Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Recap and Review

The opening scene is set in London. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) visits a record shop. After proving his identity using a set of code words to the store girl (Hermione Corfield), Ethan obtains the record that would provide instructions for his next mission. He has been on the trail of a terrorist organization, “The Syndicate”.

Ethan realizes that his identity has been compromised when it is revealed that the recording itself has been authored by none other the Syndicate itself. Ethan is captured and the store girl is murdered by an as-yet unidentified agent of The Syndicate.

Ethan is held hostage by Janik “Bone Doctor” Vinter (Jens Hultén). But before Janik can inflict any substantial torture on Ethan, he is rescued by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). Ilsa is a British Intelligence MI6 agent whose present assignment is to infiltrate The Syndicate.

Back in Washington D.C., CIA Director Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is dead set on getting the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) dissolved and have the IMF's assets and agents restored to CIA. IMF Agent William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) tries his best to salvage his agency's reputation, but to no avail.

Hunley believes that The Syndicate is a mere excuse created by Ethan to justify IMF's existence. He even subjects Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) to weekly polygraph tests, in the hopes of getting some kind of information on Ethan. Benji loves playing Halo 5 game and hates being interrupted by such mundane details.

Benji manages to beat such tests, despite the fact that he is in regular touch with Ethan. A desperate Ethan seeks Benji's help in order to apprehend the man who killed the store girl and dismantle the organization.

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This man is revealed to be one Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Solomon manages to stay one step ahead and has both Ethan and Benji framed for the assassination of the Austrian Chancellor.

With the IMF disbanded, Ethan has to use his wits and skills to clear his name and have the craft Lane behind bars.

The thing that struck me most about this movie was how much it has been inspired from the Sherlock Holmes stories and specifically, the Robert Downey Jr. movies Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (SH: AGoS).

Drew Pierce is credited with the story. Drew's previous credit include Iron Man 3 and is currently working on Sherlock Holmes 3. It is not much of a stretch of imagination that he has borrowed ideas from the previous two Sherlock Holmes movies.

In the first Sherlock Holmes movie, Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) is working for Professor Moriarty. He orders her to work with Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) with the clear purpose of utilizing his detective skills to retrieve a device. When Irene Adler seems to be lagging in her mission, he threatens to have Sherlock killed. In the sequel, Moriarty poisons her in order to punish her for her failure. 

There are clear parallels between Sherlock/Irene and Ethan/Ilsa. Ilsa is Ethan's equal and outwits him a few times in the movie. Ethan also refers to her as “The Woman”. And Ilsa's acting on the behest of Solomon Lane to retrieve the data from Ethan also reminds one of Irene Adler working on Professor Moriarty's orders to retrieve the device.

There is even a scene in which Ilsa undresses in front of Ethan, as he watches her naked back. Readers might remember that there is a similar encounter between Holmes and Adler in the hotel in the first Sherlock Holmes movie.

At least, this version of Sherlock and Irene do not make out at any point in the movie, unlike the RDJ movies or the CBS Elementary or the recent Russian TV Series. Ilsa might still appear in the inevitable sequel...

There is an action set piece set in an opera in Austria, that should remind readers of a similar scene in SH: AGoS. Another nod is Ethan's diorama on the wall detailing what he thinks are related events and incidents that have been orchestrated by Solomon Lane. In SH: AGoS, Sherlock maintains a diorama listing what he thinks are the worldwide criminal activities of Professor Moriarty.

One of the popular fan theory surrounding the Sherlock Holmes Canon is that Professor Moriarty is a creation of Holmes, since Dr Watson has never actually seen him. This is indirectly referred to in the beginning of the movie, when Hunley states that The Syndicate is just a figment of Ethan's imagination.

Benji resembles Dr Watson in the scene in which Ethan asks him to leave stating his inability to protect him. Benji gets emotional and boldly asserts that he is Ethan's friend and he firmly intends to stick through with Ethan to the very end, despite Ethan's insistence on him leaving. In The Final Problem, Sherlock asks Dr Watson to let him face Moriarty alone to which Dr Watson bluntly refuses.

The bad guy (Moriarty) is Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), formerly of British Intelligence. His style of working is similar to Moriarty. And just like Moriarty, Lane is referred to as “He” in many scenes. References are made to his vast network of resources and agents. Ilsa mentions that Ethan has met his match in Lane.

