"Barbie"

I was going to hop on the 'Barbenheimer' train, until I realized Comic-Con International also arrived this week, so it's a 'Barbie Con' for me.  Sure enough, Barbie mania was also felt at the convention as people dressing up as Barbie and Ken popped up here and there.  

Director Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie (“Babylon,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”), Ryan Gosling ("First Man," "La La Land,“ "The Ides of March," "Drive”) and team have creatively hyped up the movie to a viral level that is unexpected.  The good news is the movie not only is a doll, but also substantive.  

Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives a blissful life in Barbieland, where all Barbies are happy and powerful.  Women have all kinds of occupations in the pink-powered society and the Kens exist to be by Barbies' side, including the main Ken (Ryan Gosling).

Every day is a Barbie day and every night is a girls' night, filled with beach activities and dance parties.  Awash in pinks and pastels, and cardboard shapes and cutouts, the cotton candy-colored fantasy land looks and feels magically artificial, yet real.  Shoutout to the design team for the inventive visuals and details.

When Barbie begins to have thoughts of mortality, things change.  Her perfectly arched feet become flat, not all her skin is porcelain-like, she wakes up with a morning breath, and she can't simply glide down from her second story Dreamhouse to her Corvette.  After chatting with Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), Barbie realizes that she needs to go to the real world to find the human in charge, the sad girl who plays with her and makes her happy again.  

When Barbie goes, Ken tags along, of course.  When Barbie and Ken venture out to the real world, they are shocked how reversed the reality is.  Patriarchy rules.  Women are treated as objects by men and some women even hate women.  Barbie is seen to have contributed to consumerism, unhealthy body image and poor self-esteem.  The icing on the fuchsia cake is that the majority of Mattel leaders are men.  Ken, on the other hand, feels strikingly emboldened by the way men dominate society, which lead to hysterically scene-stealing situations.  

Barbie is experiencing a full spectrum of human emotions for the first time, including sadness, anxiety, fear or inferiority.  It turns out, there's a lot more to life than simply being happy and powerful all the time.  Robbie is flawlessly natural, glamorous and authentic, perfectly embodies both the plastic nature of a doll and realness of a human being.  

Barbie crosses path with a female Mattel employee, Gloria (America Ferrera) who's been feeling down and creating drawings of gloomy Barbie.  Mattel CEO (Will Ferrel) would like Barbie to get back inside the toy box.  Pursued by Mattel men-in-suits, Barbie, Gloria and her daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) end up in Barbieland.  They are shocked to see Barbieland being transformed into a Ken-centric society.  

Barbie gets a full lesson from Gloria about the virtually impossible standards and complexities of being women in the real world, and the tough and delicate line women must paradoxically walk every day to fit in.  Ferrera is tasked with long monologue duty, which is a bit heavy-handed, but she goes for broke and the impact is felt.  Truer words have never been spoken.  The trio must find ways to unite all the Barbies and get them to take back their land so everything would return to the way it used to be.  

It's not all about girl power, however.  “Barbie” cares about the Kens too, so the story is also about Ken's journey, who he is and what he wants to be, even without Barbie. The filmmakers have smartly crafted a movie not merely about a doll toy, which would have traditionally appealed to girls or young women, but somehow an inclusive story that has a broad appeal to all genders, races, ages, and even body types.  The movie is delightfully self-aware and breaking the fourth wall drew a lot laughter.  

At the core of “Barbie,” giddily wrapped in a pretty, rosy-colored package, is a social satire.  It's a story about existential crisis and self-discovery, and sharp commentary about our society and gender relations, especially women.

If you love Barbie, absolutely go see it.  If you hate Barbie, still go see it.  If you feel indifferent about Barbie, you may make up your mind after you see it.  Gorgeous, uproarious and ingenious, “Barbie” will be remembered as one of the defining pop culture movies for years to come.   

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Full monologue: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/america-ferrera-full-barbie-monologue-173314494.html

Barbie Selfie Generator: https://www.barbieselfie.ai

Comic-Con:

"Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One"

From 7/6/2023 press screening:

There have been some speculations that the two-parter "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning" would be the end of the journey of superspy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, "Mission Impossible" series, "Edge of Tomorrow," "Oblivion").  To quote Cruise's own line in his other mega-blockbuster ("Top Gun: Maverick,"), "Maybe so, but not today."  

