tachiiderp

A serious actor in a parody film. It's almost like the script was made by fans of the original, tailored perfectly for Liam Neeson and Liam acting perfectly to execute each punchlines.

Not having grown up with Leslie Nielsen and the original trilogy, reading how Leslie was predominately a dramatic actor and rarely played in a comedy, it's almost like the perfect setup for Liam Neeson now. We mostly know Liam for playing serious roles and although he's had cameos or played lesser serious characters, he's never indulged in a full-on parody as the main character. This reminded me a lot of Tropic Thunder with Robert Downey Jr. And Tom Cruise - legendary comedic roles that surprised me for the better.

The Naked Gun is a great sequel to the old trilogy. Perhaps my opinion would be different if I watched the original trilogy first, but this was a perfectly good entry that got me curious to explore the past films. I need more Naked Gun movies!

I enjoyed Barbarian due to the multiple tones you can have in a horror movie. Zach Cregger has done it again with Weapons. For most of the film it feels like a thriller, with some horror elements, some drama elements, and some comedic moments as well.

And the character-focused arcs remain interesting in a horror film. First you watch one side of the story and it feels creepy, and then more information is given with another side, and another side, and it all comes together which feels satisfying in a horror film. I say horror loosely, as there really isn't that many horror elements. You have the occasional jump scares but you know they're coming since it's in a dream-like scenario or the character is doing something inappropriate and you get a vibe of FAFO. The film felt like Prisoners at times, with the desperate search of a parent to find out what's going on. It felt like a comedy sometimes, when you feature a stoner as a main arc and you even feel bad about what's about to happen.

As a whole, the movie felt cohesive. Each arc made sense and was plausible on how the mystery is eventually unravelled. The ending will probably be a mixed bag for people, but I enjoyed it. Movies labelled with horror typically have two outcomes at the end. Either total despair, or an entirely cathartic experience. I think it's okay for a horror movie to end on either of these two notes although some horror fans would heavily disagree with me on that one. All in all, an interesting film that's well-written and maintained my attention the whole way.

From the iconic vent drop, to the now unbelievable stunts in this final film, it is the end of an era. Looking back on the series, the things you remember are the adrenaline high stake stunts the movie title is named after.

In the Final Reckoning, two memorable setpieces will remain with me. One, the entire submarine sequence, and two, the final aerial sequence. You've seen Tom Cruise hang on planes. Well, get ready to see Tom Cruise explore that concept a lot more with biplanes. Tom is always pushing the limit of how far stunts can go while looking completely believable and I really have no idea how they were able to film this.

The plot is nothing new and I doubt anybody came for character development either. We came for the set pieces, and boy did these stunts deliver. Yeah, there were a lot of explanations and expositions but honestly a movie needs some slow and dull moments to really emphasize the stunts in between. Most action films are like this and the final film didn't stray far from the formula.

I will say though, other than the two set pieces, fight scenes are scarce and unmemorable. We can see the age of Tom coming in as one scene was outright off-screened. Not a big deal, but I definitely enjoyed Fallout and Dead Reckoning more because of that.

This may be the last hurrah with Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise, but I remain hopeful and curious to see how far and/or advanced set pieces can truly get.