In 7 words or less: Cruiser takes on an impossible mission. Again.
What's it all About? I literally have no idea! Well, I understand the basics, Ethan Hunt (The Cruiser) accepts a ruddy tough mission, he quickly assembles a team to help him with the typing and travel admin, Pegg, Patton and Renner, they then jet around the world to take part in various (awesome) set pieces. It's not really important why but I think it has something to do with codes? Nuclear codes? Some guy wants to blow up the world and only The Cruiser can stop him!
Best bits? Isn't it obvious? The scene featuring the Burj Khalifa (Dubai's and the worlds tallest building) is incredible and worth the (rather excessive IMAX megaplex) admission alone. Cruiser (balls totally out of the bath, him actually doing it, glorious Cruiser) scales the 2,716 foot high monster in a truly breathtaking set piece. Not sure why he's doing it, I think it's to put a USB stick into a computer a few floors above but the whole thing feels terribly exciting and in no way unnecessary! If you're fortunate enough to live near an IMAX mega screen then I heartedly recommend you view this movie through its gargantuan window! The whole cinema (including me and Risty) were 'oooooing' and 'arrring' in precisely all the right places.
The Dubai sandstorm foot chase and subsequent car chase is also worth a mention. I was worried how Cruise was going to get out of that one, the sand was getting in his eyes which made his job of chasing after a man who wants to blow up the planet really hard work, luckily for Cruiser (and us) he finds his climbing goggles in his inside coat pocket, phew!
 |
| No signal, typical. |
Pegg plays the 'light relief' role perfectly and it's pretty amazing to see how far he's come in his career. I spent most of his scenes thinking 'look at you up there, on screen with The Cruiser, oh you.'
Other small highlights, the declassification of (former planet) Pluto and subsequent 'Uranus' joke (definitely a bang on trend topic at the moment) was a sheer delight. I also loved how each time the film visited a new country as well as the obligatory establishing shots we were also treated to a stereotypical 'iLife' jingle of said countries native music, absolutely no confusion to where we are, magical!
Did it make you think thoughts? The first Mission: Impossible by Brian De Palmer was a proper film and I throughly enjoyed it, that's not to say I haven't liked the 'action centric' sequels though, I thought the third one especially was widely underrated. Action films with huge block busting stars and mega set pieces aren't instantly bad, just more often than not they're handled terribly. Brad Bird (from Pixar fame) tackles this about as well as you can for my money. It's peppered with just the right amount of banter, the big action scenes are really immersive and come with a musical score not a rap metal song, another added bonus is that it isn't shot like an MTV advert with 1000 cuts per second to hide the fact you have no idea how to shoot an action sequence.
You gotta love The Cruiser, his charisma is turned up to maximum in this, he's definitely still up to the job of playing Ethan Hunt. The fact that he does all his own stunts (whilst an old saying and a massive cliché) makes me love him in this role even more. He blatantly cares about the job he's doing and that totally transcends onto the screen.
 |
| You're not looking at Pegg |
Would you watch it again? Yes. I can't have too much of Cruiser climbing massive buildings.
Rating (out of 100%): 83% A great modern day actioner! For maximum enjoyment this is not to be taken seriously in any shape or form, just let Tom put you on 'Cruise control!'
