Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie.

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie based on the television series created by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Henry Cavill (August Walker), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Vanessa Kirby (White Widow), Michelle Monaghan (Julia Meade-Hunt), Angela Bassett (Erica Sloan), Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley), Wes Bentley (Patrick), Sean Harris (Solomon Lane).

 

I have stopped being surprised by just how good the Mission Impossible movies are. Preparing for this, the sixth installment in the 22-year-old series, I went back and watched the other five films – and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Every time you think you have the series figured out, it throws another curveball at you. With Fallout, that curveball may just be that for the first time, they have essentially made a direct sequel to the last film – and it brings back other plot elements from the previous films as well. That doesn’t mean you have to know a whole lot about those other films to get this one – you can walk in cold if you want, and you will still be knocked out by the action in the film. That is really what this series has always been about, and Fallout delivers some of the best action sequences of the series. It also has a plot that movies a mile a minute, and some genuinely good performances. This movie runs nearly two and half hours, but doesn’t feel long at all. This is the new high point in what was already the best action series going.

 

The plot is simple enough to describe – a group known as The Apostles want to get their hands on nuclear weapons, because their theory is that peace will only come from pain – the greatest the pain, the greater the peace. Their leader is Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the villain from the last film that Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his team captured instead of killed. Since then, he has been shunted from one government to the next for interrogation purposes. Hunt and his team had a chance to secure the nuclear material the Apostles need early in the film – but Hunt chose to save his teammates rather than the material, which has now fallen into the wrong hands – so now they need to get it back. Hunt is joined by Benji and Luther (Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames) who have been around for a while now, and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) who joined last film. They are also saddled with August Walker (Henry Cavill), a CIA agent they don’t really want. As Sloan (Angela Bassett), the head of the CIA says early in the film, Hunt is a scalpel, Walker is a hammer.

 

From there, it’s one great action set piece after another – and one double cross after another. I will fully admit that when I found out that McQuarrie was doing the fifth installment, I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to maintain the high level of action the series had always had – and he proved me wrong with Rogue Nation. With Fallout, he proves he is one of the best directors of action working in the world right now. The sheer volume of action sequences in Mission Impossible Fallout is amazing. The fact that they are so varied and different from each other is even more so. There are hand-to-hand combat scenes, a car/motorbike chase, shootouts, perhaps the best sequence of Tom Cruise running ever captured on film (and THAT is saying something), and of course the helicopter climax. The action direction here is clear and clean. This series has never relied on shaky cameras or rapid fire editing to goose the tension, nor has it relied on too much obvious CGI. The only special effects this series has ever needed is Tom Cruise. I half expect that he’s going to kill himself one day working on these films, because he really seems to be throwing himself into these roles. While I really do wish he would take on more roles than just action movies – he isn’t the best actor in the world, but his performances in films like Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia are as good as they get – but I’m still grateful he goes for it each and every time in these films. In a way, he’s the only one who could pull these roles off – so perhaps it’s good he concentrates on them.

 

The supporting cast is also great. Sean Harris was a decent bad guy in Rogue Nation – he’s far better this time around, as he’s got more to work with. Ferguson has become my favorite leading lady in this series so far – she matches Cruise’s intensity, and works well with him. Best of all is probably Henry Cavill, who is perfectly cast as a hammer.

 

Mission Impossible Fallout joins the ranks of the best action films of the 21^st Century so far – alongside films like Mad Max Fury Road, and both Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. As pure entertainment, these films are tough to beat. This is one of the best films of the year – action or otherwise.

Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie.
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie and Drew Pearce based on the television series created by Bruce Geller.
Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Sean Harris (Solomon Lane), Simon McBurney (Atlee), Jingchu Zhang (Lauren), Tom Hollander (Prime Minister), Jens Hultén (Janik Vinter), Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley).

The Mission Impossible movies are that rare action franchise that operates at a continually high level each time out – and actually seem to get better with each passing movie. Say whatever you want about Tom Cruise – and there’s lots to say – but he throws himself into each one of these movies, and really goes all out to entertain – constantly seeking to top himself with new, bolder stunts. He also, as producer, has a knack for picking the right director to come into the franchise and give it new life. It’s not often that the fifth film in a series is the best – and I’m not convinced Rogue Nation is better than Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol (the fourth entry) – but damn it, it comes close. It’s also the most ridiculously entertaining action movie since Mad Max: Fury Road – and had that action masterwork not come out this year, this likely would be the best live action blockbuster of the year. It’s just so much fun.

