Mission: Impossible - Fallout

After watching this Mission: Impossible movie, I had to go back and read my reviews of the previous instalments. I found out that it basically was what it always has been; an incredibly high-quality action thrill ride with Tom Cruise. I think he’s currently the only actor who works this hard for action movies. There’s barely any CGI in the movie. Not only do most of the scenes feel real, they also are. It’s apparent that Tom gave it all he’s got and when you watch him jump off a plane nearly 4 miles above the ground, you can see all of the hundred plus jumps he had to do for this scene to work. He’s a champ. Nobody in Hollywood even compares to him nowadays. Everybody’s hiding behind a green screen and the only extra thing they might do is go to a gym after shooting so that they can show off their muscles. As far as the actual movie goes, I got what I wanted – the best action scenes of this year, Tom in a million different ways and his gang that radiates charisma. And unfortunately maybe a little bit of confusion because of the script, but that’s always the case with Mission Impossible movies. Anyhow, it gets very decent four stars from me and I’m convinced that the name Mission Impossible means more in 2018 than people could have hoped for some 20 years ago. (02/08/2018)

The last real movie star built a monument of adoration to himself, before which nothing can be done except to tip one’s hat. In the years when Hollywood forgot how to make blockbusters and how to shoot action movies, it was Tom Cruise who brought real amazement back to the big screen. Now that others are beginning to understand that no CGI colouring book or frantic shaky cam can replace the breathtaking dimension of physical attraction, Cruise keeps raising the bar that he set himself in the area of what someone is capable of actually doing in front of the camera for the audience’s amusement. (15/01/2019)

I felt an orgiastic enthusiasm, spoiled by moments of bitterness that a second or third viewing might or might not mitigate. Nolan himself would have been ashamed to conceive it in such a Dark Knight fashion, because he would be accused of copying himself. In particular, Balfe merely changed a few notes of the Dark Knight scores to give the dialogue tension and lend the storyline a continuously pulsating momentum. However, most of the action mega-scenes, which are almost groundbreaking in the given genre, and the brutal physical fights are not backed with music but – as the current trend dictates – only with raw sound, which gives them realism. These modern elements of deafening musical urgency and epic yet realistic action create a combination that make us pee our collective pants in joy, but it is spoiled by an overly complicated plot with repeated unmasking and changes of identities, where we manage to understand the basic storyline but keep getting lost in the individual plot twists. At least that’s what happened to me. And probably not because I’m stupid, but because of the script and its attempts to make everything dramatic at all costs, even at places where no dramatization is necessary. For this, I give it four stars, and elevate the more moderate and elegantly beautiful Rogue Nation to five. By the way, of all of Fallout’s scenes, I liked the sentimental one with the French woman cop the best. Cruise has some really beautiful women here, prettier than in many Bond movies. (02/08/2018)

After the fourth episode, Mission Impossible has become one of the best action franchises of our time (Bond and Bourne are not even close), and with the sixth episode the series literally reaches its peak. Tom Cruise, at 56, performs an incredible physical feat, with his iconic running and stunt escapades that cause stuntmen to lose their jobs, literally sweating blood and risking his life for his franchise! Hats off and much admiration. Story-wise it's classically convoluted and nicely twisted, and I liked that, although this time there was no twist that killed me like last time, but still a high standard. As for the action, it's full throttle almost the whole film. The fight in the restroom right at the beginning probably won't be beaten this year, and the adrenaline-packed chase with motorbikes, and the finale itself, which absurd, with the best helicopter chase I've ever seen. Alongside Ethan Hunt, Rebecca Ferguson is wonderful here again, and she definitely deserves more action roles, and then there’s the new surprise of Henry Cavill, who, when he's not comic-book movies, is actually an excellent actor who can handle multiple stances at once and can make a real nuisance of himself in fights. Praise must also go to Rob Hardy for his excellent cinematography, which adds to the authentically intense experience. A proper ride. 95% (03/08/2018)

The sixth movie has only one weak point, it comes after a perfect fifth movie. And so, unfortunately, it tries be better in the classic way of all Hollywood sequels “more of everything, too much of everything, with old and well-known character and this time it´s all about the saving the world, as always". The result is a much more straightforward (ok, blunt) script, which this time only serves as a link to let Tom jump on the rooftops of London for two and a half hours, drive two kilometers in the opposite direction in streets of Paris or hang hundreds of meters above the Kashmir mountains. So loved nice spy dialogs of the last part are not seen anymore, here is everything about nuclear bombs, cutting colored wires and hundredths of seconds. So much for the shortcoming. Otherwise, it is not about anything; dead adrenaline constantly (but as a matter of fact constantly) graded diverse event based on clarity, choreography and stunts. So, this time it's “only" a phenomenal big-budget real action movie and an average spy movie. Last time this symbiosis worked really well. But not this time. Even so, it is undeniably a genre movie event of the year, that´s for sure. (30/07/2018)