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Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation
I guess I should give up now. I looked at IMDB reviews for Rogue Nation and see these “10” reviews - “Best Cinema Ever Anywhere”, etc, and I know that I’m outvoted. We saw it last night, and while I enjoyed it and was on the edge of the seat for 2 hours, I have to admit that “best movie ever” isn’t exactly how I would describe it. My quotable would be more like, “A little confusing, but not a bad roller coaster ride” or something like that. The damnation of being in the middle of the pack.
In case you’ve been hiding under a log, the IM force has been disbanded by a snarling crew of politicians who meet in a dark room with desk lamps shining on their faces, due to some minor blow back from previous missions, one of which left the Kremlin on fire. The CIA, led by nefarious Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley) is going to subsume the IM force, including its superhero, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his wise-cracking crew William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). When the flick begins, the IM force is about to become goons in a room full of goons staring at computer screens.
Fortunately, just in time we have a new super-villain - Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who is compiling some sort of massive amount of cash, assassinating world leaders and who is the leader of The Syndicate, a shadowy group consisting of a number of spooks from around the world, all of whom are thought to be dead….but they’re in The Syndicate now. We also have a British agent, the ravishing and deadly Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who works for the Brits… or does she work for evil Solomon… or does she have her own agenda? We will find out. Most of the action centers around a super-advanced server farm in Morocco which plays host to critical information needed by the Syndicate, or whoever is about to defeat them. Needless to say, it will take a superhuman effort to stop this evil plot, but, even though the IM force is disbanded, you can’t keep a good bunch of pals from doing what’s right to save the world as we know it. You also can't keep Ethan from being superhuman.
I won’t tell much about how this works out but because it would be a spoiler and, because there are so many twists, double crosses, triple crosses, quadruple and quintuple crosses, that I’d need to fill many pages. I will say that, even if you don’t get all of the twists and turns, you always know that you should root for Ethan…he’s always the good guy, so forget all the rest. Will there be some romantic friction between Ethan and Ilsa? Maybe, but I could not get past either how robotic Ethan is and how deadly Ilsa is…that would make a strange bed scene. As for acting - really, what do you expect…no better or worse than it has to be to deliver the short lines. Not much acting goes on here, especially the Android known as Tom Cruise…just the usual clipped lines in an action movie. As for action - quite excellent, edge of the seat stuff, not as digital as it might have been, a lot of it looking like more traditional and dangerous FX and, quite good. As for plot, as I said, confusing, but really, all you need to know is that Ethan is good and Lane is bad. The rest is just there to confuse you. If you’re in the mood for a summer action movie, this will probably make you happy. I’m not one of the fan boys who will pronounce it to be the new Citizen Kane, but you could do worse, in fact, many summer movies have been much worse. I’ll give this one a solid 3.5. To be a 4, it would have to have some content, but the hyperkinetic relentless action keeps reminding you that you’re not in the theater for content. It does have at least one rubber mask scene, and it still has the great 10/8 beat Lalo Schrifin musical theme (recite to yourself quickly, over and over, 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2). Writing and direction is by Christopher McQuarrie, who must have been a very busy man making this movie. Go and enjoy it.
I guess I should give up now. I looked at IMDB reviews for Rogue Nation and see these “10” reviews - “Best Cinema Ever Anywhere”, etc, and I know that I’m outvoted. We saw it last night, and while I enjoyed it and was on the edge of the seat for 2 hours, I have to admit that “best movie ever” isn’t exactly how I would describe it. My quotable would be more like, “A little confusing, but not a bad roller coaster ride” or something like that. The damnation of being in the middle of the pack.
In case you’ve been hiding under a log, the IM force has been disbanded by a snarling crew of politicians who meet in a dark room with desk lamps shining on their faces, due to some minor blow back from previous missions, one of which left the Kremlin on fire. The CIA, led by nefarious Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley) is going to subsume the IM force, including its superhero, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his wise-cracking crew William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). When the flick begins, the IM force is about to become goons in a room full of goons staring at computer screens.
Fortunately, just in time we have a new super-villain - Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who is compiling some sort of massive amount of cash, assassinating world leaders and who is the leader of The Syndicate, a shadowy group consisting of a number of spooks from around the world, all of whom are thought to be dead….but they’re in The Syndicate now. We also have a British agent, the ravishing and deadly Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who works for the Brits… or does she work for evil Solomon… or does she have her own agenda? We will find out. Most of the action centers around a super-advanced server farm in Morocco which plays host to critical information needed by the Syndicate, or whoever is about to defeat them. Needless to say, it will take a superhuman effort to stop this evil plot, but, even though the IM force is disbanded, you can’t keep a good bunch of pals from doing what’s right to save the world as we know it. You also can't keep Ethan from being superhuman.
I won’t tell much about how this works out but because it would be a spoiler and, because there are so many twists, double crosses, triple crosses, quadruple and quintuple crosses, that I’d need to fill many pages. I will say that, even if you don’t get all of the twists and turns, you always know that you should root for Ethan…he’s always the good guy, so forget all the rest. Will there be some romantic friction between Ethan and Ilsa? Maybe, but I could not get past either how robotic Ethan is and how deadly Ilsa is…that would make a strange bed scene. As for acting - really, what do you expect…no better or worse than it has to be to deliver the short lines. Not much acting goes on here, especially the Android known as Tom Cruise…just the usual clipped lines in an action movie. As for action - quite excellent, edge of the seat stuff, not as digital as it might have been, a lot of it looking like more traditional and dangerous FX and, quite good. As for plot, as I said, confusing, but really, all you need to know is that Ethan is good and Lane is bad. The rest is just there to confuse you. If you’re in the mood for a summer action movie, this will probably make you happy. I’m not one of the fan boys who will pronounce it to be the new Citizen Kane, but you could do worse, in fact, many summer movies have been much worse. I’ll give this one a solid 3.5. To be a 4, it would have to have some content, but the hyperkinetic relentless action keeps reminding you that you’re not in the theater for content. It does have at least one rubber mask scene, and it still has the great 10/8 beat Lalo Schrifin musical theme (recite to yourself quickly, over and over, 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2). Writing and direction is by Christopher McQuarrie, who must have been a very busy man making this movie. Go and enjoy it.