Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup, taking you through the week’s biggest new releases and why you should be excited for them. It’s a slightly odd week this week as for some reason two of the biggest releases came out yesterday instead of the usual Friday, but I haven’t watched them yet so I’ll treat them as normal. There are some big releases to enjoy though – this week we have sexagenarian spies, adorable aliens, and immaculate auteurs…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
The Mission: Impossible franchise has come a long way in its nearly 30 year history. It pitches itself as an American answer to James Bond, with its iconic theme music, twisty espionage plotlines and thrilling action sequences, but it also shares a lot of DNA with the Fast & Furious franchise. Ethan Hunt’s found family may not be quite as sprawling as Dom Toretto’s but it’s every bit as tight-knit, and both series have become famous for their relentless need to one-up themselves on the stuntwork – the impossibility of the missions has ramped up so far that dangling through a ceiling grate to download a computer file seems pretty mundane now. One thing that hasn’t changed though is that these films are the perfect popcorn blockbusters.
Following directly on from 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (which should really be ret-conned to just Dead Reckoning now), The Final Reckoning sees rogue AI the Entity infiltrating the worlds’ intelligence networks and threatening all life on Earth. Can Ethan shut it down before it’s too late? The trailer leans heavily into the franchise’s pedigree, with callbacks to earlier entries to remind us just how miraculous it is that Tom Cruise hasn’t broken every bone in his body by now. That “…one last time” line and the definitive title suggest that this could be the last of these films that we’re getting, which feels pretty fair – Cruise was 34 when the first film came out, but he’s turning 63 this year and still doing all his own stunts. The man has definitely earned a holiday (just don’t tell us where you’re going Tom, otherwise it wouldn’t be a holiday…). There is absolutely no hint of anything slowing down for the final stretch though, with some huge set-pieces including a freezing dive to a nuclear submarine and some casual hopping between biplanes mid-flight.
This isn’t just the Tom Cruise show though – the cast is stacked with franchise regulars and newbies. Ving Rhames, a constant presence since the first film, is back as hacker extraordinaire Luther, as is Simon Pegg’s Benji, whose friendship with Hunt injected some heart into M:I 3 and every entry since. Hayley Attwell and Pom Klementieff return from the last entry, along with Henry Czerny’s Kittridge who returned to the franchise in Dead Reckoning after being absent since the original. Esai Morales’s Gabriel is still the face of the Entity – he might not be the big bad, but he’s a handy presence when Hunt needs a villain he can punch. Added to that are newcomers including Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman, Angela Bassett, Mark Gatiss, Janet McTeer, and Tramell Tillman (who I will find very difficult to trust as I am mid-way through s2 of Severance).
This is exactly the sort of film that demands to be seen in the cinema, on as big a screen as you can find.
- Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning on IMDB
- Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning on Rotten Tomatoes
Lilo & Stitch
Fan favourite early ’00s classic Lilo & Stitch is the latest Disney animation to get the live action treatment. On a distant planet, a mad scientist playing God creates a near-indestructible living weapon he calls Experiment 626, but is arrested before he can unleash it on the galaxy. During his trial the experiment escapes and runs away to Earth, crashing in Hawaii, where he is found by a young orphaned girl, Lilo, who is in the care of her sister Nani. Experiment 626 disguises himself as a dog so that Lilo and Nani adopt him and he can hide from his pursuers. Lilo names him Stitch, and teaches him about the meaning of family and the joys of island living.
Arriving in Disney’s more experimental years between the hugely successful run of musicals in the ’90s and the studio finding its footing with CGI animation with the likes of Tangled and Frozen, Lilo & Stitch is an odd but joyous entry in the Disney canon. It quickly gained popularity thanks to its cute but anarchic protagonist – surely the template for the Minions some years later – and its honest and heartfelt themes of the bonds of family being stronger than any individual’s imperfections. It also showed a fun willingness to fondly take the mickey out of its studio heritage in an inventive ad campaign that had Stitch crashing through scenes from the classic ’90s Disney hits and leaving them in utter chaos. So it’s no surprise that Disney’s nostalgiometer has decided that it’s time to give Stitch a CGI makeover and let him loose on the real world.
Stitch, like Simba in the Lion King, is one of those characters that works so well for animation because the medium allows him to move and speak and express emotions in a way that would look unnatural in real life. Fortunately, as he’s an alien and could look like anything, it’s a lot easier for the animators to get past that issue than it was with a lion cub, and they seem to have done a passable job of recreating the original’s cuteness and chaotic energy. It’s not quite on the same level as the 2D Stitch, but it’s close enough. The original voice actor, Chris Sanders (who also co-directed the original), is back to supply his chittering speech.
