Thunderbolts*

2025

★★★½ 5

There's a ing resemblance to Lewis Pullman so I couldn't stop imagining Chris Fleming crushing in the Bob role. No offense to Pullman, he was great.

Alts in the comments, may contain spoilers.

Let's Start a Cult

2024

★★★ Watched

"Sick piñata! Is that beer smoking weed?"

"That's one of the coolest ways I've ever busted!"

Lovably dumb. I went to high school with that guy. Literally.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

2023

★★★★ Watched

It's getting so weird that they focus so much on the character of Ethan Hunt (not actually interesting), without ever really acknowledging how old Tom Cruise is (impossible to ignore at this point, more compelling than the stunt show itself). Will this 60-something cult leader man-child ever acknowledge his mortality? His face is 10 years younger on the poster than in the film.

But this one really works for me. As silly as The Entity is, it's at least borrowing…

Heat

1995

★★★★½ Watched

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Freaky Tales

2024

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

Still perfect, still brimming with the best vibes. Still the best film of 2025.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

2018

★★½ Watched

There are impressive stunts and entertaining sequences, but the movie is pretty explicitly about never having to make hard choices because you know you're the hero and you're going to win in the end and You Can Have It All If You Believe In Yourself. Ugh.

I don't totally know why all that plot armor rubbed me wrong in this installment compared to the others, but it really did. It's been true of most of the Missions: Impossible, but this…

NiNoKuni

2019

★★½ Watched

I tried playing the first game, but couldn't get into it. "Adolescent love triangle" in principle is more compelling than the "child trying to save dead mom" plot from the game, but this knock-off Ghibli doesn't work.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

2015

★★★★½ Watched

Wow, this exceeded expectations. Genuinely fun and exciting! I had heard these kept getting better, but since reading Going Clear in 2013, I haven't been able to pay to see any Tom Cruise movies. But thanks to Plex...

PS Jeremy Renner's head is blocky enough that I had to check to make sure the aspect ratio was correct.

WandaVision

2021

★★★★ Rewatched

Revisiting this show after the MCU nadir that is Captain America: Brave New World, it is strikingly creative and fun and in control.

Captain America: Brave New World

2025

★½ Watched

What if the dumbest MCU movie thought it was the smartest? Weirdly joyless, which is apparently supposed to qualify this as a "political thriller."

The most interesting thing watching CA:BNW is the sense that these movies have become self-generating. Has "Kevin Feige" been replaced with an LLM chatbot?

I guess Japan is a major military power in the MCU, sure.

Memories of Murder

2003

★★★★½ Watched

Bong Joon Ho sure can juggle tone effectively, wow. This one's going to stay with me for a while.

Also, this somehow had more even more dropkicks than Mission Impossible 2, the other movie I watched today (and which itself had a weirdly high number of dropkicks)?

Mission: Impossible II

2000

★★½ Watched

Eh, it's a slightly better Bond movie than the Brosnan pictures of the same era.