304: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

[00:00:00] Chapter 16, New Film. Let's get to Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One. This one is directed by Christopher McQuarrie, stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and many others. And the

[00:00:22] synopsis is Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. So I am a big Mission Impossible fan. I don't know if we've reviewed any of them on the show. I think maybe Fallout or

[00:00:38] Rogue Nation, I can't remember which but I am planning to do in the next couple of months if possible a Mission Impossible franchise bonus show for our Bandcamp page so keep an eye out for that. But I wanted to go ahead and get

[00:00:52] this one covered since I just got around to seeing it just in the last week. I thought the movie was quite good and for being the seventh film in an action franchise that is intentionally over-the-top it's pretty darn good. Like

[00:01:07] I don't think it's a masterpiece. I think that it considering it is only part one it is too long. I don't think it needs to be two hours and 40 minutes and I think that there are parts in the middle to become a little too, not ridiculous

[00:01:20] because the plots are always a little absurd, but it's a little too self-serious at times for my liking of this sort of franchise. But Tom Cruise is a madman as anyone who watches his movies should know. Like his stunts, his dedication to

[00:01:37] doing these movies and the physicality of it all is crazy. The big one from this movie is the riding off the mountainside on the motorcycle and then parachuting down. That's crazy. The car chase through the city, the airport sequence, like the

[00:01:57] creativity both on Tom Cruise's part and his dedication but also the direction by Christopher McQuarrie who is fantastic and the script writing as well is way more clever and intelligent and witty and complex than so many other action

[00:02:15] franchises out there. Like this one actually seems to care in terms of keeping the audience on their toes. There's a lot of great twists and turns that don't feel false or always easy to see coming. Like there's really good

[00:02:27] character development as much as you can for a franchise like this. Every performance is excellent. I think Hayley Atwell, who I did not know going into this that she was in it, she's a great addition to the series. Rebecca Ferguson

[00:02:42] is awesome. It's a very, very good movie and I think that the last, since they kind of rebooted it with Ghost Protocol, most of them are at about the same level. I think they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Rogue Nation would be my

[00:02:57] favorite of the whole franchise at this point but there aren't really bad ones aside from two is the weakest for sure but I think that's pretty unanimous. But these last string are really underrated in some sense. It's like I feel like some

[00:03:13] people don't really, I don't know if take seriously is the right word, but aren't ready to give these movies a chance maybe because of the title or Tom Cruise. I don't know but they are really excellent films and talking about some

[00:03:29] other specifics of the movie, the final train sequence on the Orient Express, so solid. I won't spoil it too much because it is fairly new where Tom Cruise and another character are having to go from one train car to another

[00:03:46] before something bad happens. That is really well orchestrated and very suspenseful. Also veering off quickly, the mask thing like where characters will have these very believable masks where they will pretend to be another person.

[00:04:02] That gets me every time. I love that. I think it's so well done and there is that sort of wink at the camera as well but it works really really well. These movies are just very entertaining. They don't have to be

[00:04:17] as good as they are. They don't have to have the crazy amount of stunts, the practical effects that they do, but they do. I'm sure largely because of Tom Cruise. He goes for it obviously and so I will always watch these movies. If you

[00:04:32] haven't seen any of them you could probably start with this one and understand it to a degree but maybe go back and at least start with Ghost Protocol. Besides that, great score as always. Love Vanessa Kirby. The desert sequence with Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson. Love that part.

[00:04:54] Visually the movie is excellent. Christopher McQuarrie, he's not some visually astounding director. He's not a Terrence Malick but he has a very very solid basis for storytelling, for strong clear good visuals. He's also a very underrated part of the action movie world. One last thing, the fact that

[00:05:19] this is part one. I don't love that in movies for the most part. I don't hate it but I feel like I am curious to see part two and how it all feeds together because

[00:05:31] that can make this one even better. I'm not sure but that is something that at times gets me a little bit because it is already so long that I think that there are ways you could condense that story into one movie. Maybe I'm wrong

[00:05:43] there but that is one thing that irks me just a little bit with this one as opposed to Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, Fallout. Those are all self-contained films and this is the first one that is a part one of two but not a big deal. Just

[00:05:57] a little thing that irked me when I was watching it. So that one is a four out of five.