Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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OCTOBER 7-13, 2015 UCW 17 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I thought Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (131 minutes) was a really odd title for the latest James Bond film, until I realized that it was the fifth movie in the Mission Impossible franchise. On a personal level I find it very difficult to take Tom Cruise seriously as an actor, which in turn makes it a challenge to muster up any enthusiasm for his action movies. Maybe it would be easier to like Rogue Nation if someone could sit me down and diagram exactly how it differs substantially from the most recent James Bond movies? The film starts off with an opening action sequence that features James Bond Ethan Hunt (Cruise) clinging desperately to the door of a cargo plane while Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) ineffectually presses buttons. Meanwhile, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) provides his contractually obligated three speaking lines from an electrical tower of some kind, thus reassuring his co-stars/the viewing audience that they are not racist because they are not watching a movie that only features white actors. After using the magic of not caring about physics to escape the plane, Ethan checks in at a London record store using an elaborate sign/countersign code by which the Impossible Missions Force identify each other. Because that makes so much more sense than simply checking in at the central office. Anyway, it turns out that Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the head of Spectre The Syndicate has tracked Ethan to the record store and plans to cap- ture him instead of killing him, as supervillains often do. Meanwhile, in a completely different movie, one that highlights all the pulse- pounding excitement of a lengthy Congressional hearing, CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) and the face of the IMF (Jeremy Renner) discuss the future of the IMF. Hey, I wonder if this will lead to a repeat of Ethan and the Gang being disavowed, like in the last movie? To the surprise of no one, it does. After this brief interlude we return to Ethan, now tied up in the elaborate torture dungeon of this movie's Big Bad. The only chick with a speaking role in the movie slinks into the room sexily and lays out a bunch of needles, also sexily. Her name is Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and she just barely makes the young– enough-to-be-the-daughter-of-Tom Cruise cut-off that is so necessary for her to get hired as the Bond Babe IMF Babe. Naturally, Ethan escapes, but is then forced to become a rogue agent who operates outside the rules because after all, this is a Mission Impossible film. What follows is a series of chase scenes and improbable set pieces, which provide a backdrop to the most needlessly com- plicated plot since the first film in the franchise. Overall, the average person already knows if they like the series. The latest entry is more of the same; a brainless action movie that objectifies women while trying to decide who is evil and who is good, ultimately ended by completing whatever impossible mission is central to the plot (thus ren- dering the title of the fran- chise meaningless). Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. Mission Unnecessarily Complicated Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation(Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200.