I know them and you know, and get caught up in the character and not realize that, hey, I know that person and they're you know, they're a friend of mine. Did I see you in any plays, Gino? I don't think so. Me?
SPEAKER_00How did you miss my Captain Blunchley in Arms of the Man?
SPEAKER_01But my own brother was in a play at TVCC, I think. Or maybe it was in high school. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00I killed at Sid Sirokin in the pajama game. I was I was the best Nathan Detroit, the Nyssa high school ever saw.
SPEAKER_01That doesn't mean I was there, yeah. But but I was able to look past it and and and you know, oh, the performance was good enough that I forgot who I was looking at. And that did not happen with those two guys at all.
SPEAKER_00But they got the faces, they got stern boardroom faces. I just go, yeah, that's what they do. It's what they do, and they want oh, I want I want the best cast for the boardroom scenes. And it's gotta be Holt, it's gotta be Nick, it's gotta be Angela.
SPEAKER_01I like that whole guy and that other thing he was in. Um the Eagle, the Claw, FBI, it was FBI files or something. It wasn't that isn't what he came out.
SPEAKER_00No, but he was in that movie that Alex loves so much, the the wrestling movie with um high school musical guy. What the hell?
SPEAKER_03The wrestling movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the rest the claw, the the the professional wrestler movie. He played the dad, he was great in that. He's a good actor, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think he's a good actor. I just didn't care for him in this particular paycheck.
SPEAKER_00The iron claw, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I can tell you who my Mindhunter is what I first saw him in, and it was a series.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I um I could I could say that I didn't forget it was Tom Cruise every time I saw him on stage. That's true, and he yeah, this was his worst performance, I think. Don't you think? It was bad.
SPEAKER_00I mean, if they'd killed him, I probably would have been happy. That's that's cool. Mission Impossible movie without Tom Cruise. Awesome. We gotta do it for Tom. Then he comes back to the end. Yeah, I was just disguised as the president. I just had to see how you guys would do. You know, I'd been fine with that. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Rip his mask off at the very just needed you to come through.
SPEAKER_00I it couldn't be me. I can't save the world every time.
SPEAKER_01Had to prove to you that you could do it.
SPEAKER_00No, I would perfect. I've been perfectly fine without Tom Cruise, but I I still can't see who would headline the series without him.
SPEAKER_03Well, they could get uh Vin Diesel from Fast and the Furious, and you know, the government can go to them to save the world because they're the new mash it all up, right? Mash it all up at this point. Got the fastest.
SPEAKER_01Well, why don't you make it fast Dwayne Johnson and Dwayne?
SPEAKER_00I will never ever see a movie Dwayne Johnson ever again. I not even on video. I just I'm done, done with him.
SPEAKER_03So well, at least with Vin Dies, so he won't be running everywhere. He'll just hop in his big car and drive it. So he can't run.
SPEAKER_00All right. Um, let's see. Best set we've already talked about the stunts, the effects, the music's fine. I didn't, I'm not gonna bore you guys with music. I did barely notice it except for the old, you know, it's a thing about the Mission Impossible movies. The only cool theme is the theme. Like just, you know, yeah. Anyway, um, yeah, okay. Dave, we're gonna get you out in time.
SPEAKER_03And this series was based on a TV series, or was it a movie first? Mission Impossible.
SPEAKER_00Oh, this is a TV show. Okay, my man Leonard Nimoy at one point. He joined well, no, first it was Martin Landau, then uh so it was Peter Graves, Martin Landau. I watched it a I I didn't watch it religiously, I watched it enough to you know know that them. I you know, it was always on it was on it would be on syndication before Star Trek for a while. So I you know I got kind of excited when when Leonard Nimoy was on it, and he was the he was Paris, the Master of Disguise. So she I thought she was gonna become because her name was Paris, yeah, and I thought she was gonna do mat like ooh, she's gonna be the best Master of Disguise ever, but oh no, no, they didn't have just a so they never made a movie in the 70s of this, right?
SPEAKER_03The first Mission Impossible.
SPEAKER_00I'm not a big huge fan of it, so I don't know. I don't know if they did like a Batman 66, you know, where they did that movie. I'm not sure. There's could have been TV movie versions, you know, where they did a two-hour, you know, TV, but never a the Tom Cruise 96 movie was the first movie. That's why the fans had to have that callback to Phelps because everybody was furious that John Voigt, who was playing Peter Graves' part, was a bad guy. So they were mad about that. That's why they Tom we got we have to have a redemption arc for Phelps. You know, the fans, the fans demand it, you know. That part was so sad. I was thinking, oh, you could have easily cut this. I mean the end of the movie with the handshake. I was like, wait, and wasn't it wasn't a little confusing when Henry Cherney and and Junior Phelps come in and with their team, and we gotta know what you know, Ethan. You know, like and so I thought, oh, they're bad. No, what was that about? Bert, can you tell me? You're you're more clear on this plot than I am.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was hard to keep track of those guys and who was gonna be the bad guy, you know.
SPEAKER_00So then Isaiah Morales had another team who came in and took over. So there were three teams, yeah, like triple cross. I want a really deadly triple cross.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, when they were in the cave and the the first guy, you know, they're already kind of ambushed. And then uh then the IMF shows. Gabriel looks up and sees somebody getting stabbed, and like, oh, who did that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it was it was Henry Cherney and and the Phelps guy and their team. So there was all these. So I I don't know, are they bad or good? Well so I was a little confused actually when the handshake happened because I thought they were gonna kill Tom Burton.