Janik “Bone Doctor” Vinter is Moriarty's right hand man, Sebastian Moran. The actor, Jens Hultén even bears a passing resemblance to Paul Anderson who played Moran in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

To quote Sherlock Holmes himself from The Empty House: “The parallel is exact”.

Coming back to the movie, the movie is not as exciting as the previous entry, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. That movie was fun and had a momentum that lasted from the first frame till the last.

This one pales in comparison. The action sequences are not as gripping. The climax involves an incredibly boring fight between Ilsa and Janik. I did like the Road Rage type kick Ethan gives to a bad guy during the motorcycle chase scene.

The abject objectification of Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust character is a major eye sore. There are a number of scenes in which the camera gazes too long at her posterior. At least, Ilsa is smart enough to remove her high heel shoes before each action scene. Something that another female lead character famously failed to do so in a recent global Dino blockbuster.

The movie did have some postives. The scene in which Ethan, Ilsa and Benji discuss about the simple disguise using masks not working anymore was a nice touch. As was the scene in which Benji confidently states that Ethan can hold his breath underwater for a superhuman period of time.

Recommended only to die-hard fans of the Mission Impossible franchise and/or Tom Cruise.

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CBS Elementary Season 2 Episode # 12 "The Diabolical Kind" - Review

The opening scenes offer a quick summary of Sherlock's experiences with Jamie Moriarty/Irene Adler (Natalie Dormer) from the previous season episodes, “Heroine” and “The Woman”.

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) is off to an date with a guy she met from an online dating site, TrueRomantix.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) has been hiding his correspondence with Moriarty in the beehive he has been maintaining.

An armed and disguised gang kidnaps Kayden Fuller (Delphina Belle), a seven year old girl after killing her father, Uriah Fuller, a wealthy British businessman.

Miss Allison Fuller (Rachel Pickup) soon receives a ransom call for 50 million dollars. Sherlock deduces that the voice belongs to one of Moriarty's lieutenants, who had previously passed off as Moriarty. Sherlock names him “Faux-riarty”.

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Ramses Mattoo (Faran Tahir) is in charge of Moriarty's lockup and he takes Holmes, Joan and Gregson to meet Sherlock's archenemy/ lover.

Devon Gaspar (Andrew Howard), the aforementioned Faux-riarty is still waiting for orders from Moriarty and is keeping the morale of the gang by promising a big payoff.

Jamie works out a deal with her captors and agrees to assist NYPD in solving the kidnapping case. She informs them that Devon is a former British intelligence agent and gives her sketch of Devon and the possible men he has hired.

Jamie visits the Fuller residence and catches up with Joan. Jamie confesses to Joan that Miller's Holmes is the only person in the world can talk to and understand her, just as the way she is the only one who can talk to him.

Two cops are ambushed by Devon and one of his cohorts. Sherlock deduces that Moriarty sent an encrypted message to Devon thorough her sketches and that Gasper had already been communicating to his boss via newspaper ads.

I recommend the viewers to check out the episode to find out the resolution to the mystery.

Canonical References

1. Elementary Holmes makes the statement: “I conduct myself as though I'm above matters of the heart...” - Sherlock Holmes states in The Adventure of the Lion's Mane: “..for my brain has always governed my heart, ..”

2. Miller's Sherlock makes the observation: “...love, for lack of a better word, is a game I fail to understand, and so I opt not to play.” - Dr John Watson writes about Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia: “All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer.”
 
3. Miller's Holmes speaks in French to one of his Interpol contacts - Sherlock Holmes states in The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter: “But, none the less, my turn that way is in my veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.”

4. Elementary Sherlock using cryptography to decode the messages exchanged between Gaspar and Moriarty - Sherlock Holmes remarks in The Sign of the Four: “Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere.”

5.  One of Devon's henchmen is named John Clay (played by Andy Murray) - Reference to the character of the same name in The Adventure of the Red-Headed League. Sherlock Holmes described him as “the fourth smartest man in London”.

6. Jamie Moriarty makes a key deduction based on clay subsoil found on a character's boots - Dr John Watson writes about Sherlock Holmes' knowledge in A Study in Scarlet: “Geology.— Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers,and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.”

7. Jamie Moriarty confesses to maintaining a dossier of interesting facts, most of which she assembled herself - Dr John Watson writes about Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia: “For many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information.”