The new director is Dean Fleischer-Camp, who is best known for directing the brilliant Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. If that film is anything to go by, there should be no concerns about this remake capturing the heart of the original. The new Lilo (Maia Kealoha) is suitably adorable, and Nani (Sydney Agudong) apparently has a bigger role than she did previously. Most of the big names in the cast are voicing the alien characters – mad scientist Jumba and Earth expert Pleakley are played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen, while Hannah Waddingham (having a good week this week) lends her voice to the Grand Councilwoman.
As with any of Disney’s live action remakes, there is a question of how necessary this film is when the original is so well-loved. It doesn’t sound as though this version changes too much, which is the safer option (change the wrong thing and fans will not be happy) but also renders the exercise a little pointless. The Mouse House will nevertheless be hoping that this does a little better than its last live action remake, Snow White. If you’re a fan of the original Lilo & Stitch, treat this as an excuse to watch a new take on it on the big screen and try to keep an open mind. If the original has passed you by, there’s no reason not to go and see this – it’s a funny and sweet story and you can’t not fall in love with Stitch. And if you enjoy it, the original will be available on Disney+ waiting for you to discover that too.
- Lilo & Stitch on IMDB
- Lilo & Stitch on Rotten Tomatoes
The Phoenician Scheme
The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a wealthy businessman who is starting to suspect (after his 6th plane crash) that his rivals might be trying to kill him. He decides to leave his entire estate to his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), and starts preparing her to take over the business by introducing her to his latest venture, the Phoenician Scheme. But can Liesl reconcile her strict moral values with Zsa-Zsa’s shady dealings?
In case you couldn’t immediately tell from the careful arrangement of every frame in the trailer, this is the latest film by Wes Anderson. Anderson’s films are always a treat, with a wonderfully silly off-beat humour and a gorgeous attention to detail in their colour schemes and cinematography. That said, some of his more recent efforts have not gone down as well as his earlier work, with unnecessary framing devices and meandering plots that made them come across as more pretentious than artistic. This new film carries all the Anderson hallmarks, but it looks like he’s just telling a relatively straightforward story and should be a lot more accessible.
Like all Anderson films, there is a ridiculous cast here including, as well as Del Toro and Threapleton: Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray (playing God, which feels like very appropriate casting given his omnipresence in Anderson’s oeuvre), Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Rupert Friend, Donald Sumpter, F. Murray Abraham and more. It’s testament to Anderson’s popularity that so many great actors want to work with him (and many of them return to work with him again). Cera in particular looks like he’s having a great time.
If you want to watch something with more humour than Mission: Impossible but a bit more grown up than Lilo & Stitch, this is as good an option as you could hope for.
- The Phoenician Scheme on IMDB
- The Phoenician Scheme on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
All of this week’s new releases are great options and I’d recommend any and all of them, but the film of the week has to be the closing chapter in one of cinema’s greatest blockbuster franchises – if you only manage to see one of them, make sure you catch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on a big screen.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
Trailer of the week
There’s a new Disney film in the cinema, which means it’s time for them to start plugging their next project, and this week we have a new teaser trailer for the upcoming Zootopia 2. The first Zootopia was one of the highlights of Disney’s revival era. Set in a society of anthropomorphic animals, it was a fun buddy cop drama replete with delightfully silly animal puns. The teaser for the sequel doesn’t give too much away plot-wise, but as far as the puns are concerned it dives straight in – we’re immediately greeted with a shot of a Catzio keyboard – “the king of the musical jungle” – which features “over 250 howls and roars”. A trio of electronica guinea pigs then march on and start playing a very catchy little tune to introduce a montage of some of the different landscapes of the city of Zootopia. Running from the police through these environments are the heroes of the first film – Nick Wilde the fox (Jason Bateman) and Judy Hopps the bunny (Ginnifer Goodwin) – along with newcomer, Gary the snake (Ke Huy Quan). After escaping through a rave (featuring a zebra in a Darth Vader outfit and what appears to be a group of rabbits in bright green full body rubber gimp suits), they are confronted by a hooded figure with glowing yellow eyes, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Big Bad Wolf from Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (one of the best animated villains of the last decade). We’re then presented with a flash through some of the menagerie of characters appearing in the sequel, some of which you may remember from the original, some of which are new, and all of which showcase such great character design that they feel fully fleshed out even from their split second appearance here (my favourites are the playboy stallion, the sunburnt nudist naked mole rat, the police boar that I’m assuming based purely on his appearance will be voiced by Billy Connolly, and the lederhosen-wearing mountain goats).
The first film ended with Wilde joining the police and Hopps being the celebrated officer giving a speech to the new recruits, so it will be interesting to see why they appear to be on the wrong side of the law here. Gary also poses some interesting questions about the world-building – if reptiles exist in this world, where were they all in the all-mammal first Zootopia? Why doesn’t the snake have to wear clothes when everyone else does? We might get some answers when the film hits cinemas on November 28th.
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