Flying High

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin and Simon McBurney
Director/Scriptwriter: Christopher McQuarrie
Composer: Joe Kraemer
Cinematographer: Robert Elswit
Skydance/Paramount
Rating: PG 13 with violence
Running Length: 130 minutes

 

To some people, the worst thing in the world is to stand in front of a crowd and present a speech. To others, it is being chased and you are running out of breath. In this film, it is hanging from the side of an airplane in flight---and it comes true for Tom Cruise in the beginning of “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” as he tries to get into a plane while it is taking off.  Getting past that stunt, and we can hardly wait to see what happens in the next “Mission Impossible” film (which would be Number Six), so perhaps it would be Tom riding his motorcycle up the ramp of a rocket blasting off, then leaping for the hatch and scrambling to get inside as it takes off for the moon or beyond.  I can see the title now, “Mission Impossible: Moonglow.”

 

Back to this film, which could be the best “Mission Impossible” film, or co-best, with the first one. There is plenty of action, escapes, races, amorous glances and then back to escapes, and a villain who looks like he just came from a wax museum. The plot? Can be summed up in one sentence---Mission Impossible team is dismantled, works undercover to put itself back together again. Amen.

 

To get the Mission Impossible team back in action, takes them around the world from Vienna to Morocco to London.  Stunts include airplanes, motorcycles, cars, water and turbines, flying glass that doesn't cut anyone and always a chase through a casbah. Two people carry this movie, Cruise, with an earnest look that means business and Rebecca Ferguson, as a British agent with blue eyes, who can dismantle a room of men in less than a minute. The rest of the cast---Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin and Jeremy Renner, are there for momentary lines and that’s it. Even the villain barely makes a mark, the screen lights up when Cruise and Ferguson take over. The question…whose side is she on?  The answer…who cares, those fashionable clothes steal the scenes, plus the sequence filmed in an opera house during a performance is one of the best this year. You will never guess where an assassin’s weapon can be hidden.

 

This “Mission Impossible” film is fun, doesn't take itself seriously (the leading lady goes halfway through a chase scene and then takes her stiletto shoes off), no obvious computer-generated work and the stunts look real. The leading lady, Rebecca Ferguson, is a Swedish actress who is known for starring in "The White Queen." Even though “Mission Impossible” started out as a TV series and then graduated to movies, there is always something new that be brought to the table, and here it is. Entertainment with a grin.

 

 

Copyright 2015 Marie Asner