Film Review — Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

Crammed with insane action, Cruise’s latest spy epic might be his best yet.

Ethan Hunt and the IMF team battle enemies, old and new, in a race to acquire the key to a powerful artificial intelligence that, in the wrong hands, could unlock humanity’s end.

★★★★☆

Tom Cruise returns in his sweaty quest to save cinema as we know it. Mission impossible? Not a chance for everyone’s favourite Scientologist, the man the media just loves calling our “last action hero”.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is as long and unruly as its mouthy title would suggest. It’s another fast-paced, globe-trotting, Bond-on-steroids adventure that somehow manages to up the ante and thrill level for a seventh time. These movies just keep getting better.

This latest instalment, once again directed by Christopher McQuarrie, has its priorities in check. 163 pulsating minutes filled from start to finish with some extraordinary action set pieces. The best of the bunch, a chaotic rampage around Rome’s backstreets, has the same kind of endlessly escalating thrills you can only usually get playing Grand Theft Auto with a 5-star wanted rating.

When the action is this good it’s easy to forgive everything else. The film’s story, a deluge of spy gobbledygook, ironically sounds like something an AI would spit out. Maybe it did, who cares.

Cruise is reliably great, running as only he can from one insane stunt to another. The usual suspects, Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) provide continuity and plenty of laughs.

Esai Morales (Master Gardener, Caprica) provides a surprisingly effective presence as the human representative of the film’s big bad; an omnipotent computer programme that looks a bit like a digital Sauron. Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger) is another fine addition to the franchise, adding to the series’ strong female presence which also features the excellent Rebecca Ferguson (Dune) and Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Women).

Dead Reckoning was originally touted as Cruise’s big farewell to the character he has played for nearly three decades, something the legendary actor has since downplayed. With the world, and audiences now held in suspense, awaiting next year’s concluding part 2, it’ll be interesting to see what the future has in store for the long-running series.

If it’s as strong as this, I’ll happily pay to see Cruise and Co crash and bang around well into their twilight years.

Originally published at michaelkenny.uk