Jean-Paul’s Rating: 4/5 stars

Bottom Line: A fun movie that delves deep into Asian culture. And tells the story from a mostly female point of view! Boy, do I want to visit Singapore now!

Goodness, this was a fun movie! “Crazy Rich Asians” somehow perfectly walks the line of silly, serious, outlandish, and down to earth. And while I’m sure that there is so much more for Asians that uncultured white boys like myself couldn’t even fathom the context of, it is also completely accessible to us uncultured white boys as well.

“Crazy Rich Asians” tells the timeless tale of girl meets boy. Boy asks girl to go to a wedding with him. Girl finds out boy is rich. Girl finds out boy is obscenely rich. Girl has to meet boy’s obscenely rich and…colorful family. The girl in question is Rachel Chu (Constance Wu who you may recognize from “Fresh Off the Boat”), an economics professor born and raised in the United States, and the boy is Nick Young (Henry Golding), of the Singaporean Youngs, a real estate tycoon family whom everyone in Singapore knows. They are joined by an absolutely wonderful supporting cast including Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Ronnie Chang, just to name a few.

What’s great about this movie is it’s mostly about women and told by women, but at the same time there are men in it and they are also real men and not just comedy side pieces, though they are definitely eye-pleasing pieces. From start to finish, it’s just strong women being strong, but also living real life and going through real life predicaments. Well, also while being ridiculously rich, except for Rachel Chu who is just strong and not rich.

You will be forgiven if you sometimes wonder if you are watching a movie or a tourism commercial for Singapore. “Crazy Rich Asians” showcases Singapore in all of its beauty and glory and decadence. Goodness, did I have some travelers envy watching parts of this movie. Singapore has definitely moved up in places I want to visit soon.

“Crazy Rich Asians” is based off of book one in a series of books by Kevin Kwan. It has been a wonderful success and deservedly so. We can only hope that success translates into the other two movies being made as well. It is heartening to see that epic stories featuring an almost exclusively non-white cast be successful. There are so many of these stories yet to be told and so many worth hearing.

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars

Bottom Line: A fun action movie that falls short of its “Mission: Impossible” brethren. Ugh, Henry Cavill.

I’ve always enjoyed the introduction to the “Mission: Impossible” mission. You know, the “your mission, should you decide to accept it” stuff. As if there were any doubt that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) would ever turn down a mission. In “Fallout”, they go almost old school. The entire scene is very noir-ish and reminiscent of the old TV series. It was a great homage to the movie series’ roots.

Apart from the introduction, the rest of the movie is pretty standard spy thriller fare. There are acts of heroism and double crosses and masks and gadgets and villains on both sides and chase scenes and last second rescues. It’s all fun, but nothing really stands out. Well, except for the 15 minute timer that ticks down for what seems like 30 minutes. The problem with consistently producing a predictable product is that it becomes harder and harder to build tension. You know people will have bulletproof vests on. You know it’s going to be a mask. You know when the counter reads 00:00:01, the bomb will be defused. There is still cleverness to be found in the movie, but mostly, it’s all been done before.

And then there’s Henry Cavill. He plays August Walker, a CIA agent assigned to babysit the IMF team. There are tree stumps that have more personality than he does, though wooden does perfectly describe his acting. Cavill is who you call when the casting director says, “What this role needs is a man with a very square jaw.” The only way to give Cavill any sense of gravitas is to stick him in a Superman suit.

At two hours and twenty-seven minutes, the movie could certainly do with a trimming, especially in the second half. An action movie without an involved plot just doesn’t need to be that long. That the movie was still enjoyable despite its length says something about the longevity of the series’ formula, though. There will probably be even more sequels to come and I will probably continue to watch them because, while they’re not always the greatest, “Mission: Impossible” movies are always fun.