Film: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One

 

GENRE: Action Adventure
RATING: PG-13 for violence and some language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 43 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher)
Hayley Atwell (Captain America, Agent Carter); Esai Morales (Ozark)
DIRECTOR: Christopher McQuarrie (MI5, MI6, Jack Reacher)
WRITERS: Erik Jendresen (Bank of Brothers, Ithaca)
McQuarrie (Maverick, Usual Suspects, Edge of Tomorrow, Valkyrie)
PLOT: Ethan Hunt and his team look for a key to destroy dangerous foe   

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is one of my favourite franchises.

STORY STUFF: This another non-stop thrill ride. Ethan Hunt is tasked with saving the world once again. This time the evil villain is AI. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing a bunch of movies dealing with the power given to AI. Anyway, the plot has some interesting twists and turns. I did find some of the exposition in the beginning to be a little much. Bringing back Kittridge is nostalgic but raises my eyebrow. I liked the added hunting of Hunt by Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) and Greg Tarzan Davis (Maverick). Atwell is a great addition but I found her running away pretty repetitive and bothersome at times. Even though the film is long, the fun action sequences will make the time fly by.

ACTING STUFF: Cruise, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are a fantastic team; their comradery adds a great level of fun to the proceedings. Atwell is wonderful as the pickpocket Grace who is in way over her head. She works very well with Cruise. Like I said before, I liked Whigham and Davis as the agents sent to bring Hunt in. The rest of the cast bring great intensity to their roles. Morales plays a good bad guy but I’ll save that judgement for the conclusion of Part Two.

ARTISTIC STUFF: Of course, the reason to watch this film is the amazing stunts. Everyone has seen the big motorcycle cliff dive but there is a lot more to marvel at. We’ve seen Ethan drive fast in close quarters before but this film’s Italian car chase adds some fun elements to make the pursuit a lot trickier and fun. There is a train sequence at the end that is heart-pounding and amazingly done. The kitchen car was my favourite. This is definitely a film to watch on the big screen.

VERDICT: Four and a half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like awesome action and enjoy the series
UPCOMING REVIEW:  Oppenheimer