SPEAKER_01They wanted him dead. I thought they wanted Cruz dead. Whatever it is, Hunt. Ethan. Yeah. Um I I thought they wanted him dead for sure. Just he was just he knew too much of all sorts of stuff, not just this particular adventure, all the other adventures, and they just wanted him dead.
SPEAKER_03Well, in Tom Cruise's world, the only thing that matters is the only good one is Ethan Hunt. Everyone else is bad. I mean, that's I I mean, that's yeah. His little team, his IMF team, they're all just good. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. Direction. Do we want to comment on the direction? Was it well directed? I I don't think so. I've never seen a more poorly directed movie in the sense of uh you're you don't need three hours to tell this story. It's just a bomb diffusion movie, you know. Yeah. That was almost like the ultimate bomb diffusing. Let's let's just hide. Hide the fact that it's a bomb movie, you know. Some of all fears, uh, hunt for how many movies have we been in this situation where it's gonna be Armageddon unless our hero can get the message through? I mean, it's it's that's that is that's got whiskers. You talk about old gags, tired gags, that was it. So I was like, I don't believe this. It just boils down to this, you know. Just not clever, not clever.
SPEAKER_03A sad way to end that you know, series. It's like just the movies just got progressively worse and worse.
SPEAKER_00It's like, you know, maybe I think the one with Henry Cavill, I've seemed to think that was pretty good. Yeah, that's like I've been duking it out and whatever in the helicopter, whatever. I thought that was fine when they're flying. I thought that was a pretty good one.
SPEAKER_03I didn't think I don't even know which one that what numbers at.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say Rogue Nation. No, not Rogue Nation, Fallout. I thought Fallout was fine. Like, you know, I w I I I watched it and think, yeah, it's the same, it's always the same old thing. They're like again, like born identity, X-Men, Harry Potter. You just sort of you sit down, you watch it, and you can't remember which what happens, but it's fine while you're watching it. This one stands out as not fine. Yeah, that's all. So this one just jumped out as like Jesus is dumb.
unknownYou know? Like, dumb.
SPEAKER_00Like every turn, it seemed dumb. Like I was just my brother, or my brother, my son, he's a very serious. He he's like his little mind works, he's a little bit like uh one of those math guys in those TV shows, numbers or whatever. He's trying to figure out all the intricacies of the plot. So I so I've used to be that way, and he's all into it. And I keep going, this is a bunch of crap. He's like, shh, quiet, quiet, so he wants to know the ins and outs of what's going on, and he's gonna talk about it. Like, well, here's the deal the entity was programmed, you know. So he's he's like that. He's trying to figure it all out, and I'm just laughing at it, like, this is all bullshit. There was that moment where they showed like the one guy who was a believer. That that could have been cut. So in the beginning, they had like the the believers in the entity. Yeah, that didn't go anywhere, did it? No, and then they had the one guy who was gonna, and then Nick Offren, who you think is gonna, I need your I need your firearms, you know, like major. And you think, oh, he's gonna shoot the president, but no, he's a hero. Like, what the who needed that crap? He just had a gun. I never go anywhere without my trusty Glock. That should have been that should have been the deal. Like, we did we need a scene setting this bullshit up? You know, no, it was poor, poorly edited, poorly directed. I just thought, uh, except for this, okay. Give the guy his do, Chris McQuery. The the the stunts, fine, good, interesting. Like, I just I just was dazzled by the fact that actors were up doing that stuff. And that's that's pretty good. Like, okay, that I'm not gonna scoff at that like a cynic because that's hard work and they're up there doing it. And you know, each each shot that was a huge sequence, and they're yeah, I'd say that I'd say I caught a few cheats, a few CG background shots. Um, not not a lot. Most of that was them up in that in those planes, which is pretty cool. Yeah. So anyway, final question. Will you watch it again? David Johnson.
SPEAKER_03Nah, it's a hard pass for me.
SPEAKER_00Same. Burt Brown, will you watch it again?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. I'll watch it again. Okay. What I've got.
SPEAKER_00Lonely Friday night. Got nothing. Family's out of town, and you got nothing to sit down with my popcorn.
SPEAKER_01For me to watch even a two-hour movie, it takes me a few days. Just interruption after interruption for whatever reason. Those three hours that have to like, has everybody gone to bed? Should I just watch TV? But then I fall asleep on the couch if that was the case. So I I don't know if I'll be able to watch it all in one sitting there again, but I will watch it again.
SPEAKER_03Well, at least you can get a good night's sleep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all those flashbacks will put me. Yeah, I I mean I I fall asleep now when movies I'm interested in. Like, I'm like, ah, I was interested. Shoot! I wake up the TV's blank. Like, ah the Netflix logos on the screen. I'm like, what? I liked what I was watching. What the hell, you old man? Anyway. All right, gentlemen, thank you for indulging me. I'm glad we got together for this uh monumentous podcast. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Subscribe and like and all that boloney. All right, bye, everybody. Thank you for listening to Fabulous Film and Friends, Copyright 2025, a Bel Air Films production.