Mission Impossible; Dead Reckoning-Part One— See Tom Run and Run and Talk and Talk

Ethan Hunt and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.

Review:

After watching Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning- Part One and seeing Tom Cruise run and run and run; drive motorcycles like a Steve McQueen wannabe; and crash, cars down narrow Roman streets (including one tiny yellow Fiat 500 pretending to be a Bond tricked out Astin-Martin in the films funniest and wittiest chase scene and homage) I became aware how much Cruise-ing is a crucial component to the franchise.

Take Tom and the action scenes out and you get interminable exposition delivered in low angle seriousness (the opening summary is probably the worst bit of exposition I’ve seen delivered in any movie this year) and characters that are total sprocket filler. What is the purpose of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg contributions except for imparting a MI6 Bond sheen and commenting either quietly or hysterically on every Cruise mishap or peril?

This edition doesn’t know when to quit. You get scenes (in addition to flashbacks) that explain plot points and IMF plans to the audience, then to the team and finally before and after big action scenes. Such laziness to pad out the running time to a seemingly important and serious length is just an excuse by the writers to show that they’re trying to hide franchise fatigue. It made me dread the next two installments planned and in production.

Even the action scenes seem to want to repeat themselves. The final action sequence involves the Oriental Express decoupling car by car into a river below, first in real time, then in slower and slower slow motion. By the end it could have been mistaken for the trailer for Cruise’s upcoming space movie, there is so much floating around happening.

What annoyed me the most is the total disrespect for the cultural heritage of its Rome scenes. Ancient roadways are torn up in chase scenes without so much as a “Mi displace” from anyone. Cruise is the ultimate ugly American now.