Moustache!

by Thom Yee

Mission: Impossible  — Fallout images courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Of all of the Mission:  Impossible movies that I liked (which is all but the second one), I have to admit that the last one, 2015’s Mission:  Impossible — Rogue Nation by director Christopher McQuarrie, is the one I probably like the least.  For all of its strengths, Rogue Nation, unlike most of its Mission:  Impossible predecessors, just didn’t have that one scene or concept that blew me away to the point that it made a real difference in the way I look at modern action movies.  It just didn’t have an equivalent to Tom Cruise narrowly avoiding detection in the vault at CIA headquarters or Tom Cruise narrowly avoiding an explosive death at the hands of an enemy drone strike or Tom Cruise narrowly avoiding falling to his death while sprinting down the tallest man-made structure in the world.  To be fair, it also didn’t have some of the least engaging, worst-looking action scenes in series history, and to be even more fair, of all of the Mission:  Impossibles, Rogue Nation is also probably the most solid and consistent purely as an action movie, which is something I’ve grown to feel about it in the years since I’ve seen it rather than something I felt about it after first seeing it.  And now we’re here with Mission:  Impossible — Fallout, the first Mission movie to continue with a director, Christopher McQuarrie again, and the closest thing we’ve seen so far in the series to a direct sequel. Continue reading →

You’re getting old, Ethan Hunt

by Thom Yee

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

It feels like it’s been a while since Tom Cruise has done anything all that weird, and by now, even the most ardent KSW-questioning, couch-preservationing, short-person-hating, parents-should-spend-time-with-their-kids-believing critics should be able to admit that he’s made some pretty solid movies lately. And what more can we ask for than that? I don’t go to a Tom Cruise movie to watch him defend Scientology or explain why his last marriage didn’t work, that’s not why I go to movies and those subjects aren’t all that interesting even outside of movies. I go to movies to watch something entertaining and hopefully engaging, and in that way Tom Cruise continues to be the perfect action movie star.

The perfect 53-year-old action movie star. Continue reading →