MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION (Christopher McQuarrie 2015)

[Chris Knipp]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Tabuno,
I've seen most of the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I agree, it is very good entertainment, more fun than the new Mission Impossible. I loved the three main actors; Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, and Alicia Vikander: they're great looking. I never knew the impressively tall Armie could be this good an actor. And the Sixties costumes and mise-en-scène were ceaseless eye-candy. Every glimpse of cars was an aesthetic pleasure for me; I love the coachwork of the Fifties and Sixties. What's wrong with this movie, then? I don't know, but perhaps critics thought it had too little that was new.



Shaun the Sheep

I saw all of Shaun the Sheep, the stop-motion animated film, which has gotten great reviews. It reminded me a bit of Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar's A Town Called Panic/Panique au village, the little Belgian stop-motion film that I reviewed on IMDb. Again, no words. But while A Town Called Panic is fresh and devil-may-care, Shaun the Sheep is belabored and goes on, and on, and on. It is full of good ideas, but the filmmakers didn't know how to organize and pace them. This is apparently a spin-off of a British TV series that was itself a spin-off of the Wallace and Gromit franchise, whatever that means. This could explain the organizational issues. I thought afterward of a stop-motion animated film that's great, Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. What made that great apart from really interesting story, complex sets and costumes, was the voice cast, beginning with George Clooney. If you cut out words (and hence interesting actors voices) you better be awful good. There was, however, a small but enthralled young audience, whereas there was hardly anyone watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E.