Screen_O_Genic

A Hallmark-type period piece on the great Chess legend, "The Opera Game" is a melodramatic take on the life of "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess", Paul Morphy, the great American Chess phenom who dominated the Chess world from his pre-teens to young adulthood, defeating the best players of the United States and Europe then retiring from active play into a life of unfulfilled promise and tragedy. A made for television production the film shows its format with its faint and light laidback tone touching on Morphy's youth and dramatizations with the backdrop of the genteel sights and sounds of 19th Century New Orleans.

Alas, if only the film were truly about the great man himself. After Morphy's early successes in the U. S. A. And on the eve of his future triumphs in the Old World which further cemented his legend the viewer is dragged and plunged kicking and screaming into a quagmire of pc and woke revisionisms. Instead of depicting Morphy's dramatic and memorable encounters in Britain and France not to mention his brilliancy in Chess (that's what the film is about, remember?), the viewer is subjected to a frivolous love triangle where the Morphy portrayed is unrecognizable from the one who actually lived and a cast and a plot so pc you'd think you're watching "The Color Purple" or "Roots" instead.

If you want to make this tolerable, forget about Morphy and Chess and see this as another Hollywood crank reflecting the times. With its occasional amateur acting, lazy research, barely there accents and ubiquitous millennial agenda this passes as watchable. You've been warned.

The Entity is back. The sinister, omnipotent all-pervading program/virus is set on a nefarious plan to conquer the world and annihilate mankind using the most lethal state of the art technology and human fallibility to serve its malevolent end. And there's only one man to stop it.

The eighth entry into the popular and highly successful series, "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" sets the same reliable promise of thrilling edge of your seat action. Tom Cruise is a warm, sympathetic, aging, facially bloated and still sinewy fit Ethan Hunt off to save the world with his long-time cohorts Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell familiarly played by Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames respectively. Along with a returning cast of notable old timers the entertaining plot takes the viewer through the ride of an action-packed flick bettered with top-notch twists that heighten the experience; whether it be an extremely death-defying plan to save the day from the depths of the freezing arctic or a split second cut of a wire that will determine the fate of the world this is a direct no frills crowd-pleasing saga of the eternal battle between good and evil. And with its moving meditation on loyalty, friendship and humanity the film is substanced in soul and elevates itself to profundity.

Like all of the films of the franchise the flaws glare out like ever. The predictable, clichéd Hollywood tropes kick in like clockwork at the right place and time throughout for the cringe. The pc is as present and as teeth-grit, eye roll inducing as ever (flicks like this are a liberal's wet dream come true). A little too warm and perhaps lacking enough of a directorial push, Esai Morales is miscast as one of the arch villains. The submarine scene could have used some good editing and the airborne battle involving World War I fighter planes is... strange.

Once again a box office and critical success and deservedly so, "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" is proof of the flexibility of the Action genre in its ability as a medium to portray the various complexities of the human condition and experience. Now purchase a sizable snack and a huge soda and get yourself a comfortable seat at a local cinema where this is best experienced at the big screen. See this.

Based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Italian author Antonio Scurati, "Mussolini: Son of the Century" (M. Il figlio del secolo) is equal parts high stakes drama and historical sweep and pageantry, chronicling the early years of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from his stint as newspaperman and combative revolutionary to the hallowed seats of the Italian parliament. Along the way the road is paved with bombast, fiery speeches, mercurial temperaments and personalities, sex (a lot of the "behind" kind), political machinations, violence and murder. Lead actor Luca Marinelli carries this rambunctious 8-Part miniseries ably as the balding and fleshy upnosed, arms akimbo, domineering and comically strutting Mussolini as he stomps his way from tenement to the halls of power. The solid supporting cast and realist script with an intellectual bent add quality and depth to this tale of chaos and disorder.

Oddly for all it's in your face noise and unyielding relentlessness the series is slow highlighting its lack of that artistic touch that graces cinematic greatness. The EDM soundtrack is a woefully distracting and misguided intrusion to this Jazz Age depiction. It's history. And what do you do when you're tackling serious history?

While no classic, "Mussolini: Son of the Century" is one of the notable television releases of recent times and a good watch for fans of history and quality TV in general. A panoramic glimpse at one of the darkest eras of human history and a potent lesson on the price of megalomania where at one moment one is speaking in front of adoring thousands from a balcony; the next one's corpse is hanging at the middle of a street above a seething crowd hellbent on revenge, so intent that when one's cadaver hits the ground the furious hellions kick one's face so bad that one's visage deforms sideways as if eternally wanting to kiss the ground it once ruled on. Take it easy.