Alex's 2024 Cinema Corner: Week of February 19th

Before you read I know the question you all have... "am I on the right website?". "Rouge Eye SPORTS having an article about cinema?".

I assure you, there has been no typo in your search or no issue in your hyperlink.

Although sports has always been the main focus of this brand and honestly, my life, movies/television has become another massive passion in the past year or so. In 2023, I dove right into the world of cinema and was able to reach a deeper appreciation like I've never had before. It was a whole new avenue of enjoyment for me and allowed me to connect with a lot of new people. I'm glad I picked up this interest again and I plan on continuing it even more in 2024.

'Alex's Weekly 2024 Cinema Corner'  will consist of my thoughts on every bit of movie and television I watched in the past week, what I'm currently in the middle of watching(if anything) and some short thoughts on some movie news from the past seven days.

As I was hinting at earlier, I do have two rating apps that allow me to keep up with what I watch. My letterboxd account is aps12359 and my serializd account is alexschlerf. These will have every movie or TV show I've rated, ever, and also some lists beyond the ones I share here. Feel free to follow and keep up the discussion past this article! As always, comments on this article and on Twitter/X are open if you want to peacefully debate about anything I say!

Lastly, just please don't get mad if I don't rate your favorite movie five stars or don't talk about a bit of news that you read from the past week. The beauty of cinema is that everyone can enjoy certain aspects in different ways; the reason why we don't all have the exact same opinion on everything. This is MY column, meaning it will end up leaning towards the movies/TV shows that are on my list and the movie news that appeals to me the most. Let's just all have fun.

February 19th, 2024: Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Directed by Christopher McQuarrie)

Credit: TimeOut

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

What an absolutely fantastic way to end my Mission Impossible binge. This movie is great in every aspect and is my favorite in the whole franchise. There's so many positives but the best has to be the cast. Tom Cruise putting in his best action performance out of all the movies. Henry Cavill joining the cast as a double agent who always feels like he's leaning towards one side then pulls out one last twist. Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are back for their usual banter along with some real emotional beats. I've already praised Rebecca Ferguson's performance as Ilsa in previous reviews, but again she plays the spy role to perfection and has a real happy ending with Ethan in this one. Sean Harris continues to be the best villain in this franchise and I'm so glad they gave him some real depth compared to Rogue Nation. I've always been a big Vanessa Kirby fan and she fits her role better than almost anyone in this film. Just as the cherry on top, they did exactly what I've been saying since the third installment, bringing back Michelle Monaghan as a side character to have her ending with Ethan. Oh yeah, that's not even mentioning the likes of Angela Basset and Alec Baldwin. I'm so glad they made this movie connected to all the prior films. Not only does it serve the fans who have enjoyed all the previous installments, but it makes you feel real stakes like you've never totally felt since Mission: Impossible 1. This movie comes in at 148 minutes which is somewhat long for this franchise, but the tension throughout makes you feel into it the whole way. The spy craft is top notch at all times and this was just the best way to end this franchise (I had already seen Dead Reckoning Part 1 in theaters before this).

Now that I've seen all seven Mission: Impossible films, here's how I'd rank them.

1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

2. Mission: Impossible 3

3. Mission: Impossible 1

4. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

5. Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1

6. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

7. Mission: Impossible 2

Besides from the second installment, I throughly enjoyed watching this franchise. The three at the top of my list are definitely some of my favorite action movies of all time now and I cannot to watch the eighth movie whenever it comes out. Tom Cruise, salute.

February 22nd, 2024: Spider-Man 1 (Directed by Sam Raimi)

Credit: Netflix

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Just for full transparency, I've seen this film before. However, I was probably around the age of seven, meaning I wasn't really able to appreciate it as much as I am now. Remembering that made me realize that I don't really remember anything from the Raimi Spider-Man movies. Now that leads me to here, where I will be rewatching all of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man movies to give an actual review that doesn't come from a child. With all that said, this movie is even better than I thought it was. I've always had the opinion that Maguire is the worst out of the three Spider-Man actors, but that doesn't mean he's bad by any means. He's still an amazing Peter Parker and I love how he is able to portray Peter's origin story in this movie. His performance feels like it was taken straight off a comic book page, blending the prowess needed to star in a movie with the most popular comic book hero of all time. Obviously the rest of the cast is great, but the standout performance is easily Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin. The level of insanity attached to Norman is something only Dafoe could pull off and I hope we get to see him play this character even more in the future (somehow?). Sam Raimi's fingerprints are all over this movie, from the transitions to the way it's shot. I've always been a fan of his, especially since I thought Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was incredibly underrated. He knows exactly how to shoot Peter Parker and the movie is so much better off with him at the helm. My only drawback would be that the pacing is really off at points, sometimes making you feel somewhat intimidated when a slow scene shifts right into the action. Also I know the point of the humor in this film is supposed to be corny, but it goes way too far to a point where it's hard to watch. There's many jokes in this movie that I knew were supposed to get a big laugh and I just stared with a blank face. Overall I'm really pleasantly surprised and I cannot wait to continue this Spider-Man binge next week.