That someday will come, but we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that it's not today, or next year, when 'Dead Reckoning Part Two' will premiere.  Cruise IS 'Mission Impossible.'  His passion for making movies meant for the big screen is palpable and it remains clear as day as no one else at his caliber has the kind of commitment to the craft and rare skills to perform death-defying stunts that even beat the best stunt performers in the world.  

This time around, Ethan and crew, tech duo Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luthor Stickell (Ving Rhames, former MI6 operative and sharpshooter Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson, "The Greatest Showman"), are not infiltrating secret structures.  The enemy is the Entity, a sentient artificial intelligence that has penetrated social media, communication, financial, banking, military and security systems at a global level.  

Once infected, the AI could corrupt and manipulate data, distorting truth, creating or erasing history - which means you can't trust anything you see or hear - for anything digital or electronic, which these days, is everything.  The enemy has no center; it's anywhere and everywhere.  Imagine the implications.  While the all-predicting element ventures out to more of a sci-fi territory, the all-knowing and all-seeing may not be that further from reality, with the mainstream proliferation of AI in the last year, as well as deep fakes.  

The story takes the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team to geographically diverse landscapes, from the Arabian desert storm to Abu Dhabi, Rome, Venice and majestic Austrian Alps.  Ethan faces off with his old IMF Director from the very first movie, returning Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny).  The way the encounter goes down is classically Mission Impossible trickery.  

The sought-after device is a two-part keys, which purportedly would unlock the AI source code, and whoever has both pieces would have the ultimate power over the world.  The faceless AI is represented in the flesh by someone from Ethan's past, Gabriel (Esai Morales), tagged along by one determined henchwoman, Paris, Pom Klementieff ("Avengers: Infinity War”).  

A scrappy yet sophisticated pickpocketer, Grace (Hayley Atwell, "Captain America: The First Avenger"), is thrown into the mix, getting her hand on and off the key(s) through elaborate sleigh of hand and cat-and-mouse game with Ethan, the authorities and mercenaries.  

Ethan is tested most when the AI targets his achilles heel, his loyalty to his friends and desire to save everyone.  Everything comes to a blow when everyone shows up at the same party, hosted by an arms dealer known as the White Widow  (Vanessa Kirby, "Mission Impossible: Fallout").  Even bigger blows are traded and blood is shed.  Assuming this is the end of the road for one of the key players, it dishearteningly goes against the developments established prior.  

The action set pieces are intense, tight, long and sprawling.  The bomb-defusing scene at the airport elevates the tension even higher because it's dependent upon solving a puzzling riddle in minutes.  The intensity is interspersed with a humorous exchange among the team.  

The mini Fiat chase, where Ethan and Grace have to navigate narrow alleys and staircases filled with crowd and traffic while being handcuffed together, balances danger with banter and laughter.  Cruise and Atwell have a terrific chemistry.  

The singularly breathtaking scene is undoubtedly the motorcycle clifftop-jumping and parachuting.  While lasting like a minute, the scene leading up to this, a quip between Benji and Ethan on how Ethan ends up driving through mountainous trails to get up to this very spot, and when he's told what needs to happen, is memorably hilarious.  

Just when you think you've seen everything, trust me when I say you have not.  There have been plenty of train stunts (most recently in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny"), but the way the extended sequence is shot is utterly spectacular.  

Razor-thin margin between the bodies and the top and sides of the tunnel, where a split second misstep would result in a dismembered demise.  The runaway train has nowhere to go except heading toward a bridge ready to explode.  The train cars have to be dismantled one by one while moving at a high speed.  Ethan and Grace are racing up against crashing and tumbling cars - dangling and hanging on, sliding down, pulling up, leaping through remnants of fixtures.  To top it off, the speed-flying is elegantly executed.

Cruise continues to amaze, making these impossible missions seem possible, and this time, amuse as well, with the ace addition of Atwell.  Part Two can't come soon enough.  In with the times and future-oriented with incomparable edge-of-your seat stunts, "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One" is invigorating and exhilarating beyond belief.  

Double Feature: 'Barbenheimer'

Get ready for the oddest pair of double feature, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," both premiering on July 21, 2023.  One is pink overload, the other explosive.  Had I not planned to be at Comic-Con, I would have been onboard the 'Barbenheimer' train.  Go see 'em on the big screen!  

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/barbenheimer-explained-yes-people-really-200046724.html

Source: Twitter