Mr. Holmes.  Bill Condon, dir.  In this adagio with significant meaning, Ian McKellan is great.  It is the story of the great detective trying to remember his last case; it’s also the story about his friendshiup with a little boy that bridges an immense generation gap.  It occurs after World War Two.  That last case caused Mr. Holmes to retire, seeking refuge in a country he owns.  The boy is the son of a widow, the housekeeper of the manor.  During his last days at the manor, we revisit that last case and one associated with prewar Japan in continuing flashbacks that are a bit hard to follow.

Fans will enjoy the references to the Holmes mystery stories, and the black-and-white film is pertinent too.  Most of all, you will see in-depth character studies not common in a film.  Is this Ian’s last?  I hope not.  But, if it is, he’s going out on a high note.  A+.

Minions.  Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, dirs.  While kids will certainly enjoy this animated masterpiece, an adult background (40+ is recommended) is needed to pick up on the pop trivia references.  Not much escapes the lampooning here, including Richard Nixon, Queen Elizabeth, and many sixties songs, as the little fireplugs carry on their search for a wonderfully evil master, starting all the way back in prehistoric times.  This is the prequel to Despicable Me, and it’s great fun.

I liked the villains’ convention that features Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first female super arch-villain (huh? are we rewriting history?).  Unfortunately, Sandra Bullock is Scarlet’s voice, and she’s very annoying and justifies the Overkill surname.  Scarlet and hubby also reminded me of a certain political power couple, but maybe that’s just me—the cartoonists would never do that intentionally, right?

You have to stay alert for all the pop culture references, from marquees to people’s pets and street signs.  The Villain-Con is in Orlando, by the way, but this tour de force covers New York City and London too.  Some critics saw this only as a kids’ movie—wow, did they get it wrong!  Loads of fun and extremely creative comedy await you with this movie.  A+.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.  Christopher McQuarrie, dir.  #5 in the series but deja-vu—Ethan goes offline because everyone’s after IMF.  Ho-hum…more car chases plus motorcycle chases plus many violations of Clancy’s dictum that fiction has to seem real.  Where’s Le Carré when you need him?  Cruise still can’t act…well, maybe he’s better than Keanu and Leonardo, and maybe this stupid role suits him better than a serious Jack Reacher, but c’mon!  He’s better at producing, considering that he hired newcomer Rebecca Ferguson almost immediately—she steals the show.  I hope to see more of her.  I watched Cruise in Oblivion on Encore—he was much better albeit forgettable as a short, amnesiac astronaut (pardon the pun).  That story was stereotypically bad-ass alien causes apocalypse, but at least he did the heavy lifting there.  In this Mission, he rode the back of ‘Becca.  Although there are some laughs with this one—CIA Director says, “Hunt will be dead by the end of the day,” and the next scene has the subtitle “Six months later…”—you’d do better by watching the Minions.  A pathetic C-.

[Waiting for sci-fi?  More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers (NetGalley link for reviewers).]

In elibris libertas….

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