Cruise proves he’s still the main man in Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, SEEN AT THE LIGHT CINEMA, WISBECH
STARRING: TOM CRUISE, HAYLEY ATTWELL, SIMON PEGG, ESAI MORALES, POM KLEMENTIEFF AND CARY ELWES
DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE TIME: TWO HOURS 43 MINUTES
For more than 40 years now Tom Cruise has been thrilling cinema audiences, enjoying superstar status for most of that time.
He’s not the best actor out there and, to be honest, who cares apart from him if he does his own stunts? But as far back as those Eighties classics Top Gun, Cocktail and Rain Man, he’s been at the very top of his profession - and this seventh installment of the MissIon Impossible franchise shows he’s still there.
Cruise reprises his role as field agent Ethan Hunt of the US Government’s secret Impossible Mission Force, tasked to track down a terrifying new weapon that could threaten the whole of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands.
A familiar type of plot, I know, but what follows is a thoroughly enjoyable and thrilling race around the world, with Hunt chasing and being chased.
Hayley Attwell takes time out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to put in a superb performance as unwilling accomplice Grace and enjoys great chemistry with Cruise, and Pom Klementieff rids herself of those Guardians of the Galaxy shackles to play a real badass role as one of Ethan’s many enemies, the mysterious Paris. Simon Pegg is great too, as Ethan’s buddy and tritagonist Benji Dunn.
We have car chases, fights, parachute descents and lots of train roof action, but there’s also some welcome humour here too - one particular scene between Ethan and Grace in a little Fiat 500 really made me chuckle.
And although Dead Reckoning continues the slightly irking recent trend of stories being told over two films, enough i’s were dotted and t’s crossed for the ending of this particular adventure to be satisfying.
Four decades on from Top Gun and Cruise is still the man to watch. I for one am already looking forward to Dead Reckoning Part Two coming out next summer.
Rating: 8/10
By Jeremy Ransome