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movie trailers, Movies

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #2 (2018) “Some Missions Are Not a Choice”

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The second full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout has been released.  The sixth film in the franchise, written and directed by returning Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie, finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team seemingly paying for a lifetime of tough choices.  Hopefully, given Cruise’s age and declining box office appeal, this will be the finale or at least a transition for the franchise, which-aside from the regrettable second installment, has been one of the longest-running, best franchises in all of movies.  Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt now for 22 years…which should make all of us feel extremely old (including Cruise).


Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the cast.

The Mission: Impossible franchise launched in 1966 with the original CBS television series, which ran for seven seasons and 171 episodes. Mission: Impossible returned in 1988 with a rebooted series on ABC. It failed to find an audience, however, and was canceled after two seasons. It was nearly a decade later that the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible feature film would turn the small screen spy series into a hugely-successful cinematic franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, is once again writing and directing the Paramount Pictures sequel, which opens in theaters on July 27, 2018.

Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

 

Books, movie review, Movies, Video Games

Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018) *All Pop Without the Culture*

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Tye Sheridan in Ready Player One
What happens when reality gets to be too much?  Well, most of us depart it as soon as possible.  “Humankind cannot bear very much reality,” (little T.S. Eliot for you) and it’s true.  Especially in the hypersaturated information age, reality is an overwhelming non-stop sensory onslaught.  People need to check out to stay sane.  Some find healthy ways of doing this, others not so healthy, but the need for escapism remains.  In Ready Player One, the enter world has escaped a depressing society into a virtual reality playground known as the OASIS.  Inside, the whole world is engaged in a treasure hunt to find three keys that will unlock the ownership of the OASIS embedded in the system by its deceased founder.  If that sounds like an awesome premise for a story, you are correct.  The book is one of my favorite of the last decade.  Whether you like Ready Player One or not, is probably going to depend on whether you have read the book or not and know just how much better THAT story is than the one Steven Spielberg delivers. Continue reading Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018) *All Pop Without the Culture* →

Books, movie trailers, Movies, Video Games

Ready Player One Trailer #3 (2018) “Come With Me”

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Ready Player One is a book I loved, and I have never felt that any of the trailers that have been presented for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of the book felt like they were on point, and that continues with the final trailer, which is an homage to the Willy Wonkaesque quest that players will go on in the OASIS to find the hidden keys.  I have no confidence in Steven Spielberg as a director anymore, either as a serious film maker or a crafter of the kind of blockbusters he created as a the driving financial force in Hollywood.  There seems way more emphasis on Easter Eggs and cameos in this trailer than the actual plot, which is more than enough to sell the story.  If they’d pushed The Iron Giant this much before his own movie, more people would have seen that animated classic.  He’s gotten more screen time than the plot.  I hope I’m wrong, but I think this film is going to go horribly off the rails.  Ready Player One opens in March 29, 2018.

Set in the near future, Ready Player One follows outcast teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan), who escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the OASIS, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When eccentric billionaire who created the OASIS dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cook, Leticia Wright, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, and Ben Mendelsohn.
Ready Player One Poster

movie trailers, Movies

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #1 (2018) *The Hunt is On!*

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The Super Bowl has become a movie trailer showcase over the last ten years, but most are 90 second teaser spots (a montage of which we’ll have tomorrow), but the first full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout has been released.  The sixth film in the franchise, written and directed by returning Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie, finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team seemingly paying for a lifetime of tough choices.  Hopefully, given Cruise’s age and declining box office appeal, this will be the finale or at least a transition for the franchise, which-aside from the regrettable second installment, has been one of the longest-running, best franchises in all of movies.  MI: Fallout opens July 27, 2018.

The best intentions often come back to haunt you. Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast.

Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Books, movie trailers, Movies, Video Games

Ready Player One Trailer #2 (2018) “Enter the OASIS”

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Ready Player One is one of my favorite novels of the last five years, and I was not hugely impressed like most people with the first trailer because it diverged significantly from Ernest Cline’s novel (which doesn’t need much tinkering).  A lot of it stems from a distrust of Spielberg with blockbusters, because he’s not a blockbuster director anymore.  Somewhere along the way he lost the childhood spark of adventure that infused the films that made him a household name, and I’d love it if this was the film that got it back, but not at the expense of what is amazing source material.  I did like this trailer better.  We’ll have to see when the film opens in March 2018.

Set in the near future, Ready Player One follows outcast teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan), who escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the OASIS, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When eccentric billionaire who created the OASIS dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cook, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, and Ben Mendelsohn.
Ready Player One Poster