Mark McPherson's Blog, page 5

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” Review

The feeling of finality within The Final Reckoning extends beyond the title, the number of Mission: Impossible films, or a trip to Tom Cruise’s IMDB page to look up his age again. The film wants to complete this saga by tying everything together amid the expected action set pieces, which remain an impressive highlight. But rather than wrapping the action in a twisty dose of intrigue and reveals, the eighth and final Mission: Impossible gets weirdly sentimental, as though every action comes laced...

“Frankie Freako” Review

Frankie Freako feels like a wild retro cocktail of combining the allure of those enticing hotline numbers and gross-out puppetry. The obvious inspiration for such a film was the commercial for Freddy Freaker, a freaky puppet character you could call up to hear weird in-character conversations. Watching that odd commercial years after it aired triggered some immediate curiosity. What would happen if you dialed the number and listened to the paid-for words of an inhuman gremlin creature? What if ...

“Thunderbolts*” Review

It’s hard not to see the parallels that Marvel’s misfit ensemble picture shares with DC Comics’ The Suicide Squad. This film shares many of the same elements, including staging, pacing, and chemistry, with tragic backstories that progressively make the anti-heroes more sympathetic. But if you’re going to steal from other superhero movies, Thunderbolts steals from the best and manages to pull off a film that is equal parts fun and emotional.

What helps recapture that Avengers vibe is that thi...

“Rumours” (2024) Review

There’s a peculiar reflection within Rumours, a film about world leaders being exposed as pretentious amid a crisis they so vaguely observe. The attempt to weave political satire with some horror comes from three directors and screenwriters. What they produce ends up being as insightful as the meandering statements of the central characters, more caught up in dressing the dry humor with fancy fonts than clever conversations of political dunces.

The film takes its time introducing its assortm...

“Companion” (2025) Review

Sometimes the right attitude can carry a picture through its old paths with renewed vigor. This is very much the case with Companion, a film that initially relies on its big twist and then mostly rides out the end with a tongue firmly in cheek. While a strong thematic component remains at the intersection of identity, relationships, and technology, the visceral shock makes the bloody fallout more of a wild romp than a one-message gimmick that could easily be dismissed as a lukewarm Black Mirror...

“Daredevil: Born Again Season 1” Review

The sequel series to the gritty Daredevil may be Marvel Studios’ most frustrating TV show for how close it comes to greatness. Unbound by the strict connectivity of the MCU, Born Again grounds itself in a highly topical tale of what happens when villains take control of government, and law loses its appeal. There’s a high point in the first few episodes, as the show aims to be reflective and political with its comic book characters. However, rather than run with the concept, the show spends mos...

“Andor: Season 2” Review

It makes perfect sense that one of the few Star Wars TV series to get a reprisal was Andor. Far from the lukewarm attempts to recapture the aesthetic or adhere to lore, Tony Gilroy’s prequel to a spin-off movie is far removed from the box Disney built for the franchise. The divorce from trying to keep particular characters and storylines in check has allowed for a more robust saga, one that is more about the rough rise of rebellion against fascism than the many ways lightsabers can be used in c...

“The Wedding Banquet” (2025) Review

With such a generic title and serving as a remake, it’d be easy to write off The Wedding Banquet as a routine romantic comedy of screwball schemes. While the film remains relatively faithful to Ang Lee’s original film in premise, a surprising amount of heart is injected into what could have been a mindless romp of marriage madness. It’s the type of film that can laugh at the absurdity of covering up your homosexuality while still recognizing the real anxieties that come with coming out to your ...

“Sinners” (2025) Review

The biggest sin in trying to define Sinners would be to write it off as Americana riff of From Dusk Till Dawn. The mere citation might be a spoiler, but it’s really not for a film as wildly ambitious and lyrical as this. The fun of From Dusk Till Dawn came in the genre subversion, starting as a crime thriller and abruptly mutating into a vampire bloodbath. Sinners remains the same film throughout, though more thoughtful in its historical highlight of greed and faith than the many...

“The Rule of Jenny Pen” Review

Horror involving the elderly can be either tragically funny or tragically, well, tragic. Part of you wants to laugh at how far you’ve come and kick your old tank to see if there’s any gas left inside. The Rule of Jenny Pen depicts this creeping fear of your life being a waste and being reduced to something less when confined to a resting home. There’s an almost uncomfortable parallel in how the film uses the acclaimed actors of John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, who are placed in a movie where the...