Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

29 years after he started the M:I franchise, Tom Cruise returns one last time to end it. And it couldn't come any sooner, as he's traded in his boyish good looks for someone closer resembling Buddy Hackett. Still, at 62, he's performing insane stunts and doing things that I could never do at any age, so you can't really knock it. Maybe there's something to that Scientology shit, after all.

Picking up shortly after the events of Dead Reckoning, The Entity is still an active threat (if somewhat an abstract construct) while the world is again at the precipice of succumbing to global devastation. It's exposition-heavy at times, and heavy-handed at others, but I mostly find it fascinating due to its finality. The improbable part is that they managed to tie up so many loose story strands from throughout the series in a satisfying way while weaving together all of the films. (Meanwhile, my impossible mission was trying not to piss myself for three hours.) It's a welcome return to form that succeeds in ending the series on a high note. Tom's mission, should he choose to accept it, is not to fuck it up by making another one.

3½ MacGuffins out of 5

Note: Huge shout-out goes to Ving Rhames, who has appeared in every single one of these films alongside Cruise, but never quite seems to get his due.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023)

This entire series is the very definition of ephemeral entertainment. It's fun and exciting in the moment, but it just doesn't stay with you after it's over. At the best of times, it's a mindless popcorn flick; at the worst of times, it's smug and insufferable. How much longer can we keep pretending nothing is going to happen to this Gary Stu character? How many times can they make the impossible possible? These movies are filled with such clichés that only exist to feed Cruise's massive ego as a billionaire movie star adrenaline junkie.

This time, Tommy Boy goes up against the very concept of AI itself; a rogue system known as The Entity that spells the end of all mankind (if we're lucky). The biggest misstep of this installment is that it's long and occasionally boring. There are three memorable set pieces featured, and these are what make the movie worthwhile, especially the "big stunt" in the final hour of the picture. 

Fact: Every M:I movie is longer than the one that came before. Now we're up to 2 hours and 45 minutes to tell an incomplete story without an ending, as this was merely devised as "Part One"—to be concluded in The Final Reckoning.

2½ half-keys out of 5

Paddington in Peru (2024)

After his aunt goes missing in Peru, Paddington must go back home to find her, as he gets mixed up with nuns and a riverboat captain on a quest to find El Dorado. If you're a fan of the others, it'll give you what you're looking for, but I didn't find myself as invested as the first two films and it hardly got an emotional response out of me. Most of the fun comes from Antonio Banderas as this entry's villainous lead. It's a cute adventure and the jungle scenery definitely pops on the big screen, but it's diminishing returns at this point.

2½ passport photos out of 5

Note: Emily Mortimer takes over the role of Mrs. Brown from Sally Hawkins, which probably accounts for why it feels so uneven compared to the others.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER [2011]

Marvel comics continues it's set-up for 2012's The Avengers, with this final chapter in the prelude series.
Chris Evans is charming and believable as Captain America aka Steve Rogers, while Hugo Weaving looks to be having a ball as the villainous The Red Skull.
The first 2/3's of the film are light-fared, entertaining fun however it's in the final act where it all falls apart. The action becomes boring and doesn't really give you the feeling that there might be actual danger afoot. In the end, it's the performances and the all around retro-feel to the film is what makes it worth the visit.

3½ Indy Jones inspirations of out 5