Alex's 2024 Cinema Corner: Week of February 5th

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 5th, 2024: Mission: Impossible 3 (Directed by J.J. Abrams)

Credit: IMDb

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

I was in genuine shock when I saw the reviews for this film after watching it. The average letterboxd score is 3.3 and just looking through some people's opinions, most say it's relatively mediocre. Do NOT listen to these reviews. This film is absolutely fantastic. It's definitely Tom Cruise's best acting job out of the three, with the emotion he feels for his wife really felt throughout the entire film. That relationship he has with his wife is my favorite part of this whole movie. The love interest of the main character in these action films has been something I usually just roll my eyes at, hoping to get past this bland love and get to the actual good parts of the film. However, the acting of Cruise and Michelle Monaghan makes this love actually feel real. The entire movie revolves around their relationship and I don't think it could've been pulled off any better than it was. The supporting cast is great as usual, with Simon Pegg stepping in and Philip Seymour Hoffman joining as an amazing antagonist. I think I need to watch more of his movies because seeing him be a brutal antagonist was just a joy to watch. I also think the use of the disguise mask was used to perfection in this film, a definite problem with Mission Impossible: 2. My only drawback is that Laurence Fishburne's character was really hard to understand in this movie and they kind of just wasted a great actor. His motives are unclear throughout and we don't really get a real conclusion on him. That's really my only complaint. This is everything you want out of a spy thriller and everything you want out of this franchise. To this point, it's my favorite out of all the MI movies I've seen.

February 7th, 2024: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Directed by Brad Bird)

Credit: Decider

Rating: 3/5 Stars

This is simply a step down from the previous films and certain choices made by the filmmakers cause it to be a mediocre installment in the franchise. The pacing is a massive issue, with the movie lingering way too long in certain scenes and way too short in others. My real main problem is how they handled the storyline with his wife. Obviously it was going to be hard to convince people that the most famous agent in all of IMF has a wife and nothing is going to happen to her, but why just write her out entirely? Maybe have her train to be an agent? Put her in the IMF headquarters as just a simple analyst or off-field strategist? The relationship there is too good to just shrug it off and have her only a big part of one film. There's ways they could have kept her in at least a small role in Ethan's life instead of just shoehorning in Jeremy Renner into the story just to connect to the wife. Learning that twist was a shock and was interesting, but it doesn't erase how bad of a decision that was. Also, not having Luther until the last three minutes of the film where he's basically just an exposition character? Bad move and frankly a slap in the face to the fans of the franchise. I know that's a lot of negatives, but this film still does succeed in many ways. The entire main cast is great and I thought that chemistry made you really want to root for them to succeed in the end. Renner is a fantastic addition to the cast and it's awesome to see Pegg step into a more prominent role. All the scenes in Dubai are really intense and although I am someone who does not enjoy car chases, them making it in the middle of a standstorm made it interesting. I think they should have played into IMF shutting down more, but that tension in the beginning of the film was awesome and I think will be something that comes up again in future films. Honestly, the whole first 20 minutes with Ethan escaping from prison is amazing. At the end of the day, I just found myself questioning what was happening at many points in the movie. With about 15 minutes left in the film, with Ethan in the car apparatus, I just thought to myself: "What is actually going on right now?". It still has good parts, but overall one of my least favorites that I've seen so far.

February 10th, 2024: Casino (Directed by Martin Scorsese)

