MOVIE REVIEW: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a reboot of the 1960's spy Cold War TV series that I only heard about and not so familiar with it's content and premise is director Guy Ritchie's (Sherlock Holmes, Snatch) most refreshing and relaxed film to date. His brisk pacing and signature editing compliments the good looking cast and stylish costumes that seems similar to TV's Mad Men.

When American CIA Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) team up with Russian KGB Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) to infiltrate Italian industrialists with a rogue nuclear weapon that both the US and the Soviet Union want to seize, it would had been imaginable in that era for the two superpower to join forces but they did. 

It also helps that both Cavill and Hammer have chemistry and rapport that echoed Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes' Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law's Holmes and Watson. He is turning out to be the master of the bromance action film.  Hammer also redeems himself from his two previous box office misfires that also emphasizes male bonding in two ways: J. Edgar and The Lone Ranger. Breakout star Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) though is wasted in a role that was underwritten and it's so good to see Hugh Grant again back into doing a summer blockbuster in a role may be the key for a sequel.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mr. Holmes

Amidst all the summer blockbusters that's been dominating the multiplexes right now lies Mr. Holmes, a small budgeted British period film reuniting the brilliant Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings and X-Men series) with the director that gave him an Oscar nomination for Gods and Monsters Bill Condon. The result is a refreshing and beautiful take on the iconic Sherlock Holmes that takes a 360 turn from the brash Robert Downey Jr. on the big screen and Benedict Cumberbatch's own interpretation on TV that our generation has known.

In the film based on the obscure novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin, the sleuth is now a 93 year old living in the English countryside and suffering from dementia. Living with him are a housekeeper (Laura Linney channeling Lynn Redgrave's Gods and Monsters character) and his young son Roger (Milo Parker) who turned out to be his only trusted friend he can rely on.

Mr. Holmes is set in multiple narratives recalling his trip to Japan, to fully solving his last known case and his relationship with Roger as he helps him with his beekeeping hobby. This is not the whodunit Sherlock that the world has known to love but a reflection and an appreciation to a character far close to retiring in pop culture.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

After teaming up in one of last years best films Edge of Tomorrow, writer Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winner for The Usual Suspects) and actor Tom Cruise are at it again in the fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible series. It doesn't disappoint and that's saying a lot for you know that in order for an action film franchise to stay successful - it has to be at least as par as the previous films before it. The last one Ghost Protocol has director Brad Bird's signature style of animated action paralleled by a gripping story. Rogue Nation stays on that course by delivering the usual scenes fans of the series expect of, plus since this is written and directed by the man who wrote The Usual Suspects, there's a lot of interpersonal connection between it's characters and McQuarrie triumphs on both counts.

Tom Cruise may have lost a little bit of that Hollywood pretty boy actor vibe and it shows in the film. Fortunately it helped because this Ethan Hunt looks tired chasing all the bad guys in the world only to find out that his group the IMF has been shut down by the CIA and the burden falls into himself. Ethan Hunt is just as human as us after all.

With the help of his trusted teammates from the previous films William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames), they track down The Syndicate - a network of terrorist bent on taking down the world. Alec Baldwin joins the series as well and plays a CIA officer in his typical persona. British Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson however steals the show in a star making turn playing Ilsa Faust - a rogue British agent who may or not be part of The Syndicate. 

Mission: Impossible is great Hollywood entertainment and so far it is the second best action film of 2015 after Mad Max: Fury Road.