+ Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Fight Scene of the Year: Bathroom fight scene + Best Car Chase of the Year: Paris chase + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year
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| A slick poster for Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which seems to have all the right elements |
Ethan Hunt and the IMF team are overseen by a very critical CIA big sister, as a captured nuclear expert has helped some bad people develop 3 plutonium bombs that need to be secured as soon as possible.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the 6th movie in the M:I franchise, written and directed as the 4th film by New Jerseyite master filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun (2000)), following the series' first masterpiece, which McQuarrie also directed, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015). Fallout arguably tops that film.
Tom Cruise (Rain Man (1988)) returns, still a movie star in a league of his own, although his days of leading major action movies may be numbered, - but only because age creeps up on even the best. Not that it hinders his powerhouse performance here. Fallout also brings back Rebecca Ferguson (The Greatest Showman (2017)), who handles drama and bad-ass fight scenes with equal adeptness; Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)), who has become an integral chummy member of the IMF team by now; Alec Baldwin (Blue Jasmine (2013)), SPOILER who has a moving death scene; Sean Harris (Trespass Against Us (2016)) as a returning lunatic villain; Michelle Monaghan (Perfume (2001)) as Hunt's detached soulmate; and Ving Rhames (Surrogates (2009)), still a big lump of lovely as Luther. Fresh star faces include Vanessa Kirby (Wasteland (2012)), who is sexy while exuding intelligence as the White Widow, Angela Bassett (This Means War (2012)) as CIA boss Erika, and finally Henry Cavill (I Capture the Castle (2003)) as the film's second, punchy heavy, Walker.
Cavill's beefcake macho radiation is a great fit for the movie, SPOILER and Cruise's taking on Superman himself is perhaps the greatest scoop for Fallout. A bathroom fight scene featuring the two of them, trying to secure a third, very violent male, may well be the year's coolest fight scene.
Fallout supplies the insane action sequences we are expecting from an M:I movie, - my favorite contemporary franchise by far, - with heart-pumping car and motor bike chase scenes in Paris a showstopper, just as the finale's helicopter battle and its aftermath is truly spectacular. The wide lens photography (by cinematographer Rob Hardy (Ex Machina (2015)) in this portion, - and an incredible parachuting scene earlier on, - is astounding, fabulously good-looking.
The plot also has the clever ideas, espionage twists and double plays that make us pay attention throughout, from the fantastic twist beginning (with CNN's Wolf Blitzer) onwards.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a larger-than-life terrific action thrill-ride with top-notch sound work and a pounding, truly glorious score by Lorne Balfe (13 Hours (2016)). It is the year's best explosive mass offering in cinemas, and I need to see it again up against the preceding Rogue Nation, - they both outrank just about any other action tentpole put out there in the 00's and 10's.
Related posts:
Christopher McQuarrie: Top 10: Best franchise movies
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Cruise and McQuarrie's mega-movie masterpiece
Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (also with Cruise)
Mission: Impossible franchise: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Cruise and Bird's phenomenal action spectacle
Cost: 178 mil. $
Box office: 372 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Mission: Impossible – Fallout premiered 12 July (Paris, France) and runs 147 minutes. Production was delayed due to a salary issue between Paramount and Cruise, who would only take the same or a higher salary that Universal paid him for The Mummy (2017), (which was 13 mil. $ + an unknown gross percentage. This got resolved, and shooting took place from April 2017 - March 2018 in England, including London, Paris, France, India, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and Norway. The long shoot is explained by the fact that Cruise injured his leg in London, halting production for 7 weeks, costing a reported 80 mil. $, which was paid for through insurance and so didn't affect the overall costs. Cavill's reshoots for Justice League (2017) conflicted with Fallout's production, and his mustache as Walker became problematic: McQuarrie initially offered to remove it in exchange for 3 mil. $, which they claimed it would cost to add it in post, but Paramount retracted the offer, and Warner Bros. instead had to cut out the mustache from Justice League's Superman digitally. The film opened #1 to a 61.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another week and is now poised to be beaten from the spot by The Meg. It was the best M:I opening domestically yet and the 2nd biggest of Cruise's career. Overseas, it has been especially successful so far in South Korea with a giant 43.5 mil. $ gross, and the film has yet to open in 4 markets, of which the last is pivotal: Lithuania (17 Aug.), Italy (29 Aug.), Greece (30 Aug.) and China (31 Aug.). The film must aim at beating its predecessor's 682.7 mil. $ - at least. An estimated 140 mil. $ are being spent on global marketing of it. It has raced into the #157 slot of IMDb's user-generated Top 250, sitting between Trainspotting (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007). McQuarrie's next job as director has not been announced yet. Cruise returns in the much awaited Top Gun: Maverick (2019). Mission: Impossible – Fallout is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Mission: Impossible – Fallout?
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