Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back and on a mission to stop a terrorist group, known as The Apostles, from acquiring three uranium cores that they will use to create nuclear devices. Hunt and his Impossible Mission Force (IMF) team (Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames) set up a black market deal to purchase the cores. But during the buy Luther (Rhames) is taken hostage. In a rescue attempt Hunt and Benji (Pegg) let the cores slip into the hands of The Apostles. Due to Hunt’s choice to save his team over protecting the cores has put the world in danger of nuclear attack. Luckily, the head of the IMF, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin, has received intelligence that an arms dealer known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) is looking to broker a deal for the cores. The only problem is the price is not money but the breaking out of the former IMF nemesis and anarchist Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Hunt, eager for redemption, agrees to once again track down the cores. But the CIA want to make sure that this time the job is done right, so Director Erica Sloan (Angela Bassett) demands her top cleaner August Walker (Henry Cavill) accompany. With the help of the CIA they will try and break Lane out of prison and save the world from a catastrophic nuclear attack.

This film, the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible film franchise, is a true action packed summer blockbuster. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Jack Reacher) this film has the action and suspense that viewers have come to expect from these films. Cruise, who famously does all of his own stunts, puts in a stellar performance, as does the rest of the cast. Rebecca Ferguson, as assassin and Hunt love interest Ilsa Faust, has good on screen chemistry with Cruise. The overall vision of the film is big and everything is well shot. One example is seamlessly shot motorcycle/car chase through Paris streets, with narrow misses, extreme speeds and iconic scenery. Along with all of the action you get the sometimes corny dialog that you can expect. As long as you expect it, and maybe embrace it, you will definitely enjoy the film. At 2 hours and 27 minutes the runtime might seem long but the pace is really good so it does not feel that long.

This is the best action film of the summer I have seen so far. The attention to detail in the action scenes really shows through. The twists and turns of the story keep you as engaged as the jaw dropping stunts. Maybe not the film for everyone but a great action/spy movie. For me it is definitely a film that should be seen in theaters, maybe more than once.

 

4.5 out of 5

Second Review By

Angele Colageo

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF Team of Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are tasked to save the world. Again. The sixth movie in the Mission Impossible franchise opens with Hunt, assigned to retrieve three plutonium cores, losing them to the Apostles, a splinter group that is made up of the remains from the defunct Syndicate. Since the mission was a loss, Hunt is determined to get the plutonium before they are used to make nuclear bombs to trigger a new world order.

Hunt meets up with Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin the IMF Secretary) to obtain further instructions for the mission. Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) who took over as the new Director of the CIA is ready to stop Hunt from continuing his mission since he loss the plutonium. Sloan brings in an “observer” August Walker (Henry Cavill) to assess Hunt’s work on the mission and to take over if the IMF team fails to retrieve the plutonium.

Hunt and Walker drop in to Paris to intercept John Lark (Liang Yang) who has an appointment to meet with the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) the middle man arranging the sale. As Hunt and Walker find Lark, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) the MI6 agent that first appeared in Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation, comes in to save the day. Hunt then decides that he will need to go as Lark to meet with the White Widow. The deal is struck, the Apostles who are the sellers of the plutonium, want to get their leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who Hunt brought in at the end of Rogue Nation.

Mission Impossible : Fallout IS the action/adventure blockbuster of the summer. The storyline is seamless, the action has definitely been ramped up compared to the previous MI movies. There are intense car chases, motorcycle stunts and Tom Cruise doing as many stunts as he can. You might recall that he broke his ankle on one of his jumps, well, you see the cut where it happens. It definitely made me clench for a moment. Tom Cruise’s race through the Tate Museum, guided by Simon Pegg does delivers a moment of comedy.

The movie certainly showed that a lot of work has gone into it to provide the moviegoer with a rewarding adventure. The pace was quick, it definitely did not feel like it was two and a half hours. The camaraderie of Cruise, Rhames and Pegg carries through their performances and a team that has worked with each other for so long, their understanding of each other definitely transfers to their movie characters.

I enjoyed Mission Impossible : Fallout. It kept me engaged throughout the cleverly planned story and unpredictable stunts.

4.5 stars out of 5