The First Purge (2018) - Part 4 Prequel

*

The First Purge takes us back to its anti-holiday origins.  I've guiltily enjoyed this franchise's reign of anarchy that James DeMonaco, active in each episode as director and now producer, presented with each Purge, refreshing frightening images and draconian resolutions to our worst problems in the most politically incorrect ways.
Yet, this Purge falls way off that delicate balancing act that it could still call entertainment.  The First Purge was limited to Staten Island, New York as a 'national experiment.'  People were compensated to participate voluntarily.  Not enough people were killing each other so the new NFFA government director Arlo Sabian (Patch Darragh) contracted Aryan-looking killing squads against the African American citizens and his own staff, revealing what the Purge was about all along.  Yet, why were only poor African Americans dominating the scene?  Every Purge episode had racial tensions, but this time it was completely Whites vs. Blacks.  What happened to the immigrant cultural diversity of Staten Island?  The most infamous purger is an African American homicidal maniac, Skeletor (Rotimi Paul).  The neighborhood hero, Dmitri (Y'lan Noel), is a Black gangster.  He protects the small archetypal cluster trying to survive the night led by his African American ex girlfriend and Purge protest activist Nya (Lex Scott Davis).  Unfortunately, Dmitri glorifies the drug trade and black-on-black crime, while being the moral center of the movie.
Also, this film missed too many connections.  The government coup d'etat forming the NFFA was mentioned only matter of factly.  That was THE MAJOR EVENT creating the Purge holiday. The First Purge was too unamerican with mercenaries invading a U.S. inner city.  Part of the previous episodes' appeal was how the media and business' advertising worked to sell this national morbid holiday to society.  This film used most of the same slogans and images from prior episodes, failing to create the shock value left by prior scary party girls and clown faced yuppies of past Purge flicks--I couldn't even find a good meme.  Plus, how would they cover up all the soldier corpses lying around?
Indeed, Part 4 failed to sell The First Purge to its own citizens.  There was so much hype leading up to this, and viewers flocked to the box office again, so it was watchable once.  Worst of all, there was no star appeal as if no major actor wanted a part of this.  Even outside the U.S., people that I saw this with were disappointed.  This makes me leave it at the Losing 45 yd. Line.

* Universal Pictures.  "The First Purge."  Love This Pic, http://www.lovethispic.com/image/329343/the-first-purge

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)- M: Inconceivable 6

 *

**

Mission Impossible continues to create the 'impossible' American version of James Bond.  At least 007 was debonair in merely attempting to perfect his skill and gadgetry.  Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Co. now battle rogue plutonium bomb planting villains.
Don't get me wrong.  Every time I watch an episode of M: I, I want it to surpass Bond.  Yet, there's always one most improbable stunt scene that's genre transforming into fantasy.  This time, Hunt is battling his new nemesis, John Lark (Henry Cavill).  He is desperately trying to remove an atomic detonator from Lark.  The detonator sits at Lark's side during a helicopter chase.  In a crescendo of impossibility, Hunt chases Lark in a helicopter like a pro, by reading the labels on the helicopter pivot.  Hunt rams the helis, leaving Lark's hanging along an icy crag.  Meanwhile, Luther (Ving Rhames) is giving two other agents instructions to simultaneously disarm atomic bombs over a cell phone.  The detonator end up perched on the edge of the cliff.  Hunt locates it in the middle of climbing out of the wreckage.  "Showtime" takes over, diluting the super spy narrative.
In defense, an increased attention to quality was obvious.  Christopher McQuarrie created Parts 5 & 6, and brought in J.J. Abrams and Cruise into the production team.  The villain is elusively hidden throughout, CIA and MI6 add to the mix, multiple key players are involved like the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby)-an arms dealing mediator-, and Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) returns as the bomb mastermind.  Cruise continues to do some of his own stunts and even breaks an ankle (see above).
For a Part 6, this was quite a sleuth movie, but with Abrams involved, it was bound to go over the top. His sensationalism is only tolerable in sci-fi.  It still read too much like the comic book-type style of the original 60s series.  Millennials enjoy a good spectacle, but some change is required over time for us movie buffs, as the Daniel Craig Bond movies accomplished.  I bring this up to the Winning 35 yd. Line.
* Paramount Pictures.  "Tom Cruise Breaks His Ankle (Mission Impossible 6 Stunt)"  imgur, redditmason, Video to GIF, Jan. 26, 2018, https://imgur.com/gallery/DGPsOlg.

** Paramount Pictures.  "Showtime."  gfycat, #missionimpossible, https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/GloriousMasculineHoatzin