Tom Cruise is back as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, the fifth entry of the successful franchise.
Like the previous outings, it features fast-paced chase scenes, exotic locations and high-tech action sequences. When an anti-IMF force called the Syndicate takes responsibility for escalating terrorist attacks, Hunt re-enlists the help of former IMF agents Benji, William and Luther (Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames) along with newcomer Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) to take them on.
Already getting strong critical reviews, it is co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who worked with Cruise previously on Jack Reacher, and who wrote one of the screenplays for one of my favourite movies of all time: The Usual Suspects.
In 1983, Chevy Chase made Clark Griswold a household name with his performance as a inept father tying to take his family on a vacation. The successful comedy spawned three sequels all starring Beverly D’Angelo as his wife and different actors playing his children in each. Now it is time for a Vacation for a new generation and in this one, Ed Helms stars as a now grown up Rusty Griswold trying to recreate the vacation of the original, a road trip to Wally World with his wife and two sons. Christina Applegate plays his wife and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) appears in a comic turn as the husband of Rusty’s sister Audrey (Leslie Mann) plus Chase and D’Angelo appear in cameos.
There have many incarnations of Sherlock Holmes throughout the years but very few (or even none) have taken a look at the famous detective post-retirement. Based upon the 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, Mr. Holmes stars the great Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, X-Men) as the aging sleuth, whose mind is starting to deteriorate. After a journey to post-nuclear Hiroshima in search of a rare plant to help restore his mind, he returns home to grapple with the unsolved case that forced him into retirement.
Director Bill Condon has worked with McKellen in the past on Gods and Monsters and has gone on to direct Kinsey, Dreamgirls, The Fifth Estate and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2. His next project is the live action remake of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast.
The Paramount Theatre continues its Canadian film series on Wednesday, Aug. 5 with a special showing of The Cocksure Lads Movie. It is the story of a fictional band from England called The Cocksure Lads who come to Canada for their first-ever North American tour. Ten minutes after arriving in Toronto, they get into a fight over royalties and break up. The Lads scatter across the city and spend the day drinking, fighting, meeting girls, falling in love, and searching for a claw-foot bathtub. The big question is why a bathtub but the bigger question is can they patch things up before their big show that night? It is written and directed by Murray Foster, one of the founding members of the ’90s a capella group Moxy Früvous.