The plot of the this installment is just as ridiculous as the plots of all the Mission Impossible movies – which by the way, I’ve almost completely forgotten because these movies are not really about plots. This one is about the disbanding of the IMF, which causes Cruise’s Ethan Hunt to go Rogue, as he tries to track down the leader of a group known as the Syndicate named Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) – who is like the IMF, except evil. Hunt has his team – Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Brandt (Jeremy Renner) in place, and is being hunted by the CIA and its new director (Alec Baldwin) – and, of course, there’s a new woman – Ilsa Faust (the ridiculously sexy Rebecca Ferguson), who may be good, or may be evil, but dammit, she looks good to Hunt either way.

The set pieces in Rogue Nation are, quite simply, amazing – not just in their execution, but in their variety. The preview is built around Cruise hanging off the side of a plane – and that happens just a few minutes into the movie. There’s also an excellent car chase sequence, which turns into a bike chase sequence – which is far better than even the good car work in the Fast & Furious movies – a heist sequence, which requires Cruise to hold his breath underwater in what is essentially a large turbine, and best of all, an attempted assassination sequence in an opera house – which builds the type of suspense that Hitchcock would be proud of.

The director of all this is Christopher McQuarrie, who directed Cruise before in Jack Reacher, and won an Oscar for his screenplay for The Usual Suspects 20 years ago. Up until now, he’s been a fine director – but he blows past fine director in this film. This is one of the best action films of the year.

These movies are perhaps the purest distillation of Tom Cruise’s public persona. No, they aren’t his best work as an actor – the twin 1999 movies, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, which both play on his public image brilliantly – are probably that. But the Mission Impossible movies present Cruise to the world in the precise light he wants to be seen in – and shows him at his very best.

By this point in the summer, I am usually worn out of big action movies, and ready to move on to the prestige films of the fall (there is a reason I skipped the latest Terminator movie, and will likely skip Fantastic Four as well – waiting for home video for both). And if you’re like that as well, I more than understand, but you’re missing something great if you don’t see this movie in a theater. It’s great blockbuster filmmaking – that puts most of what we’ve seen this summer to shame. I’m not sure how they keep doing it – but this series just keeps getting better.

Movie Review: Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie.
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie based on the book by Lee Child.
Starring: Tom Cruise (Reacher), Rosamund Pike (Helen), Richard Jenkins (Rodin), David Oyelowo (Emerson), Werner Herzog (The Zec), Jai Courtney (Charlie), Vladimir Sizov (Vlad), Joseph Sikora (Barr), Michael Raymond-James (Linsky), Alexia Fast (Sandy), Josh Helman (Jeb), Robert Duvall (Cash).

Jack Reacher, the character created by Lee Child who has starred in well over 10 novels now is a six-foot-five, 250 pound ex-Army cop who wanders around America getting himself involved in police investigations everyone he goes. Tom Cruise is not the first person you would think of to play the film version of this beloved character. Who would be? Maybe the new, kickass Liam Neeson? And yet, what Tom Cruise lacks in pure physical size, he makes up for in other ways. Like all of Cruise’s best characters, Reacher is driven to the point of obsession. You get in his way, and he’ll bring you down one way or another. Cruise plays fiercely determined as well as anyone – and that’s pretty much the best way to describe Reacher.

Had the filmmakers had a crystal ball, they probably would have picked another Reacher novel than One Shot to adapt for his first cinematic outing. As it stands, the movie opens with a lone gunman preparing and then opening fire into a crowd, killing five people with his sniper rifle and then taking off. It doesn’t take long for the cops to identify James Barr as the suspect, and the mountain of evidence against him seems too irrefutable. The problem though is that we know Barr didn’t do it, since we saw the real shooter (a change from the novel – and not a good one). Before Barr is beaten into a coma in jail, he asks the cops to track down Jack Reacher. But Reacher is a ghost, and unless he wants to be found, he won’t be. Luckily, he wants to be found. He has history with Barr, and wants to see justice done this time, even if it wasn’t in the past. No sooner does Reacher arrive on scene than a tug of war begins – between the cops and the defense lawyer (Rosamund Pike) to find out what Reacher knows. Also, it seems like someone wants to scare Reacher away – but Reacher is not easily scared.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Jack Reacher is a solid thriller from beginning to end. We know from the beginning that things aren’t quite as they appear, but that Reacher will figure everything out. Cruise anchors the film with a fine, but unspectacular performance. Much better is the assortment of supporting characters that surround him – Robert Duvall as an old jarhead, Richard Jenkins and David Oyelowo as the DA and the lead cop respectively, who both may not be trustworthy. And best of all is that mad German genius Werner Herzog as the mysteriously named The Zec. Herzog adds a level of insanity to any movie he’s involved in, and Jack Reacher is no different.

Like the Reacher novels, the movie is a fine, disposable entertainment – involving while you’re in the story, almost instantly forgettable once it’s over. I enjoyed the film. It held my attention, had some performances and a twisty story that will keep you guessing (unless you read the book). This is probably as good as a Jack Reacher movie could be.