This was a good episode. Natalie Dormer is a blast as always as Moriarty. She makes a masterful and cunning criminal mastermind.

Miller's Holmes does not get to show much humor this time around, thanks to the presence of Moriarty. I did enjoy his line about Joan going through a series of “curated mating rituals”. Equally well done was his logic for taking out the telephone from the closet to put more emphasis in his calls.

Lucy Liu's Joan Watson is pushed to be a sideshow as well. There is however one noteworthy moment of Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) practicing shooting. That scene was truly (and unintentionally) hilarious.

This is an out and out Natalie Dormer's show and is a recommended watch to Elementary fans.

Trivia

The song “The Crooked Kind” by Radical Face can be heard in the closing scenes of Miller's Holmes sitting by the fireplace in the brownstone.

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Step Nine

The trailer for the new Russian adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is here!

Dear Readers,

The trailer for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes adaptation has been released.

Starring Igor Petrenko as Sherlock Holmes and Andrei Panin as Doctor John Watson, the series is directed by Andrey Kavun.

From the slapstick comedy to the ritual sequence and Igor's portrayal of Holmes, the influence of the Guy Ritchie directed movies is obvious. Irene Adler has a much larger role, which again could possibly be attributed to the Ritchie movies.

Vasily Livanov is my all-time favorite actor to portray Sherlock Holmes and the Russian adaptation (1979 - 1986) featuring him and Vitaly Solomin as Dr Watson is a classic. The new series has some big shoes to fill.

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The opening shots of the trailer indicate that Igor's version will be radically different from that of Vasily. There is a reference to the boxing scene in the first episode ("Acquaintance") of the Livanov series.

Andrei Panin passed away in March 2013. RIP.

The Granada adaptation had a change of actors (David Burke to Edward Hardwicke) after the first series and still proved to be as popular as ever.

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TV Review: CBS Elementary

After reviewing the cast, here is my second post in my blog series about the first season of CBS Elementary.

Confession time: I was eagerly looking forward to Elementary's pilot episode.

I liked the first season of BBC Sherlock and “The Hounds of Baskerville” from the second season. But certain aspects of “A Scandal in Belgravia” and “The Reichenbach Fall” struck me as odd in a Sherlock Holmes adaptation. I was hoping that Elementary would rectify these (what were in my opinion) issues.

What happened was the exact opposite: Elementary only made me enjoy BBC Sherlock even more and made me appreciate how tough it is to make a modern day adaptation without sacrificing the essence of the characters and the trappings of the Victorian era stories. BBC Sherlock accomplishes what every adaptation sets out to do: pay a loving homage to the legendary creation of Arthur Conan Doyle, while retaining its own unique identity.

Elementary, on the other hand….

The show had a weak start with the Pilot Episode and "While You Were Sleeping". The third episode, "Child Predator" was excellent. The fourth episode ("The Rat Race") was OK and the fifth one ("Lesser Evils") was remarkable for the way Joan Watson came into her own for the first time.

The sixth episode ("Flight Risk") is one of my favorites as Miller finally started growing into the role of the fictional detective. This was the time, when I thought: here is a contender for Benedict Cumberbatch’s title as the best modern version of the world’s greatest fictional detective. Boy, was I mistaken.

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The next few episodes were so-so. The series again reached its high in episode # 12 ("M") when one of the famous characters from the Canon made his appearance: Sebastian Moran. As played by the ever reliable Vinnie Jones, Moran remains one of the best aspects of Elementary.

The show maintained its standards with the Super Bowl episode # 14, "The Deductionist".

And the decline started from there.

Episode # 15 ("A Giant Gun, Filled with Drugs") was only passable, despite the presence of guest star, John Hannah.

Episode # 16 ("Details") was one of the weakest with the main plot focusing on Detective Bell. Even worse was a running gag that involves Miller’s Holmes conducting surprise attacks on Joan to “prepare” her for any unforeseen life threatening situations.

Episodes # 17 ("Possibility Two") and # 18 ("Deja Vu All Over Again") continued the uneven trend by being boring and interesting respectively.

Episode # 19 ("Snow Angels") was interesting due to the plot element of power shutdown and the introduction of the next important Canonical character: Mrs Hudson. As played by Candis Cayne, Miss Hudson is a transsexual and is hired by Miller’s Holmes to work on a weekly basis.

