Is 'Mission: Impossible — Fallout' Any Good? Here's What The Reviews Are Saying
Henry Cavill's got his (infamous) mustache, Tom Cruise is still doing his own (inadvisable) stunts and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie ("Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation") is back to engineer more absurd action. Is the sixth "M:I" — parachuting into theaters on July 26th — great, or does it approach "Mummy" levels of mediocrity? Here's what the reviews have to say:
Yup, Cruise And A Motley Crew Of Sexy Spies Have To Save The World — Don't Worry Too Much About Plot
Super-agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF buddies Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) are on the trail of a terrorist going by the name of John Lark, who is purportedly working with a group of 12 people called "the Apostles" to blow up the world. Lark is pursuing some nuclear material to finish the bombs, and Ethan is sent to stop him.
[Vox]
Sometimes, Henry Cavill (delightful in this movie, if not so much on the press tour) is along for the ride as skeptical CIA agent Walker. Sometimes, it's Rebecca Ferguson, returning as the mysterious Ilsa Faust. Both of them match Cruise punch-for-punch in the action arena.
[Mashable]
The Supporting Cast Are All Great In Their Roles…
"Fallout" has its more humble charms, too. Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Michelle Monaghan return to give the franchise the heart and humor it needs to keep ticking. There's something kinda sweet about Hunt's commitment to his friends, even in the face of impending global catastrophe.
[Mashable]
[Cruise is] supported ably by Henry Cavill in arch-hunk mode and series mainstay Ving Rhames, who gets to do some genuine emoting in a pair of scenes that have a poignant charge. ("Fallout" finds an emotional core underneath its sleek shell, one just gooey enough — when underscored by Balfe's surging strings — to prove sincerely affecting.) Rebecca Ferguson returns as British assassin Ilsa Faust, getting a little less to do this go-around, but still acting as a sturdy foil for Cruise. He's also paired with a slinking Vanessa Kirby, as an upscale arms broker, in a few crackling scenes. One hopes Kirby will be asked back for the next outing.
… But You're Here To See Cruise Be A Damn Movie Star
The key to Cruise's run, and of the action set pieces for which the "M:I" movies have become famous, is that he doesn't make them look too easy. He wants us to see him sweat, to the extent that the first movie's Langley infiltration — still the series' highlight, despite some formidable competition — is nearly foiled by an errant drop of perspiration. What distinguishes Ethan, what keeps him alive, isn't super-spy suaveness or elaborate counter-counterplots (although the series has plenty of both) so much as it is his brute determination to succeed.
[Slate]
The movie basically feels like watching the most intense man on Earth compete in a relentless footrace against his own demons, as "Fallout" manages to combine the gobsmacked majesty of "Ghost Protocol" with the sheer velocity of "Mission: Impossible — III."
The Often Real And Dangerous Action Doesn't Disappoint
This Paris set-piece is a car chase in the same way that "Mad Max: Fury Road" is basically a car chase. A bathroom brawl becomes a visceral, bruising struggle to the death. McQuarrie and Cruise push each scene a little further than you think they can, adding an unexpected flourish or upping the stakes in a way that feels fresh, so that you can never quite predict Hunt's limits.
[Empire]
Although the series started out as a haven for visual stylists like Brian De Palma and John Woo, the films have become more solidly satisfying as they've passed into the hands of tempered technicians like McQuarrie and Brad Bird. The "M:I" films share with the "Fast and the Furious" series a preference for practically based stunts over computer-generated spectacle, and "Fallout's" are consistently among the series' best.
[Slate]
On Top Of That, The Action Actually Sells The Story
McQuarrie layers character moments in the unlikeliest ways: bonding over bomb defusion, or an expression of purest trust when faced with the highest stakes imaginable. Even an escape by boat becomes a moment of delightful ingenuity, and a celebration of Hunt's ability to plan his way past the creaking limits of his own endurance (and Cruise isn't scared to show physical and emotional vulnerability here, even as he pushes himself back to his feet and goes after his target for the umpteenth time).
[Empire]
The physical combat — in particular a spectacular three-way fight-fest in a nightclub men's room that at one point has the participants going at it in a bathroom stall, where they are then briefly hounded by a group of eager, turned-on men who want to join in on whatever shenanigans are happening in there — boasts a vigorous, athletic grace. Everybody always seems so damned enthused to mix it up in this movie.
Christopher McQuarrie's At The Top Of His Directing Game
McQuarrie, the first director ever asked to return for seconds behind the camera on this franchise, succeeds in establishing and more or less maintaining the ideal tone, one that fuses sufficient self-aware humor with the ever-more-outlandish set pieces so as to encourage the audience to enjoy them for what they are — some of the most extreme, sustained and dangerous-looking stunt-reliant action scenes ever assembled.
Originally a screenwriter known for his sparkling dialogue, deft humor and twisty plotting (he won an Oscar for "The Usual Suspects"), McQuarrie brought to "Rogue Nation" hefty doses of understated wit and lightning-fast sweep. But he's become an even better director in the meantime, building on the earlier film's accomplishments. He puts together the action in Fallout with a storyteller's eye, making sure every face-off has some kind of shape, mini-narratives within narratives.
It's Over-The-Top In A Way Only Cruise And 'M:I' Ever Go
You get the feeling that Cruise and his frequent partner in crime McQuarrie made a pact to go for broke here. Especially in light of his serious injury suffered in jumping a good distance from one London building to another (it does look awfully precarious when seen onscreen), it wouldn't be a total surprise if Cruise decided to make this outing as Ethan Hunt his last. If he does, he'd certainly be signing off on a very good note.
Cruise's insistence on doing his own stunts, and publicizing them, once seemed like a shallow movie star indulgence, but it's now a welcome throwback in an age of animated heroes and bloodless, computerized menace.
For Any Action Movie Fan, 'Fallout' Is Extremely Your Shit
In ragged times, the sophisticated derring-do of "Fallout" is a welcome gift, a slick and studio-polished adventure that nonetheless has the undermining wink of transgression. The movie's nerve and moxie successfully make us forget its corporate overlords, and all those other oligarchs grinding millions of American lives into nothing.
In an era of sloppy and forgettable action flicks on the one hand and overly serious "gritty" franchises on the other, the "Mission: Impossible" movies strike a pleasing balance between memorable action sequences and smaller-scale character intrigue. They're whatever the opposite of "self-important" is.
[Vox]
If you have any interest at all in "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," any inkling that you may want to someday, maybe, eventually get around to seeing it, I suggest you do so in the next several weeks, while it's still in theaters. Preferably in IMAX, if you can manage it. It's that kind of movie.
[Mashable]
TL;DR
McQuarrie's film is the most fun you're likely to have at the movies this season, a riot mounted with precision, a melee in which every punch and crunch is considered. I worry for Cruise's safety should he continue to make these films, but he at least seems to be in the best possible hands.
[Vanity Fair]
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