Mission: Impossible - Fallout

I am a huge fan of the Mission: Impossible franchise and it seems like I have been waiting all summer for the latest installment, Mission: Impossible - Fallout.  It was worth the wait because it is an adrenaline rush from beginning to end and, in my opinion, it is the best movie in the bunch.  Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team have a mission to intercept some plutonium bound for a terrorist group made up of members of the former Syndicate.  However, the mission fails when Hunt chooses the life of a team member over the plutonium.  When Hunt gets a tip that an arms dealer named the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) is brokering a deal for the plutonium, he and August Walker (Henry Cavill), a CIA agent assigned to shadow him by the Director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett), infiltrate her organization and learn that the price of the plutonium is the release of Hunt's arch-nemesis Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).  As they attempt Lane's release, they encounter Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who has her own reasons for wanting Lane.  There are moves, counter-moves, and betrayals which keep you on the edge of your seat and no one, even possibly Hunt, is who he or she appears to be.  The action sequences are intense and unrelenting, including hand to hand combat in a bathroom, the much hyped HALO jump (which is spectacular), multiple car and motorcycle chases through Paris, a foot race across the roof of the Tate Modern, and an aerial helicopter chase through the mountains of Kashmir.  It goes without saying that Cruise, who performs the majority of his stunts, is absolutely amazing in the action sequences but he also gives Hunt some vulnerability as he deals with the consequences of his actions in both the present and in his past.  I saw this movie in IMAX and I recommend that you do the same!  It is an absolute blast!

One Last Camping Trip

My sister and her husband are bringing their trailer home from Hanna at the end of the month so I had one last opportunity for a quick camping trip.  I love it in Hanna and I had such a relaxing time.  I spent most of the day sitting outside reading and then at night I would build a fire and make s'mores.  My idea of heaven!

I'm so glad I had one last camping trip before school starts in a few weeks!

Summer Reading: The Chilbury Ladies' Choir

The next selection on my summer reading list was The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan. It is delightful! The story takes place in a sleepy little English village during World War II. We learn about the goings-on through the letters and journal entries of our main protagonists: a timid widow who is worried about her son on the front, the self-absorbed town beauty who is embarking a real romance after flirting with the boys of the village all her life, her awkward younger sister who inadvertently discovers an intrigue, a young Jewish refugee hiding a secret, and a midwife in over her head in a sinister plot. With so many men away, the women must pick up the pieces to keep life in Chilbury as normal as possible. When a music teacher named Primrose Trent comes to the village she decides to revive the church choir with just the women, much to the consternation of the village busybody. The choir provides solace when the events of the war impact Chilbury and it emboldens the women to change their lives for the better. I loved this book because it has a definite Miss Marple feel to it with a charming little village with more intrigue going on than meets the eye. All of the characters are very well developed and each have a unique voice. They all have very satisfying character arcs, including Edwina Paltry whom I found very unsympathetic in the beginning. As someone who enjoys World War II novels I really appreciated the perspectives of ordinary women in ordinary circumstances trying to cope with the devastation of war and I really enjoyed the hopeful tone. The Chilbury Ladies' Choir is humorous and heartbreaking and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Have you read The Chilbury Ladies' Choir?  What did you think?

Skyscraper

Last night I finally had the chance to see the action thriller Skyscraper.  Dwayne Johnson plays Will Sawyer, a former FBI hostage negotiator turned security consultant.  He is hired to analyse the security of the world's tallest building, The Pearl, owned by billionaire Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han).  Kores Botha (Roland Moller), an international terrorist who has been extorting Zhao, leads a team who sets fire to the 96th floor of the building and frames Sawyer to take the blame.  Sawyer's wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and his kids Georgia and Henry (McKenna Grace and Noah Cottrell) are are inadvertently trapped in a residential unit above the 96th floor so he must elude both the police and the villains to rescue them from the building.  The story is incredibly derivative and the reason why the villains have attacked the building is pretty ridiculous but there are some innovative action sequences that are seriously cool and, to be honest, that is why I went to see this movie.  These include when Sawyer climbs a 100-story crane and then uses it to jump into a broken window of The Pearl as the fire rages on, when he rappels down the building using duct tape on his hands in order to get to an access panel behind a wind turbine, and when he confronts Botha in an elaborate virtual-reality room filled with hundreds of screens.  He completes all of the feats of daring with a prosthetic leg, which he uses very inventively in one scene, which makes them even more thrilling.  Johnson is his charismatic self and I really liked Campbell's portrayal of Sarah because she is just as resourceful and daring as Sawyer.  This movie is not perfect but I enjoyed it for what is, a bit of summer escapism.

The Equalizer 2

Sunday afternoon I went to see The Equalizer 2 which, as a fan of the first movie, I have been anticipating for a while.  Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a former black-ops agent who is now a Lyft driver in Boston but he is also a guardian angel of sorts who dispenses vigilante justice for the random strangers he meets. However, when Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo), a former colleague, is murdered in Brussels while investigating the murder of a CIA contact it gets personal.  It becomes even more personal when he discovers her killers.  It is a very slow burn while McCall tracks the killers down but, once he does, there is an epic confrontation in a seaside town that has been evacuated for a hurricane where he dispatches them one by one.  The action sequences, including the opening on a train to Istanbul, are incredibly intense and exciting to watch but I also enjoyed the quieter moments that provide a satisfying emotional arc for McCall.  There is an affecting subplot where McCall helps a Holocaust survivor (Orson Bean) track down a painting stolen by the Nazis and another where he mentors an at-risk teen (Ashton Sanders).  Washington gives a riveting performance, both as a man of action and as a man in torment.  I don't think this installment is as good as the first one but I really enjoyed it and I recommend it to fans of action thrillers.