If the viewers were expecting to see Miss Hudson as a recurring figure, they were in for a big disappointment. Miss Hudson has never been seen again. Perhaps, she is busy being someone's muse. Only Season Two will clarify this (or I hope it will).

Episode # 20 ("Dead Man's Switch") was Elementary’s first attempt at adapting a original story: The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton. A novel attempt, but eventually proved to be another one of the mediocre episodes.

Episode # 21 ("A Landmark Story") is memorable for the character of Daniel Gottlieb. F. Murray Abraham gave a very subdued and a mesmerizing performance as Gottlieb, one of the more cerebral agents of Moriarty. I was hoping that he would indeed turn out to be Moriarty, but no such luck.

Episodes 22, 23 and 24 sounded the death knell for the show, at least to me.

The “reunion” of Holmes and Irene Adler in "Risk Management" marked the exact point, when Miller’s version of Holmes proved to be a completely different person from his namesake. His emotional breakdown at the sight of his “lost love” was nothing like the detective I read in the classic stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

"The Woman" would further prove this point, as we get to see Miller’s version of Holmes and Natalie Dormer’s Irene Adler/Moriarty getting very intimate with each other.  At least, Guy Ritchie had the courtesy to leave such things to the viewer’s imagination during the Holmes-Adler encounter in the hotel room in the first Sherlock Holmes movie.

To add insult to injury, Miller’s Holmes is busy protecting his lady love to pay attention to seemingly trivial things like apprehending Moriarty. He is content to leave such tasks to Joan.

Joan does prove to be the "Heroine" and traps Moriarty using a simple-minded plan that Miller’s Holmes already used in Episode # 2. Not to be outdone, Miller’s Holmes names a newly discovered species of bees (yes, those bees again) as "Euglassa Watsonia" after Joan.

In the next post, I will make some suggestions (that if implemented), I think will help justify naming Miller's character "Sherlock Holmes".

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CBS Elementary - Cast and Crew - First Season

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

With the second season of CBS Elementary debuting about a month away, I decided to do a rundown of the first season. Before getting to the episodes, here is a look at the cast.

I enjoyed Miller's performance in the earlier episodes, Child Predator and Flight Risk  But as the season progressed, Miller's version became more and more distant from the Canonical version. By the time, the season reached its end in episodes Risk Management, The Woman and Heroine, the only thing common to Miller's Holmes and the Canonical Holmes was the character name and nothing else.

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I feel that the lesser knowledge one has of Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, the more is his/her enjoyment of Miller's performance.

Lucy Liu as Joan Watson

I find Lucy Liu's Watson the better performed and the most consistent character of the show. Despite the gender and racial swap, Liu's Watson is not only one of the best acted Watsons, but also one of the smartest.

Unlike the Canon and most of the other adaptations, Joan herself is a Consulting Detective and is treated as Holmes' equal. In the season finale, she continues Holmes' detective work, when he is too love struck with Irene Adler (aka Moriarty) to be of any use to the NYPD and the general public.

Aidan Quinn as Captain Toby Gregson

Named after Inspector Tobias Gregson from the Sherlock Holmes Canon, Quinn's character remains one of the least developed recurring characters in the show.

Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell

Marcus Hill's character is a tribute to Dr Joseph Bell, the real life mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle. Even after an entire episode (Details) was focused on him, the fact that he remains an uninteresting character speaks volumes about the quality of writing behind the show.

Candis Cayne as Miss Hudson

Yet another main character in the Canon undergoes a change - Elementary's Miss Hudson is a transsexual. This character is the best example of the both the strengths and weaknesses of the show writers. Just like Lucy Liu's Watson, Candis Cayne's Hudson is one of the best developed characters, but disappeared out of the show after that single episode appearance in Snow Angels.

Natalie Dormer as Irene Adler/Moriarty

The show took the lazy route of combining the classic characters of Irene Adler and Professor Moriarty. Natalie Dormer did her best with the roles and gave one of the more interesting performances in the show.

Vinnie Jones as M

As can be expected of a character played by Vinnie Jones, M is a hulking brute and one of the many agents employed by Moriarty. M is one of the most memorable characters, thanks again to Jones' charismatic screen presence.

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