Tom Cruise looks old. He would, considering that I first watched him in the 1980s in Top Gun. That's a good 25+ years gone by. But we somehow hope they remain as they were when we first saw them - I remember how my illusions came crashing down when I saw Axl Rose in a concert a few years ago. I was searching for the real one when the truth hit me - there is no real one - this is he. Tom Cruise however is not that bad because we recognise him and are not searching in the crowd behind - despite the lack of his charming smiles. He instead gives us a serious, clenched jaw look and some fine action scenes for which i shall be eternally grateful.
The first scene is an impossible one where he gets on a flying plane and hangs on as it flies off - and then jumps off safely with a load of nerve gas. Soon after he finds himself in a record shop where he is almost gassed to death (he is getting old I told you) while showing off his knowledge about some old music from the 80s. Then he is almost killed by a chap called the bone doctor (what does he do? the q is never answered). Why not gas Cruise in the first place if you had to kill him was my q when bone doctor starts to beat him? Anyway we have good looking Ilsa Faust at hand to save the oldish Cruise - she looks fortyish too - but can she fight! Bone doctor, instead of killing this chap by breaking his bones or deboning him or whatever he does, starts punching him in the stomach - what is that? Anyway, we are now on the trail of the syndicate, a dangerous enemy which has people like the mysterious gasser, the bone doctor and also the very agreeable Ms. Faust who looked a bit like Hepburn and Zellweiger.
The next impossible stunt comes in an opera where a number of people with highly sophisticated guns have been allowed into the opera which is being watched by the Austrian premier. Its like all the gunmen in town have been invited to kill the premier. They could have simply put the poor premier in front of the firing squad really. Hunt (Cruise) is the guy who actually shoots the premier - to save him of course. (Sadly he is not to be saved because the security forgets to check the premier's car for bombs!) One of the shooters on duty is our pretty lady - one more shooter is there but he is killed - he is not pretty obviously. Hunt and Faust escape together. Next scene is Morocco where there is an underwater stunt to switch data cards and get some data which transfers money. What? The syndicate is just a bunch of ordinary thieves? Hunt almost gets killed but hey, Faust is at hand and she jumps in and rescues the man.
Next impossible stunt is on bikes. A set of bikers come and give Faust a bike. Why? Because she can then use the bike to whip them all into shape in two minutes and run off with the data. What is this? One thing about the syndicate is that it has a bad recruitment and training policy. Anyway Ilsa is soon back in London. The big bad boy now emerges with glasses and a squeaky voice and wants the files in the USB opened. But hey, the files can only be opened by the British Prime Minister. Really! If you get the files opened by the PM, I will let your geeky friend go says bad man to Hunt (he is like destiny!). Anything for friends says Hunt and gets the PM to open the files. If you can get the PM to do stuff like that, I was pretty sure you could catch the idiots at the Syndicate but that's another story. Ilsa and geeky friend are finally found tied to tons of RDX with a fast moving timer on geek. But Hunt knows how to make the bad man stop the device in the last second. He has memorised the entire data on the USB. He is now the USB himself!
Just as we start getting uneasy at this revelation and want to go home the final job is done - bone doctor is killed by Faust who has a signature style of choking adversaries between her legs after quickly climbing on top of them. For good measure she stabs the bone doctor who dies without revealing why he is called the bone doctor. This is singularly the most disappointing part of the movie when they give out suggestive names and do not tell us the back story. Poor bone doctor goes to his grave without the world knowing of his expertise.
Soon the big bad guy walks into a ready made gas chamber full of nerve gas which is instantly set up by the guys from IMF - he is actually introduced to the other guys by Hunt - meet the IMF he says. I thought they would all lock hands and watch the fellow die while they crack some jokes about gas. But they did not. But in a bad move, Hunt kills this chap, the same chap who let him live in the earlier gas incident. Considering all this happened under the nose of the CIA chief Alec Baldwin (who has a different name in the movie of course), IMF is reinstated (it was disbanded in the beginning in case I forgot to tell by a high powered committee based on Baldwin's plea - but that's not important because Hunt will go on irrespective). Faust and Hunt share longing looks and this is where Moore was so good - he never let a single woman slip through and always got busy in the end scenes. Never got sentimental either. Must be age you think? Maybe, but the stunts are brilliant as always. Also all the British guys come out looking bad and the Americans come out shining. Including the British PM. Why?
