Tag: artificial intelligence

Monday Morning Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Yours portly ventured to his local cinema last week.  One of the glories of summer vacation is that I can go see the movies at 11:40 AM on a Thursday morning, which is exactly what I did when I went to see Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025).

Why such an early showing?  Well, the movie—and this point is my chief complaint about it—is nearly three hours long.  Like every major film release these days, directors seem incapable of shooting and editing a film that is under two hours.  A small handful of super long films don’t feel long, and I welcome their three-hour runtimes, but those (like Goodfellas [1990]) are very much the exception to the rule.  What happened to the tight, 90-minute flick?

M:ITFR gets a bit of a pass because it is the final (allegedly) film in a franchise that dates back to 1996.  Think about that—this franchise pre-dates the birth of Dr. Fiancée by two years.  I was eleven when the first film released; I’m forty now.  It is a testament to Tom Cruise‘s longevity, dedication, and fitness that he was able to play Ethan Hunt for so nearly thirty years.  Cruise famously and frequently performs his own stunts; seeing a man of his age (he’s 62; he’ll turn 63 in July) perform them is impressive.

The flick was filmed back-to-back with its predecessor, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), but the writers’ strike delayed production of M:ITFR until 2024.  That means Cruise played Ethan Hunt for twenty-eight years—dang!

But I digress.  Is the impossible length of this film worth accepting the mission?

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

The Portly Politico22 Comments

In an era of declining box office receipts and regurgitated intellectual properties featuring race- and gender-swapped protagonists to appeal to “modern audiences,” it seems the only surefire way to make a smash hit is to attach Tom Cruise to the project.  Last summer’s smash blockbuster was Top Gun: Maverick (2022); one year later, it’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023).

Unwieldy title aside, Dead Reckoning Part One is an excellent film.  Cruise returns to portray super spy Ethan Hunt, the most resourceful asset of the mysterious Impossible Mission Force (IMF).  What makes the flick so compelling, and not just another rehash of past M:I films, is its antagonist:  a powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) called “The Entity,” an enemy that is “everywhere… and nowhere.”

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Robocalypse

The Portly Politico8 Comments

I have long been a lover of robots (metaphorically, not literally, you perverts).  Star Wars probably did more to endear the public to quirky humanoid droids more than any PR stunt from NASA or Honda.  What chubby child didn’t dream of hanging out with their very own R2-D2?  Heck, nerds young and old can build their own (non-functioning) droids at Disney World.  R2-D2 was stubborn and obstinate, sure, but he’d be easier to maintain than my dog.

Of course, artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t seem quite so lovable these days.  With ChatGPT and the weird Microsoft Bing! AI, it seems that no one read Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot.  Instead of programming in the Three Laws of Robotics, we’re programming in the laws of wokeness.

Even if our AI didn’t resemble the faculty at a UC-Berkeley cocktail mixer, it would be disconcerting for a number of reasons.  That we’ve politicized even our robots is just further cause for concern.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Bicentennial Man (1999)

The Portly Politico27 Comments

After many requests—from Audre Myers, not lots of different people—I am finally reviewing Bicentennial Man (1999), the film in which Robert Williams plays a robot, Andrew Martin, who wishes to become a human.  I picked up this flick on-demand on RedBox for about $4—a small price to pay to make Audre happy (and/or to appease her, depending upon one’s perspective).

When I announced I’d be reviewing this film last Monday, it engendered some controversy in the comments.  Regular reader and contributor Pontiac Dreamer 39 (now going by “Always a Kid for Today”) wrote:

Bicentennial man?! Crikey, Tyler, you’re going to need a lot of booze. I like Robin Williams but that film is dross. If you can get through to the end sober, I’ll be impressed. Personally, I’d have made Audre rewatch that film! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Audre predictably came to the film’s defense, citing its relevance in an age in which robots and artificial intelligence are growing increasingly sophisticated.  Ponty/AaKfT argued better films on the topic exist, such as Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 masterpiece RoboCop.

You can read the comment thread for yourself, but after viewing the film (stone cold sober), I am ready to render my judgment on Bicentennial Man.

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