Knight and Day

The Wolverine

The cream always rises to the top.  The star always gets the spin-off, or leaves the group to go solo.  Movie franchises are no different.  The X-Men are a captivating ensemble, but there are only a couple of them who you’d want to see alone.  I think Wolverine is such a character, and he’s the only one has his own franchise.  As I’ve stated before, I didn’t read the X-Men comic books, but I used to watch the cartoon – and Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables) is the embodiment of the Wolverine.

When we find our long-lost Logan, he’s literally holed away in an isolated mountain cave on the outskirts of a small town.  He’s plagued by nightmares of Jean (Famke Janssen, Taken 2) and flashbacks to the World War II nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.  It was there that Logan saved the life of a Japanese soldier named Yashida, and the two men have never forgotten that fateful day.  Of course Logan hasn’t aged since then, but Yashida is now the elderly CEO of a profitable Japanese company.  Logan’s connection to Yashida is brought to the forefront even more when he encounters a young woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima).  She intervenes to help Logan in an altercation, but has been dispatched to summon him to Japan.  Yashida is on his deathbed and would like to see his old friend one last time.

Logan reluctantly travels to Japan, where he finds Yashida on death’s door.  He meets Mariko (Tao Okamoto), Yashida’s granddaughter and Yukio’s adopted sister.  She is betrothed to a young Japanese man in a marriage arranged by her father, but everything is turned upside down when it’s revealed that Mariko will inherit her grandfather’s company instead of her father.  Later, she is nearly kidnapped by the Japanese Yakuza, but Logan intervenes and saves her.  Complicating matters is Yashida’s sinister doctor, who seems to have a hidden agenda.

The movie follows Logan and Mariko as they flee her would-be captors and Logan tries to figure out why his healing abilities are unexpectedly diminished.  Yukio has a premonition that Logan will die, and although he is dismissive of her concerns, it certainly seems like a possibility given his suddenly more human condition.  He and Mariko grow closer, especially when he uncovers betrayal within her family.  In the first act of the movie we are shown Logan’s tortured, solitary existence; in the second act he returns to Japan and we are introduced to the movie’s principal conflict; and in the third and final act we see the resolution of that conflict.  I appreciated the straightforward storytelling and found it largely effective.

Director James Mangold (Knight and Day, 3:10 to Yuma) created a dark landscape for Jackman, who is very good as Wolverine.  The role has never been played by anyone else on the big screen, nor should it.  The movie assumes that the viewer is familiar with X-Men and/or has seen the first Wolverine movie, and I won’t quibble with this.  I doubt anyone would go see this movie if they hadn’t seen either of those previous works.  I’ve seen a few tweets criticizing this movie – so I’m not sure what demographic to which it appeals, but I liked it.  Some decried the lack of action; others thought it seemed like a “kiddie” movie.  Bear this in mind, but I wasn’t disappointed at all.  Grade: B.

Mission: Impossible 4 – Ghost Protocol

Tom Cruise (most recently of Knight and Day) used to be one of my favorite actors.  Then, his public perception began to decline after marrying Katie Holmes.  An unfortunate appearance on Oprah and some ill-advised comments about Brooke Shields’ post partum depression didn’t help matters.  It seemed like people were no longer focusing on the movies; they were focused on the Scientology and the wacky behavior.  Cruise has been a certified hit machine since Risky Business.  He’s given us classics like Top Gun and Rain Man.  It would take the passage of time and several enjoyable movies for people to move past the punch lines of a few years ago.  With the latest edition to his blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise, maybe Cruise has finally returned to being the likable star he once was.

The Mission: Impossible franchise has always been a good one, with the first movie in the series opening in 1996.  It’s the only Mission: Impossible that I own on DVD and it remains the most suspenseful of the four movies.   Ghost Protocol finds Ethan Hunt being busted out of a Russian prison by fellow IMF agents Jane (Paula Patton, Precious) and Benji (Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz).  They need Ethan’s help to find the assassin who recently killed another agent.  Furthermore, Ethan’s official mission is to prevent the same assassin from delivering nuclear launch codes to a Russian madman.  When the team botches a plan to break into the Kremlin, the entire agency is disavowed in the wake of a perceived potential return to the Cold War era.  ‘Ghost Protocol’ is initiated, and the agents are on their own. They must clear themselves of the Kremlin incident and still prevent the Russian lunatic from getting the launch codes.  After Hunt’s contact tells him about the Ghost Protocol, they add government analyst and former agent Jeremy Renner (The Town, The Hurt Locker) to the mix.

Ok, let’s talk about what worked and what did not work.  First of all, the plot was very simplified this time around.  I’ve seen a million action movies, and sometimes the plot gets really intricate, almost to the point of being unnecessary.  Here, things are pretty straightforward.  Nuclear weapons are bad. Russian man wants to launch one.  That would be bad; he must be stopped.  If you’ve seen more than one Mission: Impossible movie, you know there will be lots of action and some great stunt work.  I tip my hat to Cruise for always being up for the challenge.  His scenes on the side of a skyscraper in Dubai were heart stopping.  The gadgets can’t compare to those in the 007 movies, but the cars and high-speed chases make up for that.  Cruise is still in great shape after all these years, and I laughed at an extended foot chase scene similar to one featured in Mission: Impossible 3.  He’s still got ‘it.’  You can count on him and Will Smith to run their asses off in a movie.  Tom Cruise was even running like the wind all over town in The Firm, briefcase flopping everywhere – remember that movie? I digress.

Mission: Impossible 4 – Ghost Protocol was an entertaining movie, but it was good – not great.  A few really great scenes, including a suspenseful opening sequence, and the aforementioned foot chase through a blinding sandstorm, held the movie together.  Cruise can play Ethan Hunt in his sleep.  Jeremy Renner continues to show his versatility, and Simon Pegg provided great comedic timing and comic relief.  Which brings me to Paula Patton.  She turned down a recurring role on Law & Order: SVU to take this role, and at first I thought that was a mistake.   There’s an obvious upside to appearing alongside Tom Cruise, but I thought the stability of a television series with a strong following would have been better for her career.  Is Thandie Newton (For Colored Girls) a big star because she was in Mission: Impossible 2? I don’t think so.  But, after further consideration – I think I was wrong.  Ghost Protocol was a good look for Ms. Patton.  She showed that she could hold her own in an action movie and look beautiful while doing it.  However, there were some awkward moments that could have been left on the cutting room floor.  I picked up on some unintentional comedy in the way she delivered a few of her lines, and I think she should continue to improve as an actress.

You know what you’re getting with Mission: Impossible, but I thought it made for an enjoyable day at the movies.  It wasn’t the best installment in the franchise, but it’s definitely worth checking out.