Mission accomplished: it’s engrossing
Mission: Impossible – Fall Out. (M, 148 minutes) Directed by Christopher Mcquarrie ★★★★
It starts in Dublin. I’m at least sure of that much.
And the next bit, with much shooting, a few explosions, a possible murder, and a fiendishly clever bit of theatrics almost certainly happens in Berlin.
After that, we’re in Paris, because not even Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt could fake the Eiffel Tower being in the back of every shot. And then, I’m afraid you’re on your own.
It’s the same with every one of the last few Mission: Impossible instalments. I walk in, full of good intentions, positively trembling with professionalism, and then walk out two hours and more later, still trying to piece together exactly who was double-crossing who, what that twist about 90 minutes in had even meant and who was on which team all along.
And by the end of this latest episode – Fallout – Scooby Doo, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy could have popped out from behind the latex masks and I wouldn’t have been any less lost.
But, given that all the complexity is nothing but a devilish plot to make Mrs Tuckett’s boy Graeme stump up for a second ticket to work it all out and maybe score some bragging rights at the pub, the only question you really want this review to answer is the same one as every week.
Does Mission: Impossible – Fallout deliver what the poster and the trailer are promising? And the answer is yes. By hokey, yes.
Regardless of whether you’ve been keeping notes on exactly who is doing what to whom, by the time Fallout hits its straps – in a lengthy and stunningly choreographed motorbike chase through central Paris – you’ll be too engrossed to really care.
I found myself dropping into the storyline at random moments, gleaning a little more plot, before sitting back and just letting my jaw down at the mayhem unfolding before me.
Knowing how much of his own stuntwork the now 57-year-old Cruise is doing only makes the action that much more impressive.
Around Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, and Michelle Monaghan all reprise their roles from other instalments. Sean Harris (24 Hour Party People) returns as the dastardly and maybe a little too Moriarty-ish supervillain Solomon Lane.
New to the team are Angela Bassett and Henry Cavill. The casting of Cavill is particularly pleasing, given that we know him best as Superman, so we figure he’ll be up for a fight when the time comes.
The Mission: Impossible franchise maybe hasn’t always been a watchword for reliability and entertainment value.
After the second instalment in 2000, which played like it wanted to be considered in the same league as the then flailing James Bond series, not many of us would have walked out into the night predicting that nearly two decades later we would still be queuing up at the popcorn counter to see Cruise’s bunchy hero getting beat up and betrayed in various corners of the planet.
But here we are, the shark is still unjumped and this latest effort is a serious contender for best action movie of the past 12 months.
And all that beautiful land around Central Otago, standing in for Kashmir in the film’s rousing final scenes – Jeebers, but it’s nice to call New Zealand home. Bravo.
By the end of this latest episode, Scooby Doo, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy could have popped out from behind the latex masks and I wouldn’t have been any less lost.