MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION: The ‘Cruise’ rides, high on entertainment! [3.5/5]

IMF (Impossible Mission Force] has been shut. Agent Ethan Hunt is a wanted now. CIA has taken over the further responsibilities to decide on all the anti-national threats; and also to locate and eliminate Mr. Wanted. Meanwhile, the mission impossible here for agent Hunt is to track and prove the existence of an illegitimate/undercover group of highly-skilled eliminators branded as the Syndicate. Now, you don’t need to be a fan of the popular franchise to guess what follows next. The plot has been set. The tracks are laid. And illustrated as ‘the living personification of destiny’, Ethan Hunt is ready to take you on a thrilling ride where betrayals are norms, guns are on the loose and there is always a ticking time-bomb situation. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION is exactly what it promises to be or is expected to be. Probably, the most satisfying contribution to the series!

Though it all has become a ‘predicted from miles’ mix of elements now i.e. a comic sidekick [Simon Pegg in this case] waiting to throw-up witty one-liners every time his mouth is opened, a grumpy-cranky boss [Alec Baldwin], an understanding, sympathetic and constantly supportive partner [Jeremy Renner], a mysterious femme fatale [Rebecca Ferguson] destined to be the flame of the fearless male protagonist, sooner or later and the almost unshakable villain [Sean Harris] with more distorted desires than his tonal expressions; MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION doesn’t fall in the league of ordinary efforts. The highlights are certainly the high-octane action sequences, pulse-raising bike-chase, the eye-arresting locations and the blazingly electrifying theme soundtrack.

Tom Cruise decidedly looks susceptible at first to every given situation where he is needed to outperform himself and later emerges comfortably as the unstoppable at nothing kind of superhero. He is known and loved for that; and this action-expedition only takes the frenzy a notch up. Be it the hanging out [in literal sense] with the running plane scene featured in the trailers also or the amazing dive in the whirls of pool scene; stunts are visually breathtaking and Cruise as always the most comfortable at it.

Film finds another prop of strength, conviction and visual delight in Rebecca Furguson. Clad in a stunning Golden ball gown, she can kill you with not only her looks but moves that come with a warning of ‘blink and you miss’. She can gift Cruise a sense of bewilderment in his judgments, that too more than once. The best from her comes when she tries to encourage Hunt in pure poise with ‘come away with me’ plea. Simon Pegg successfully marks his comic-best in the weekly polygraph test scene where he has to cheat the technology used to gain considerable information about Hunt. The only weak link likes to be is in the casting of Sean Harris as the chief of the Syndicate. It could have been more fanatic, freaky or dramatic I would say as we are here dealing with Tom Cruise and not some Gary Oldman or Colin Firth in some razor-sharp espionage drama.

On the whole, Christopher McQuarrie directed MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- ROGUE NATION is a ‘crispier than a wafer’ action adventure that makes your investments in the bucket of popcorns definitely a worth. And if you can catch in IMAX, nothing beats that! Mission to entertain: accomplished! [3.5/5]  

BANG BANG: Mission Entertainment, Failed! [2/5]

Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer KNIGHT AND DAY wasn’t an extraordinary action movie outing at the first place; so when Bollywood has come up with an idea to officially remake it, expecting anything better to come out of it is surely our fault and not of the makers. Since Bollywood has now become quite an expert with remaking their own classics into the most forgettable ones, you can only imagine what would have they done with an average Hollywood action thriller. Siddharth Anand’s BANG BANG is a regular bollywood junk suitable only to those who crave for quick, forgettable and mindless adrenaline rush for their dose of entertainment.

Rajveer [Played by the delectably charming Hrithik] is a daredevil wanted for stealing the historical Kohinoor Diamond from a museum in London and can frequently be seen in Shimla roaming with the ‘diamond’ in his pocket. In a ‘written as in the script’ incident, he meets a middle-class desperate girl [Katrina, of course] with starry dreams to tour the world someday. And now the both should be together in the hide & seek game with cops [Pavan Malhotra, wasted] & the international crime syndicates [Danny Denzongpa & Javed Jaffrey] to save each other’s lives. But there is a twist, Rajveer is hardly who he pretends to be.

