ijozic

Don't buy the overwhelming positive reviews. To put things into the context, I liked the first Mission Impossible which had a cool atmosphere as a throwback to the original series presumably (which I didn't watch). The sequel was a typical John Woo action vehicle with a few MI touches added (like masks) - hated it. I really liked the rather realistically done MI3 and loved the main character's chemistry with his wife, but then it was all wasted in the 4th installment which was rather generic and boring (hated the Simon Pegg addition to be a comic relief in yet another movie).

Reading the reviews I had high hopes, but the movie is too long, boring with too many plot holes to comprehend, presumably due to terrible editing. There is a love interest (albeit rather one sided, it seems), but it's not developed in any way. There is a potentially interesting anti-IMF organization, but it's not developed in any way. The main infiltration seems to copy the one from the first movie with some ridiculous additions, but it's used up rather quickly leaving you to wonder what was the point of including it. I can't escape the feeling that the script was either too long or incomplete and many scenes were just improvised and tacked on as the shooting went on. I actually intend to watch the hated MI4 just to see which one made less sense.

Shaun of the Dead was great fun, although somewhat uneven as the movie falls apart somewhat as it draws to the end (IMHO). Hot Fuzz fixed that and is a very well-rounded experience with a unique blend of humour, action and mystery and a great team chemistry by Pegg and Frost. Thus, i expected something in that vein with a touch of The Body Snatchers blended in. Unfortunately, this movie has got very little of that magic.

(SPOILERS present)

It starts much too slow, most of the main characters don't bring anything fun or interesting to the movie (the other three main actors) and a lot of time initially is wasted in some boring dialogs to give them some introduction and depth (or at least try to). Pegg's character's childish behaviour gets tiring soon as he is basically the only one out of five who is actually contributing to the movie. So, instead of them doing their fun stuff, they are dragged into some side- story about growing up (and refusing to in Pegg's case) and old romantic interests which actually takes most of the movie over. And the parts which were supposed to be serious/scary (the Body Snatchers taking over the town) were on the other hand represented in a simplistic and silly way (alien robots which leak blue stuff when disassembled). So, in a way, this movie reverses everything which worked with the previous movie. Thus, we are forced to go through long boring uninspiring non- funny dialogs between characters with little to no chemistry between them going through too many bars and (later) fighting the same robots over and over again until the anticlimactic showdown (although some of the Pegg exchange with the aliens is providing some relief) followed by clichéd and overly protracted epilogue.

It feels like the authors had a few general ideas about the movie, but either they were not inspired at all in developing it into a full blown movie or those ideas were too few. Watchable for a few laughs here and there, but more as a melancholic reminder of past times (and music).