5 Things On My Mind: Tom Cruise dazzles in new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer
Sunday was post-pounding day at the Buffa Estate.
When ordinary people take on professional jobs, patience and planning are essential. It’s like walking into an arena that you’ve only heard of by word, not by experience. Suspicion of ineptitude abounds; oxygen supplies inside the head can be depleted, and something about getting the job done right becomes a friend in a bucket of chaos. However, being able to team up correctly and understand strengths and weaknesses can forge a path towards a healthy completion of the duties.
On Sunday, my wife and I tackled a seemingly ambitious project: pounding in posts for the new fence construction in our backyard. Since we no longer have only small and medium dogs, a higher fence and more privacy are required. Granted, a sprung pit bull wearing a onesie t-shirt will only end in hugs and kisses, strangers don’t have a clue, and treat it like a small T-Rex approaching their shadow.
14 posts, one pounder, two levels, one tape measure, and a hammer for finishing touches. Oh, a ladder too. With my wife at the bottom, making sure everything stays straight and right, I stand a few rungs up the ladder, driving a three-foot steel pounder into the top of the post, as if nothing else mattered. For every pound, one inch of pole sinks into the ground. Slowly but surely, we finished a few posts, and then we had them all underground. A week of furious rain helped the endeavor, making the pounding (all the sex jokes can run wild in one’s head) that much easier.
We planned it out for the most part. Rachel knows how to get the most out of her tired-on-the-weekends husband, allowing me to avoid the usual lazy morning path of ruminating, writing, drinking four cups of coffee, and nod off in my office. Getting me out for a pounding (14 posts in all) earlier than later was a key part of the task, and she succeeded. She’s the brains; I’m the brawn. As I wrote extensively on Friday, she directs strategy and performance here as well as at Crescent. I got scratches and cuts, a few on the hand to remind me that these hands are made for pounding (at this point, I’m just having fun saying it.)
If you plan and have patience, a couple won’t kill each other doing a home project. All for the most prominent, sweetest pit bull in Princeton Heights. Let’s discuss a few things on my mind as Monday unfolds with a chilly edge.
~If you haven’t watched Dog with Channing Tatum, please do so. It’s one of his best movies, telling a soulful true story of reuniting an animal with its owner. Tatum is an underrated actor; another man blessed with good looks and charisma, but one who carries depth and the ability to do a lot with even a little. He plays an Army Ranger on sick leave who is tasked with driving a service animal to the funeral of the dog’s handler, who also happens to be Tatum’s best friend. What starts as an impossible task turns into a healing session for the war-afflicted Ranger, and a rugged form of grief therapy for the animal.
Comedy and drama are deftly blended, and tears may be shed in a particular scene near the end. Bill Burr, Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, and Ethan Suplee populate an excellent supporting cast. This is one of those straightforward concept/title movies that punches above its weight due to the reluctance to understand what’s coming and the powerful impact a dog can have on a human life. It’s currently free for Prime subscribers.
~Alex Ovechkin is in a league of his own when it comes to goals scored in the NHL, both figuratively and literally. In what seemed like a matter of days, the Washington Capitals legend tallied his 895th goal, passing the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, and becoming the all-time top goal scorer. For a guy who fell in love with hockey due to a scorer named Hull, it’s fascinating and fulfilling to see Ovie crack the record wide open at the age of 39. After an injury-plagued 2023-24 season, during which doubts arose about whether he could do it, a broken bone in his leg this season couldn’t even slow him down.
Amazing. Spectacular. Like the current one that the St. Louis Blues are on, a writer runs out of words to describe the season Ovechkin has put together. In his 20-season career, he has never scored fewer than 31 goals in a season, excluding the COVID-shortened season five years ago. In 14 of them, he’s tallied 40 goals or more. Incredible is a word that fits Ovechkin. Or simply, “The Great 8.” They won’t make another one like him.
~Don’t be surprised by Ryan Helsley’s blown save in Game 1 of the doubleheader against Boston or Miles Mikolas getting rocked in Game 2 on Sunday. In 38 of the 65 games in which the St. Louis Cardinals closer appeared last season, at least one runner reached base. He’s a great closer, but teams can make things dicey for him. Helsley walked four batters, and that led to direct chaos. He turns 31 in July, and I’ll stand by the notion that the front office wasted a golden opportunity to ship him out. Mikolas surrendered six hits during his first trip through the Boston lineup, which put the offense in a hole that even the improved hitting unit couldn’t recover from.
Except for the 2022 season, Mikolas’s ERA has increased with each subsequent season, moving into the 5.00 or worse zone over the past year. After a decent, if not great, start against the Angels, the Red Sox pummeled him for eight earned runs, which ultimately snowballed the day for the Cardinals. After sweeping the Twins, they’ve lost five of six. Last season, it was the offense’s failure to score runs that doomed the team. This year, it’s the pitching that is hindering their chances. Prepare for a long, roller-coaster ride through the 2025 season. Up, down, and all around.
~Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are promising a ride of their own with the latest and final Mission: Impossible entry, Final Reckoning. Only the John Wick series can come close to the practical action on screen at the moment, as it performs and films as much of the movie without the use of CGI. They don’t take shortcuts on their path to creating premium entertainment, as in Cruise hanging off a commercial airplane while most likely disarming a bomb or a bad guy. Since McQuarrie joined the franchise way back with Rogue Nation, the sequels have upped the ante on how risky and exhilarating a stunt can be.
Cruise’s fearless self pushes the limits of what movie stars can— and are allowed —to do on screen, and there’s a certain amount of respect that comes with that daredevil ability. Instead of filming that plane sequence in a closed warehouse with a green screen, that’s him dangling and hanging onto the wing. It doesn’t just look better; it plays better. The supporting cast always brings the heat, with Holt McCallany joining the fray this last time. I do think they’ll do a Wick-type ending, where it appears Ethan Hunt perishes, but he somehow manages to make it out for a possible reunion down the road.
That doesn’t matter, though. What matters is that it’s 2025 and we’re still getting these original brands of top-flight action entertainment. Hopefully, that doesn’t die with The Final Reckoning.