A One Mann’s Movies review of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1” (2023).
My chance to have another rant about the jokers who put the “Mission: Impossible” trailers together. As it was, I had managed to avoid watching the whole trailer for the last 18 months. Now I have, and the images they chose to include have appalled me. Why do these dick-heads in marketing think the movie-going public want to SEE all of the best money-shots in the film in advance to make them want to GO AND SEE the film?
There are two bits in particular – a motorcycle bit and a train bit – that are truly spectacular. Wouldn’t it have been nice for both of these scenes to have been a surprise to the general public? A WOW! moment in the cinema? Wouldn’t that have made people tell all of their friends “You just HAVE to go and see Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning….”? #knuckleheads
Now I have that rant off my chest (until the next film), let me concentrate on the film. It’s depressing. It’s really depressing. But only in that Tom bloody Cruise is only a year younger than I am, yet his knees are such that he can still run at full pelt along the top of Abu Dhabi’s airport terminal. It’s JUST NOT FAIR!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
An Artificial Intelligence engine called “The Entity” is showing signs of sentient life. It can only be controlled by a two-part key. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is sent to acquire the half held by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). But with the world’s powers, and the minions of The Entity itself, desperate to recover the key this is not going to be “Mission: A Bit Tricky”.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate violence, threat”.)
Talent:
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Hayley Attwell, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Cary Elwes.
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie.
Written by: Erik Jendresen & Christopher McQuarrie. (Based on the TV series by Bruce Geller).
Twitter Handle: #MissionImpossible.
Linked at the wrist during a thrilling chase through Rome. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Hayley Atwell as Grace. (Source: Paramount Pictures).
“Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” Review:
Positives:
- This is a great action movie, and the fights, car chases and stunts included are top-notch. The stunt work on these films is really spectacular. I’ve long lobbied for the inclusion of an Oscar for Stunt Work. The stunt coordinator here – Wade Eastwood, leading a massive stunt team, which of course includes Cruise himself – deserves a nomination for sure.
- The traditional cast are joined by Hayley Atwell, best known for playing Peggy Carter in the Marvel universe. She adds great chemistry to the mix as the double-dealing pickpocket who gets more than she bargains with from her latest target. This interchange with Cruise, and the subsequent Rome car-chase, is excellent. London-born Atwell really makes her mark.
- I also loved Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. She has matured into a firm-series favourite as her character has grown romantically closer to Hunt.
- The strong female cast is rounded off by:
- Vanessa Kirby, reprising her role as The White Widow and getting to play two-roles – the same, but brilliantly different! (Watch the eyes!) – and
- Pom Klementieff (from “Guardians of the Galaxy“), with a deliciously psychopathic smile as the chief villainess of the piece.
Negatives:
- Although the action was great, aspects of this film felt a little unoriginal.
- We had as a key part of the film the search for two parts of an object that needed to be brought together. Reference “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
- We saw a very similar train-top fight scene in “Skyfall” and (much more recently) in (again) “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny“. (True, not all of them had Tom Cruise ACTUALLY on top of a train doing 60mph!).
- Although a VERY exciting sequence, the vertical train carriages were almost a retread of the Winnebago scene in “Jurassic Park: The Lost World”.
- We had a car chase through Rome in both “Spectre” and (again, more recently) in “Fast X“. I know it must be impossible to come up with variations on a theme all the time. But for the latter case there ARE exciting cities in the world other than Venice, Paris and Rome. What about Lisbon, Barcelona, Geneva?
- Again, I’d object about the materials – other than the trailer – that are getting published ahead of the film’s released. Although TRYING to avoid it, I saw the ‘behind the scenes’ clip of Cruise racing a motorcycle up the RAMPS for one of the key stunts. Having seen that, it ruined the magic. I could immediately make out in the finished production the special effect joins as they digitally removed those ramps. (The ride was also too smooth for the terrain shown by half!) These ‘featurettes’ used to be reserved for the Blu-ray/DVD Special Features. Now, the curtain is ripped away to reveal the ‘great and mighty Oz’ before Dorothy has even got one slippered foot inside the Emerald City!
- There are a couple of moments in the film that defy belief. One involves a Fiat 500 and a train**. Another involving a man and a train window.
- Although it was wonderful to see Henry Czerny back as Eugene Kittridge – a 27 year gap from the original “Mission: Impossible” film – there’s no reference as to how or why he is back leading the IMF. (Understandably Jeremy Renner was not available for the film after his terrible snowmobile accident).
- It’s an irritatingly obtuse title. The only reference to it in the film is an irrelevant line in the opening submarine scene.
(** Actually, after a second watch today, this is less belief defying. I got to focus on what Ethan Hunt was trying to do as the train approached. )
Summary Thoughts on “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1”
This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I loved most of the previous MI films, especially the most recent three: “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”; “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout“. Did it meet my high expectations? Hmmm, no, not quite. The convoluted plot demands a rewatch to fully pick up on it all (but that’s not a bad thing). But to me, overall this comes around a par with “Fallout” and so a tad below my personal favourite “Rogue Nation”.
But did I enjoy watching it on big screen? You betcha! So much so that I’m just out from a second viewing of the film.
Postscript
Interestingly, I read that the whole opening submarine scene was supposed to be the opening for “Dead Reckoning Part 2”. But the studios thought the audience would be confused by not being ‘ahead of the game’ and not seeing where the key fitted. When the film comes out in disk/streaming it would be fun to start it at the Amsterdam pizza delivery. I bet the story might then be more intriguing!
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Trailer for “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m1drlOZSDw . It’s probably WAYYY too late for you, and you’ve already seen this trailer. But, per my rant above, this has a lot of the key stunts included in it and is BEST AVOIDED!
Featurette on THE stunt
And here is the incredible featurette on the filming of the bike stunt. Simply extraordinary dedication to the craft by Cruise.
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