I'm jumping out a window!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—FALLOUT

Parts of it are every bit as world-class as everyone's saying, but Fallout is, in the end, only a good M:I movie.  That means it's great by regular movie standards, and it does amazing things the series has never done before (which itself is in the best tradition of its best forebears); but it's also a Mission: Impossible that sometimes almost drops down to "boring," and that's a sin this franchise has never committed.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Alec Baldwin (Sec. Alan Hunley), Angela Bassett (Director Erica Sloane), Henry Cavill (August Walker), Vanessa Kirby (White Widow), and Sean Harris (Solomon Lane)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Cardboard Science: 20,000 leagues under the skin

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

Slow (and surprisingly dumb for a movie as pompous as this one often is), it nevertheless absolutely lives up to that title, even fifty years after the fact.

1966

Directed by Richard Fleischer

Written by Otto Klement, Jerome Bixby, and Harry Kleiner

With Stephen Boyd (Grant), Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Peter Duval), Raquel Welch (Cora Peterson), William Redfield (Capt. Bill Owens), Edmond O'Brien (Gen. Carter), Arthur O'Donnell (Col. Reid), and Donald Pleasence (Dr. Michaels)

Spoiler alert: high

Cardboard Science: My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about neocons from outer space?

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Remember, if we use nuclear weapons, condescending aliens will come and kill us with weapons even worse than nuclear weapons.  I think you might've had to be there, but The Day the Earth Stood Still remains a fine allegory, and a pretty good movie, though it has a little trouble hiding its flabby middle.

1951

Directed by Robert Wise

Written by Edmund H. North (based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates)

With Michael Rennie (Klaatu), Patricia Neal (Helen Benson), Billy Gray (Bobby Benson), Sam Jaffe (Prof. Jacob Barnhardt), Hugh Marlowe (Tom Stevens), and Lock Martin ft. a fiberglass statue (Gort)

Spoiler alert: severe

I'll never be your beast of burden

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

Sorry exists in a world where satire has been dead for years, and it wants to revive it anyway.  It succeeds just about as well as I guess any movie possibly could.

2018

Written and directed by Boots Riley

With Lakeith Stanfield/David Cross (Cassius Green), Tessa Thompson (Detroit), Jermaine Fowler (Salvador), Steven Yuen (Squeeze), Danny Glover (Langston), Omari Hardwick/Patton Oswalt (Mr. ____), and Armie Hammer (Steve Lift)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Finity war

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

Ant-Man returns with all the charm and humor and spectacle of his first outing, and pays off on the promise inherent in his second film's title, but Ant-Man and the Wasp reveals too much of these movies' fundamental hollowness for anybody's good.

2018

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrarri, and Paul Rudd

With Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Evangeline Lilly (Hope van Dyne), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Michael Pena (Luis), Tip "T.I." Harris (Dave), David Dasmalchian (Kurt), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet van Dyne), Abby Ryder Forston (Cassie Lang), Judy Greer (Maggie), Bobby Canavale (Jim), Randall Park (Agent Jimmy Woo), Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch), Laurence Fishburne (Bill Foster), and Hannah John-Kamen (Ava)

Spoiler alert: high