Oh The Places You'll Go: Episode One/West Coast

Howdy there! I’m Greg Harman, and welcome to Greg Explains Film, my movie review podcast series. Today I will be tackling Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

Alright, we’re back! My rating for Mission: Impossible is…. NEARLY PERFECT. This film was so amazing, it’s actually a wonderful piece of modern cinema. When people talk about classic films and make excuses for them being dated, they’ll say that those films were reaching or breaking the absolute limitations of the technology they had at the time. This film does exactly that. Now, I have no idea whether this will go down as a classic, but my god it uses all the amazing technology we have in 2018 to make a truly special action film.

This film tries so hard to impress the audience. The cinematography itself is enough to give this movie a positive review. There’s an insane mix of different locations and vistas, and they all look incredible. Whether light or dark, inside or outside, natural or artificial lighting, every single shot just pops. They even shot most of this movie on 35mm film! That’s fairly rare from a Hollywood blockbuster, and it just shows how much they cared.

Cinematography like this just accentuates the action in the film. There are so many wide angle or lengthy shots during action sequences. Now, knowing that Tom Cruise does his own stunts makes a wide shot of him jumping from one rooftop to another, or a long take of him doing a HALO jump from an airplane, so god damn tense. This is the first blockbuster I’ve seen in ages that was genuinely white-knuckle inducing.

And not only are these thrills impressive, but they do not stop. This movie is the textbook definition of a non-stop action film. Of the two and a half hour runtime, I’m just gonna guess that almost two full hours of this film are action. That is baffling. And what’s even more baffling is how it manages to raise the stakes over and over again over the course of the film. It just gets more and more intense. It keeps each action sequence fresh, and in turn, this film feels a lot shorter than its 150 minute runtime.

It also doesn’t really hold back for the sake of its PG-13 audience. A fair few things in this film were grittier than I expected, and it was honestly a welcome surprise. Between their mission to get gritty, them trying to go bigger and better throughout the course of the film, their incredible stunt work, and them going out of their way to shoot on real film just for the sake of it making it  look as cinematic as possible, this is a film that challenges itself and that really respects its audience. They’re not just trying to make a quick buck, this honestly feels like they were trying to make art, as weird as that sounds.
In conclusion, it did everything a summer blockbuster needs to do: it’s exciting to watch, it offers a healthy mix of seriousness and humor, it uses every penny of its massive budget for the sake of making something truly great, all the while not taking itself too seriously. The famous Mission: Impossible masks make a comeback, and they’re a great homage to the original show.

The only problem I have with this film is that the climax feels about 5 minutes too long. That’s literally it. This movie is amazing, and I hope I’ve shown why Mission: Impossible - Fallout is NEARLY PERFECT.

Greg Explains Film || Mission: Impossible - Fallout

When we fail to try, we fail to make art.

Kanye West - Runaway (GRZA Remix)

In this episode of Greg Explains Film, I tackled Steve McQueen's highly anticipated movie: Widows. An Oscar-winning director and all-star cast combine for this project, but can it live up to the hype?


Audio taken from:
Widows trailer- 20th Century Fox
The Big Unknown (Instrumental)- Sade

Greg Explains Film || Widows

Two modern horror films with very different styles are analyzed in an attempt to determine the best way to create a quality horror flick.

Greg Explains Film || Modern Horror (Us and Pet Sematary)

Catch me trappin’ out the Honda
Pull up in the CR-V the feds ain’t watchin’
My boy Ben riding shotty
Finna cop a Ghost cuz the whole block haunted
Droppin’ leaves like Autumn
Roll up, money fruity, catchin’ guac no problem
We be gettin’ to them dollas
Then we pass em to our mommas when we trappin’ out the Honda

This that bag chase, movin’ green like an earthquake
Gettin’ green in my purse place
Grind it, feeling green like it’s Earth Day
Watch out for the feds cuz this shit make they heads shake

White whale, they be chasin’ like Moby Dick
Too bad that I know my shit
Profit/Prophet, you wanna know what my future is?
My circle can’t stop, keep going, like a Mobius

You got broads in Atlanta?
Fair enough, I got a tandem
Can’t choose between, it’s bananas
Cuz they both queens like “man dem”

Northwest, you know I love their Twin Peaks
They got big dreams, like six feet
That’s me, I applaud they moxie
Cuz I clap them twin cheeks

Catch me trappin’ out the Honda
Pull up in the CR-V the feds ain’t watchin’
My boy Ben riding shotty
Finna cop a Ghost cuz the whole block haunted
Droppin’ leaves like Autumn
Roll up, money fruity, catchin’ guac no problem
We be gettin’ to them dollas
Then we pass em to our mommas yeah we trappin’ out the Honda