Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) (English Language)

Review

131min

Genre:      Action, Adventure, Thriller

Director:   Christopher McQuarrie

Cast:        Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner…and more

Writers:    Christopher McQuarrie, Drew Pearce and Bruce Geller

After secret agency the “IMF” is terminated for misconduct and super-agent Ethan Hunt is branded a “rogue agent”, with a little help from some old friends and some new ones he must track down “The Syndicate”, a mysterious and powerful group of equally skilled agents intent on causing global mayhem in this high-octane stunt extravaganza starring Tom Cruise.

2015 could easily be dubbed the “Year of the Spy” with the subversive and entertaining ‘Kingsman’, hit Melissa McCarthy comedy ‘Spy’, the upcoming Guy Ritchie 60’s romp ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ and the 24th “Bond” ‘Spectre’ later in the year, but with the 5th ‘Mission Impossible’ installment ‘Rogue Nation’ Tom Cruise reminds us he’s still in the fight.

By now we all know what to expect from a Mission Impossible movie and ‘Rogue Nation’ ticks all the boxes, a simple plot featuring an appropriately menacing villain, gadgets, double-agents and superbly executed action set-pieces throughout.

But aside from the impressive stunts performed largely by Mr. Cruise himself as we’re often reminded, it’s the comic sensibility and sense of adventure that makes ‘Rogue Nation’ entertaining, taking the audience to far-flung locales from Belarus to Washington DC, Vienna to Morocco and focusing much of the narrative in London.

Despite its entertainment value however ‘Rogue Nation‘s’ appeal is limited by the same factors that limit other ‘Mission Impossible’ films and spy sequels in general, after a strong start the story loses steam and starts to look like a blueprint for threading huge action set-pieces together.

There are only so many impressive stunts you can take and still maintain a high level of engagement and the predictably menacing villain with an unconvincing motivation doesn’t help, still despite its limitations ‘Rogue Nation’ is entertaining enough to hold your attention for over 2 hours and after 5 films in the franchise, star and producer Tom Cruise & Co. have fine-tuned the formula.

The Bottom Line…

Action-packed, adventurous and entertaining, ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ can’t quite break the limitations of the genre but it’s a worthy summer blockbuster if you know what to expect when going in… and by now we all should.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

A talented but troubled inner-city kid is recruited by a high-level independent British Spy organization to stop a megalomaniacal tech-industry billionaire from bringing havoc to an unsuspecting world in this action/comedy spy romp from writer/director Matthew Vaughn.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.