Credit: Flickering Myth

Rating: 4/5 Stars

I have a feeling this is one of these reviews that gets me a lot of hate from the film community. Here's the thing about Casino: it's a fantastic film, it's just not totally for me. I enjoy mobster movies; I liked Goodfellas a lot and definitely was a fan of the first two Godfather flicks, but they definitely aren't a genre I find myself obsessing over. The cast is absolutely fantastic and I will never complain about watching a Robert De Niro movie. Just about every line Joe Pesci delivers will make you laugh out loud and the rest of the supporting cast plays their roles to perfection. This is a classic Scoresese film in every fashion, from the one take shots to the narration over the entire three hour watch time. That runtime is really one of the biggest issues. I'm not opposed to long movies, Oppenheimer is in my top ten favorite movies of all time, but this film really drags on and you find yourself absolutely shocked to learn that you are only halfway through. My other big gripe is the fact that it's not even really a casino movie after the first thirty minutes or so. After Pesci's character gets kicked out of the casino it just turns into a worse version of Goodfellas. It's still very good and if you like these kind of movies, you will absolutely love it. If you are like me and only occasionally dabble in the genre, it's just a solid movie to watch with friends on a Friday night.

Onto the Cinema News Section...

I have no idea why one of the main characters of an incredibly popular Netflix show would go out and explain the biggest flaw of the entire show, but I'm all here for it. I've been saying this for YEARS. I really like Stranger Things, I think it's a solid show that I usually wouldn't find myself watching, but the plot armor in the show is genuinely insane. This is even more exaggerated than it is in Marvel, which is literally superheroes fighting in a fantasy world. The biggest problem I've always had with the show is that you can never feel the stakes when none of the main characters really feel at risk to die. Then the one time a character does die (SPOILERS) in Season 4, the fans outrage and start a Twitter trend to bring him back. That's the real reason nobody ever feels in danger of dying: Netflix is afraid to have millions of people trashing their show for killing off everyone's favorite character. The show is still good and I'll watch the final season right when it comes out, it's just frustrating because it could be so much better with some actual stakes.

How amazing does this look? I mean, seriously, how good does this look? There's always some doubt when a franchise has two very successful films and tries to milk the content machine once more by making a prequel, but it seems they absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one. I LOVED the first two Quiet Place movies, mostly because of how cool the concept is. This puts a twist on that concept in the best way, introducing a closer look at how it felt on the first day of the outbreak. The cast is so talented and I can't wait to see Joseph Quinn in a leading role in a feature film before he's inevitably cast in Fantastic Four. I hope part of this full trailer shows at the Super Bowl so everyone can genuinely build the hype for this film.

Fellow Marvel fans, isn't this what we've been waiting for? Listen, I've been less critical of Marvel Studios as others have been recently. I think the post-Endgame stuff has been unfairly hated on and there's been a lot of really good stuff in there. However, it's incredibly clear that Marvel has been pushing out way too much content every year and it's been impacting the quality of every project. I actually recently read MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, a book detailing the rise of Marvel Studios and what's been hindering them recently. The thing that stood out the most to me out of all the post-Endgame stuff they talked about was the fact that Kevin Feige no longer has time to oversee every Marvel project. With all the content that is filming at one point in time, Feige can't really make any creative notes in the moment. This is clearly hindering mostly the MCU shows, making them feel somewhat bland and constricted. Now that Marvel is decreasing it's yearly output, it will be easier for Feige to make it on each set and actually be able to halt things if they are heading in the wrong direction. With everything we've seen from the Daredevil: Born Again creative overhaul so far, I actually trust in Iger and Feige to get Marvel back in the good graces of the public.

YES. ONE THOUSAND TIMES YES. It's no secret to anyone who knows me that Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors of all time and Tom Cruise is one of my favorite actors of all time. Having them working on a film together, even if Cruise is only in a minor role, would be a dream come true for me. Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction, two Tarantino flicks, are both in my top four all time favorite films all time and it's clear I've enjoyed most of the Mission: Impossible flicks so far. Brad Pitt is already slated to star in this film and although it's sad it may be Tarantino's final one, I hope he goes out with a bang. You'll know right away if you enjoy his types of films, but I would recommend you give him a shot if you are a big movie fan. I was very hesitant at first and I thought there was a very little chance I would be a fan, but now he's up there with one of my favorite directors. Anyway, I hope this ends up working out because it would be a fantastic combo.

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

Next Movie On My List: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Next TV Show On My List: Currently Watching Welcome to Wrexham Season 2

See you next Sunday!