Problems with BANG BANG never really end. Where the original Hollywood flick had its own share of logic behind every action and plot developments, this Bollywood version hardly tries to be imaginative or logical. One action sequence leads to an abrupt song & dance number followed by another action sequence and another song & dance number! This goes on & on until the intermission. You take the loo-break, join the movie and it starts all over again. The most irritating transitions between scenes are Katrina waking up in the bed, in a new location, in a new country. 2 hours 35 minutes and you hardly see a smart espionage moment. Yes, there are brilliantly performed action thrills but no moment of shock even in the climax. If you could not see it coming, that’s never because of their excellence but your inattentiveness.  

Siddharth actually doesn’t leave any stone unturned to make it a proper Bollywood film. A bollywood film that never doubts on the moves of its hero, in fact it tries to cover him up. BANG BANG does exactly the same…with all of the film. So, more than 25 films in her name and we still have to give reasons [read: excuses] for Katrina’s accented vocal presentation. So she might possess ‘Harleen’ as her name, she is a Canada born child whose parents are dead in a terrible road accident [as convenient as swimming is to a fish] and now she is living with her grandmother in Shimla from last 10 years or more. Established in first half an hour, now do not you dare to ask why she can’t talk in proper accent?

My two favorite moments are probably the only moment I had an effortless smile on my face. When press asks the grandmother about Harleen’s whereabouts, she tells them that she had to consult her lawyer first and one media-person reacts, “Dadi, American serials dekhna band karo!” In other, Hrithik makes faces and pun about Katrina’s boring single life and her search for boyfriend on dating sites. Genuinely funny and natural!

On the performances, Hrithik manages to keep everyone hooked with his ease at action, silkiness in dance and the big screen charisma of the heroic chiseled-oiled body muscles. Deepti Naval & Kanwaljeet mark their presence felt. Rests in the supporting cast are either wasted completely or extremely regular. Watch out if breathtaking locales, hard to imitate dance moves, some good action sequences and your favorite stars are enough to make you spend [read: waste] your precious time and hard-earned money. It deserves nothing less than a place in the list of AAP MUJHE ACHCHE LAGNE LAGE and KITES! [2/5].

EDGE OF TOMORROW: Cruise’s own GROUNDHOG DAY! A fantastic fun!! [3.5/5]

If you could repeatedly go back in to your past, possibilities are that you could master yourself in dealing with the hitches & glitches of life you are destined to face but will that alone be able to temper or alter the upcoming written in bold? That’s a different subject matter altogether. Daug Liman’s sci-fi alien-human war film EDGE OF TOMORROW settles its premise on the very same. Living same day again and again till you learn how to get out of this fascinating but suffocating time-loop. This is Tom Cruise’s own GROUNDHOG DAY with an absolutely engaging plot, effective action and thoroughly enjoyable humor as added bonus.

William Cage [Tom Cruise] – a ‘behind the desk’ officer in US Army Media Relations who can hardly see a pool of blood with his eyes wide open is thrown to fight in war against an alien race with prospects to bulldoze humanity from earth. In the middle of early mental-establishment of the situation, Cage gets killed and finds himself waking up where the day had just started. Now, he has to go by the day all over again to find and save a war-hero Rita Vratasky [played by Emily Blunt] who’s entirely aware and sympathetic about the entrapment Cage is in. Now, together they have to spot the way out but not without retaking the journey hundreds of times to mug up, master and overcome all the obstacles around.

In a cleverly crafted plot when you see a non-performing soldier by chance Cage taking over the situation as per his prior indulgence and presence in the circumstances before, there is no chance you wouldn’t find it gripping and winning. Also, the pre-combat practice sessions when Cage fails miserably and Rita has to kill him over and over again to restart the day, how can you not laugh over Cage’s helplessness? The action sequences are well designed and in synced with 3D effects to maximize the effect but it’s the tighter screenplay that doesn’t leave much to complain. Crisply edited sequences and the humor that comes handy with how everything just ends up in the same ‘been there-done that’ arena time and again are totally born-entertainment. There is also a breezy layer of unsaid-unexplored love between the two but thankfully Daug doesn’t dare himself to travel on that path long enough and sticks to the promise to give you an unadulterated action entertainer in true sense.  

Tom Cruise is known to bring the charm of a star along with him but in comical scenes, you have to experience it yourself. Emily Blunt is terrific and the kind of physical energy and strength she puts in her character is amazing. Together they both flash the desire to see more of them in a more romantic exposure.  

All said and done; though we have seen the allure of time-loop earlier in more than a couple of movies before, the fact that Daug Liman gives us an authentic action film that is best enjoyable in 3D overshadows the lack of novelty in the plot. It’s a fantastic fun if action, science-fiction and creature movies don’t really mean a put-off situation for you! [3.5/5]