Mission Impossible 8 (Paramount+, 2025)

This has mild spoilers to the plot, such as it was.

OK, yes, the actual subtitle is The Final Reckoning, words which the villain mentions TWICE in the movie in some foreboding villain-speak .  I read an interesting article with director Christopher McQuarrie where he states that he doesn’t care if you can follow all the points of the plot in an MI movie!  He just wants you to get the gist.  Well, there was just enough recap to get us to the action scenes.

Because, let’s face it, these movies are about what ridiculous thing Tom Cruise does next.  It’s not enough that he is credited as one of the stunt fliers on the movie but he has to become the craziest wing-walker EVER, earning a Guinness world-record for flaming parachute jumps.

He has raised practical stunts to such a level that I was actually a little disappointed at the end of the ‘escape from the submarine’ as they conveniently skipped over how the former pickpocket (love Hayley Atwell though) successfully mushed a dog team by herself and found and retrieved Ethan Hunt from under all that ice when he literally stripped himself of all of his gear.  But, hey, I kept snacking and watching.

The AI bogeyman villain never made much sense but it did provide several scenes where everyone could look tense and do things exactly right that they had no clue about so that humans could defeat the AI.

At least there were several scenes with Tom Cruise running, which has to be a drinking game out there. If it’s not, it should be–a great way for college kids to get drunk very fast and stay that way.

It will be interesting to see what Tom Cruise does next.

Stranger Things Final Season (Netflix, 2025)

Note: This will have spoilers for the final season

Since the five seasons took nine years to unfold, it’s really something that this season incorporates flashbacks, or at least flashes, of the first seasons. You can really see how the cast has literally grown up together.

By the nature of the three-part release schedule we had to have two big cliffhangers before the finale, but it was a nice compromise between an-episode-a-week and we’ll-force-you-to-binge-so you-aren’t-spoiled.

Was this season perfect? Not by a mile, but it did resolve most of the things hanging over Hawkins.  Rather than a D&D fantasy the story ends up being more of an SF Horror movie like The Thing.

We learn that Vecna/Henry didn’t initially choose the evil path, but he did embrace it.  His death gave Joyce her moment in the finale.

We are given an ending that didn’t kill any main characters. It’s sad that Elle/Jane doesn’t get to stay with her friends and father but I choose to believe that was the extent of her self-sacrifice.

It was nice to see the next generation taking over the basement at the end; I appreciated having a dénouement that wasn’t rushed with the little glimpses of how the kids would continue to grow.  I wouldn’t have minded a little more with the older teens. I thought the restaurant scene with Hopper and Joyce was going to be the long awaited date with Robin and Vickie and that was the only part that semi-disappointed me.

I will be curious to see what the Duffer Brothers come up with next for Netflix!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Full Cast Audio (Audible, 2025)

One last Short Take for 2025. I finished listening today to the adaptation of the first Harry Potter book.  I’ve read all the books and seen all the movies, basically once. (My wife can quote whole passages by heart.)

We have been fans of HP from near the beginning.  I have the dubious honor of having gone to a bookstore at midnight to pick up each of the last two books, which my wife started reading until she couldn’t keep her eyes open, and leaving the next day open until she was finished. (At which point I was allowed to read them.)

This production is well-done, clocking in at a little over eight hours.  None of the voices are jarring.  Part of the fun is coming upon some of the more well-known names as you hear them for the first time, but I have to give special kudos to Michelle Gomez as Professor McGonagall.  I enjoyed her performance the most!  “Full-cast Audio” means there is some music, background noise/effects, and ‘Foley’ effects like footprints or creaking doors, with many different voice actors for the characters.

I got this free from Audible on a special sale.  With all of the controversy that J.K. Rowling now stirs up, she’s joined that category of creators where you really wish they’d just keep their mouths shut.  In hearing this audio version, it’s nice that her work still brings enjoyment.  I’ll be looking for more sales or deals to hear the rest of the series.