Must watch. Obviously. Great fun. This movie will also be remembered for the fact that it was here that I ate a huge tub of caramel pop corn!
The first scene is an impossible one where he gets on a flying plane and hangs on as it flies off - and then jumps off safely with a load of nerve gas. Soon after he finds himself in a record shop where he is almost gassed to death (he is getting old I told you) while showing off his knowledge about some old music from the 80s. Then he is almost killed by a chap called the bone doctor (what does he do? the q is never answered). Why not gas Cruise in the first place if you had to kill him was my q when bone doctor starts to beat him? Anyway we have good looking Ilsa Faust at hand to save the oldish Cruise - she looks fortyish too - but can she fight! Bone doctor, instead of killing this chap by breaking his bones or deboning him or whatever he does, starts punching him in the stomach - what is that? Anyway, we are now on the trail of the syndicate, a dangerous enemy which has people like the mysterious gasser, the bone doctor and also the very agreeable Ms. Faust who looked a bit like Hepburn and Zellweiger.
The next impossible stunt comes in an opera where a number of people with highly sophisticated guns have been allowed into the opera which is being watched by the Austrian premier. Its like all the gunmen in town have been invited to kill the premier. They could have simply put the poor premier in front of the firing squad really. Hunt (Cruise) is the guy who actually shoots the premier - to save him of course. (Sadly he is not to be saved because the security forgets to check the premier's car for bombs!) One of the shooters on duty is our pretty lady - one more shooter is there but he is killed - he is not pretty obviously. Hunt and Faust escape together. Next scene is Morocco where there is an underwater stunt to switch data cards and get some data which transfers money. What? The syndicate is just a bunch of ordinary thieves? Hunt almost gets killed but hey, Faust is at hand and she jumps in and rescues the man.
Next impossible stunt is on bikes. A set of bikers come and give Faust a bike. Why? Because she can then use the bike to whip them all into shape in two minutes and run off with the data. What is this? One thing about the syndicate is that it has a bad recruitment and training policy. Anyway Ilsa is soon back in London. The big bad boy now emerges with glasses and a squeaky voice and wants the files in the USB opened. But hey, the files can only be opened by the British Prime Minister. Really! If you get the files opened by the PM, I will let your geeky friend go says bad man to Hunt (he is like destiny!). Anything for friends says Hunt and gets the PM to open the files. If you can get the PM to do stuff like that, I was pretty sure you could catch the idiots at the Syndicate but that's another story. Ilsa and geeky friend are finally found tied to tons of RDX with a fast moving timer on geek. But Hunt knows how to make the bad man stop the device in the last second. He has memorised the entire data on the USB. He is now the USB himself!
Just as we start getting uneasy at this revelation and want to go home the final job is done - bone doctor is killed by Faust who has a signature style of choking adversaries between her legs after quickly climbing on top of them. For good measure she stabs the bone doctor who dies without revealing why he is called the bone doctor. This is singularly the most disappointing part of the movie when they give out suggestive names and do not tell us the back story. Poor bone doctor goes to his grave without the world knowing of his expertise.
Soon the big bad guy walks into a ready made gas chamber full of nerve gas which is instantly set up by the guys from IMF - he is actually introduced to the other guys by Hunt - meet the IMF he says. I thought they would all lock hands and watch the fellow die while they crack some jokes about gas. But they did not. But in a bad move, Hunt kills this chap, the same chap who let him live in the earlier gas incident. Considering all this happened under the nose of the CIA chief Alec Baldwin (who has a different name in the movie of course), IMF is reinstated (it was disbanded in the beginning in case I forgot to tell by a high powered committee based on Baldwin's plea - but that's not important because Hunt will go on irrespective). Faust and Hunt share longing looks and this is where Moore was so good - he never let a single woman slip through and always got busy in the end scenes. Never got sentimental either. Must be age you think? Maybe, but the stunts are brilliant as always. Also all the British guys come out looking bad and the Americans come out shining. Including the British PM. Why?
Must watch. Obviously. Great fun. This movie will also be remembered for the fact that it was here that I ate a huge tub of caramel pop corn!
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