Cruise missile hits its mark

Cruise learned to fly a helicopter in order to sit in the pilot’s seat for one belter of an aerial chase sequence. He rode his own motorbike for a chase through Paris streets. He performed his own parachute jump from a plane at 25,000 feet, and he did the rooftopjumping sequence himself, as well. He even broke his ankle during one rooftop leap and filming was halted for a couple of months while he recovered. So yes, when you see him limp away on screen after that bad landing, that’s a real broken ankle, folks. You can’t doubt the guy’s commitment.

And of course there is the contractually obligated Tom Cruise running sequence. He has a very distinctive run, it isn’t pretty but it’s his. Bless him.

Any other action movie with this kind of mindbendingly ridiculous action sequences would be laughable. When a movie such as Fast and Furious does this kind of stuff, it just looks hilarious and stupid.

But somehow when you plug these ludicrous and over-the-top action set-pieces into a Mission: Impossible movie, they make it seem OK. Even as you watch it and think “wow, that’s ridiculous”, tonally it all fits comfortably and it’s OK.

And while Fallout does have a few callbacks to previous instalments, storywise it all stands alone very comfortably, so even if you have never seen another Mission: Impossible film you should have no trouble hitting the ground running with this one.

I only wish the plot was a little less messy. (M) is now showing at Village Cinemas, Cmax and the State Cinema. Rating: