Trailer Tuesday: Looper & A Fantastic Fear

I like sci-fi stuff, especially when it doesn't include aliens. (I like aliens sometimes, but heavily make-upped or CGI aliens are often more distracting than entertaining.) Enter Looper starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt. I'm a fan of all these actors, but I have a special affinity for Bruce Willis. It always surprises me how much I love him. But I digress.

What makes Looper especially exciting for me as a sci-fi movie is the combination of futuristic ideas with old or vintage elements, not unlike the sci-fi westerns Firefly and Serenity. This combination is easier to relate to than the typical sterile slickness of films set in the future. It's also easier for an audience to buy the premise and suspend disbelief, because there is comfort in seeing the familiar of the past and present among the unfamiliar of the future.

I'm looking forward to September.

Late entry: Last night I stumbled on the recently released trailer (in the U.S.) for A Fantastic Fear of Everything. I first heard about the film about a week ago from my friend Seth, because we both have a deep, abiding love for Simon Pegg. Based on the preview, it looks like a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film on acid; meaning it's fanciful, but in a darker, twisted way. Just the way I like it. No release date for the U.S. yet, but based on the June 8 U.K. release I'm guessing we'll see it in the fall.

And I hope that is Simon Pegg's real hair.

Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol; A Review

I'll admit that I was skeptical about the newest Mission: Impossible installment, mostly because the second installment was bad enough that I didn't see the third. But I've been having a love affair with (mostly) comedic actor Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Star Trek) for many years now, so I felt compelled to override my skepticism enough to see the movie. And the truth is, no matter how...wibbly-wobbly Tom Cruise appears in his real life, I have always enjoyed his acting a great deal. (Apparently his talent lies in translating his personal intensity into his roles.)

Simon Pegg

And guess what? I loved it.

Under the direction of Brad Bird (The Incredibles), Ghost Protocol has one of the best action/humor balances I have ever seen. When humor arises, Tom Cruise generally plays the straight-man to Simon Pegg's impeccable comedic timing and mild bumblings. But it never gets overly silly or condescending, and it never pulls you out of the movie or becomes distracting. It does what it's supposed to do; it gives the audience a moment to relax and it breaks up the very intense action sequences.

The "team" is rounded out by actors Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton, and both do a fine job. I was particularly pleased that Paula Patton seemed like a normal woman as opposed to the overly sexed-up "sidekick" women that one often finds in action films. Sure she is very beautiful, but it was entirely refreshing that her sexy, sexy, sexiness was not her only asset as a team member.

Of course, no movie is perfect and Ghost Protocol is no different. At times it felt like nothing ever went right for the team, and that the whole movie was about playing catch-up to fix mistakes made in previous scenes. But this was not overly egregious and should not stop any action-lover from seeing the film.