New Movies This Week: MISSIONs and VACATIONs

This week for new movies we have a collective... OK, two new films coming out this week and they are on the different end of the spectrum from each other. From Tom Cruise to Ed Helms. So it is possible that one won't trample the other's toes in stealing their ticket-buying demographic.

I bet Mission Impossible will dethrone Ant-Man this week from that #1 spot, but I am willing to be surprised by the Vacation sequel or extenuation too.

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Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Sadly, this Mission Impossible film is rated PG-13, but they're going for the full  spectrum of movie-goers with this 131 min film.

"Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate - an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF."

It stars Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and a bunch more folks.

It's directed by Christopher McQuarrie who has worked with Tom Cruise before on films he's written scripts for like Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher and Valkyrie and The Usual Suspects.  (I loved the fun from Edge of Tomorrow...)

He's directed The Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher, which I liked.

There have been a number of early reviews out giving the film a "meta" score of 74/100.


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Vacation (2015)

Here the humor should slip right into raunchy, considering this 99-minute film is rated R. (But 99 minutes? I usually want my time's money's worth when I drop a chunk of change, but hey, once you add all the movie previews, it should hit the two-hour mark of hiding out in the theater.

But I am going to say this up pretty early, and that is after 28 professional early reviews, the film has a "meta" score of 33/100. That's disappointing, considering how funny the trailers look. But they are also professional reviewers who don't always look at a movie the same way "Joe Plumber" may.

"Rusty Griswold takes his own family on a road trip to "Walley World" in order to spice things up with his wife and reconnect with his sons."

The cast includes Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, with a quick spot from "Thor's" Chris Hemsworth.

It's directed by the team of John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein.

Daley has directed no big screen projects, but you may recognize the name as the actor who plauys Dr Lance Sweets in Bones.

Goldstein's directorial resume includes no major films either, but has producer credits for $#*! My Dad Says, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Four Kings.

(Tidbit: In the world of television, the producer has more of the same powers and control that a director does on big screen projects...)

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Right now, I'm thinking Vacation may not have a chance at the theater if I give the meta score any credence. We'll see, because even though Jurassic World is just another dinosaur flick, people are helping it set some amazing box office records.

Are you going to catch a new film this week or possibly finally catch

Inside Out (9),
Ant-Man (8),
Southpaw (8),
Jurassic World (7),
the Terminator flick (7),
Minions (7),
Trainwreck (7),
Paper Towns (7), or
the failing Pixels (5)?

(The numbers in parenthesis are the IMDb user scores, rounded up or down to the nearest whole number)

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