February 23rd, 2024: Welcome to Wrexham Season 2 (Produced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney)

Credit: Tom's Guide

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

As expected, Welcome to Wrexham continues to deliver. I was somewhat worried before I started watching that Season 2 would downgrade from Season 1, just based on all the hype and success that was flowing in. Season 2 does not fall to that trend and actually improves on the first season. I know a lot of people just want to watch this show to see Reynolds and McElhenney, which is fair enough, but I love how this show utilizes the town over anything else. There is still a lot of the two Hollywood owners, but this season definitely puts more emphasis on the stories of Wrexham supporters and players. Some of these stories are truly amazing and I am so glad the two owners purchasing the club have allowed for them to be told. There are some perfect episodes in here that don't even have a single bit to do with Wrexham men's football. There's a whole episode on the women's team getting promoted, a scope of members around the team with autism, an episode all about family and much more. All these help turn this show to be simply based off human beings rather than some Hollywood big shots buying a team into glory. However, the passion that Reynolds and McElhenney have for the club is definitely expanded on in this season. This is not just a venture they are hoping to cash in on: the happiness and success of the town of Wrexham has always been at the forefront for them. Watching them learn not only about the sport of football and also how to run a club is a real delight. Really the only thing keeping this from being five stars is that although I do enjoy some of those shorter player-focused episodes, they do start to feel like filler as the season goes on and eventually you just want to get back to the actual football. However, the build up to the final match before promotion is immaculate and I think the final episode is my favorite in the whole show. I knew exactly what the result was but my heart was still pounding because of how much they make you care about this team and this town. I cannot wait for Season 3 to release on April 18th!

Onto the Cinema News Section...

Alright... a couple things here. First, since when was there going to be a Blade Runner spin-off show? I consider myself a massive Blade Runner: 2049 fan and I was in no way aware of there being any other content in that universe. Second, is this really necessary? Again, massive fan of the most recent film, but what really is there left to tell? There's so little details in this one news drop, but I'm assuming nobody from the old cast is returning? It wouldn't really make any sense for them to, especially since (SPOILERS) Ryan Gosling's character literally dies at the end. I'm going to stay pretty pessimistic until I see any actual content from this. I think it's going to have to take a bigger budget then they'll have for a TV show to replicate any of the magic from the most recent installment. Assuming all these things, I'm not sure this is even a good idea. Let's wait to here more but as of now, I'm just not sold.

Now, I'm sure there's DC fans that are a lot more rilled up about this than me. I've always been a Marvel guy and there's not really one DC character I've totally delved into. However, I am an overall comic book fan and I like to see good comic book projects made. When I see this concept art from a scrapped 'Batman Beyond' film, I just find myself incredibly disappointed. As a big Spider-Verse enthusiast, this seems like it would have been DC's equal to those films. However, somehow the higher ups at DC heard this idea, saw the concept art and decided this wasn't going to be good enough to release. There's no way to tell from sure, but I have no reason to believe this wouldn't be up there with the fantastic Batman animated movies that are out there. Warner Brothers just seems lost on what fans really want right now and it's a concerning thing. Interesting films are being scrapped left and right even after finishing all their filming. This is not one of those cases, but it just confirms a trend.

I think us Marvel fans have known this was going to be the case for a while, but Avengers: The Kang Dynasty has been scrapped and will go back to Avengers 5 for the time being. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I agree with the move. I get the panic after Jonathan Majors was fired, but why not just recast and go ahead with the same storyline that most people were already enjoying? It's frustrating because Kang has always been one of my favorite comic book villains and now he probably won't appear again in live action for a very long time. As for what the new title could be... I'm not totally sure? To be honest, I could see Marvel going many various ways here. It's probably going to have to do somewhat with mutants and/or the Fantastic Four, as both are massive parts in the Secret Wars film that will follow this one. My best guess would be Avengers vs. X-Men, which is way too long to explain here in this article. It's a great comic storyline and one that would be awesome to see play out on the big screen. The bottom line is that Marvel has a lot of work to do before they get to Secret Wars and I'd be lying if I wasn't worried to see what they come up with.

To finish, here's the film and television projects that I are next on my list.

Next Movie On My List: Spider-Man 2

Next TV Show On My List: The Continental

See you next Sunday!