Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
It’s getting lonely for the super spy film genre as fewer and fewer remain in active status. One after the other, some of the biggest action, adventure franchises have seen their sunset during the post Y2K Sequel Era. From James Bond 007’s most recent bow out with Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, to Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan (string of movies and a TV series based on the Tom Clancy novels), Bryan Mills in Taken franchise and TV series such as True Lies. All have in one manner or another bloomed and now are either on hiatus or pending reboots.
But the real problem could be that other genres such as the super car racing franchise The Fast and Furious has on many occasions drifted in and out of the spy genre. Others have also drifted in from the Marvel Universe. Black Widow and Hawkeye, to fashioneers agents from the Kingsman series. The film and TV stage overflowed with spy/military adventures from Atomic Blonde to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
In Typical Tom Cruise style, and buoyed by the success of Mission Impossible Fallout, Ethan Hunt is sprinting to the finish line, aided by halo jumps, base diving and all kind of slippery driving. Our adventure starts with a new global threat emerging from the Russian side. This time though the problem facing the world is not the Hunt for Red October even though the entire opening sequence reeks of a much superior thriller war movie starring Sean Connery.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING
Review by Shannon Donnelly
“Cruise the actor seems a bit scattered … And Hunt the character? He fails personally …”
Matthew Lickona, The San Diego Reader | July 12, 2023
“ feels like a movie that’s been assembled by …
a luckless studio intern …”
Kevin Maher, The Times (UK) |
July 5, 2023
There is a moment in the opening act that tips its hand to atrocious writing and nonsensical Artificial Intelligence action that tells us the writers aren’t really good at polishing the plausibility issues (both director McQuarrie and Jendresen share script writing credits). What am I alluding to? More of that in the Gold Members’ edition.
But the ignitor cause matters little in MI films, the initial cause of the adventure quickly fades to the background as the first part of this adventure consists of the moviegoer tagging along with the IMF crew in what amounts to a globe-trotting “find the map or hidden treasure” quest adventure. The movie doesnt explore anything related to the plausibility or improbability of high-tech creating this kind of global disaster. You, the viewer, must take it on Scientology faith value that science and Armageddon weapons development afficianados would blithely roll the dice on something like this.
You are supposed to be cynical and already anticipatory of such a possibility as Benji’s reaction attests to when updated by Ethan.
Tom Cruise may look somewhat worse for wear and older but he manages to dodge the stodgy image of a three piece business suit in lieu of dark cat burglar black overalls and takes us on a break neck pace through hoops and hoops of danger and excitement.
Unfortunately for some of us, the film feels like it was assembled by a co-op of filmmakers who were vying for discounts by arranging their films all to be produced on similar sets recycling the same production gear.
Well, not so long ago we were treated to the exploits of the Fast and Furious in Rome. And it just happens that the IMF crew is also on the hunt for a key piece of technology that could unwind the clock and shut down the threat. They too zip along in fast car crashes in Rome, only the stunts are much wilder, scarier and funnier. Amazing that the crew of MI and Fast and Furious were not tempted in showing us moments of a cross over where Ethan bumps into Dom Torretto “hey don’t I know you from somewhere?” I don’t know but I can see Dom (and Letty) smirking and growling his V-8 muscle car before giving the tiny Fiat the slip.
Photo above: Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Hayley Atwell as Grace (Captain America’s Peggy Carter)
Back to form are both Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as Luther and Benji, faithful and more than family reliable. If Cruise looks worse for wear, these two definitely look worn out and over-whelmed by the physical demands of another MI adventure. The writing duo of McQuarrie and Jendresen manage to work up a few lines of dialogue that are age and mortality appropriate.
Henry Czerny returns as Ethan’s boss, Eugene Kitteridge, replacing Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley who was recently KIA in MI Fallout.
In fact lengthy movie reviews are in of themselves the entertainment, because you already have the index and average “score” from various review aggregation sites (whether they are reliable or skewed is another matter entirely).
But where is the desert and fun in looking up just a number? The West Coast Midnight Run public edition review of Mission Impossible still has quite a few paragraphs so we recommend you grab a computer or a laptop with a much larger display screen than a mobile phone and enjoy it in a leisurely manner. In fact the Gold/Silver members edition is even longer, it has Shannon Donnelly’s take on it.
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