Movie Review: Mission Impossible

I had the chance to catch Mission Impossible over the winter break, and today was a slow blog day, so I thought I’d give you my thoughts on the film. Better late than never, right?

Overall, I enjoyed it. I liked that it was more of a team effort this time through than some of the past movies. For me, one of the things that sets MI apart from Bond or Bourne or other spy movies is that team element. In the films where Cruise is allowed to be THE guy, it doesn’t really feel like a Mission Impossible movie to me. This time out, Cruise is still the most important, but it’s more of a 60/40 split between him and the rest. Still not ideal, but better.

The action is relentless–almost to a fault. By the end of the movie, so much has happened, with one jaw dropping sequence after another. I started to get action fatigue, which means either that the movie is a tad long at 2 hours and 13 minutes, or that I’m well on my way to old geezer hood and wondering about newfangled movies with their loud noises and flashing explosions every two seconds. (Then again, I felt this way about Face/Off back when it first came out–14 years ago. So maybe I’ve always been on my way to old geezer hood. Or maybe this movie really does have too much action.)

Brad Bird (in his first live action directorial outing) does a great job. (He also helmed Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and the Iron Giant–a pretty good track record for animated movies.) While there might be a bit much action, it’s always well choreographed and put together, and you don’t get lost in the plot. (Which also says a lot for the editing of the movie.)

The acting is all fine. I enjoyed Simon Pegg, but the guy’s starting to be typecast as heavily as Hugh Grant. Pegg’s a funny guy, but I’d like to see a tad more diversity coming from him. Cruise is Cruisey. Renner did a solid performance, and he’s definitely One to Watch.

Is it the best movie ever? No. It’s solidly in the Popcorn Flick category, and that’s okay. If you want to see things go boom (and check out an incredible film sequence on top of the world’s tallest skyscraper), then this movie’s going to scratch that itch. Three stars from me. Worth seeing in the theater, just for the eye candy.

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