Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – Movie Review

by Dale · July 31, 2015

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 31 Jul 2015

The fifth Mission Impossible film brings back Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. When the head of the CIA (Alec Baldwin) shows a subcommittee how reckless IMF has been, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) warns Hunt that he is now a man without a country. However Hunt is convinced that a secret spy network called The Syndicate is a threat to the world and begins to follow Ilsa, (Rebecca Ferguson) one of their agents. With the grudging support of Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) they try to outrun the shadowy organization and take them down without the support of the government.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol had a number of fun gadgets and stunts that reinvigorated the series. Cruise’s incredible stunt work on Rogue Nation has been highlighted in all the trailers and that turns out to be the opening, pre-credits scene of the movie. The action, espionage and set pieces are spectacular in Rogue Nation. The fact that they are not constantly checking in with Washington adds to the tension as some sequences go for long stretches without dialogue, letting the action tell the story and reveal the twists and turns.

This makes the choice of making Alec Baldwin the de facto antagonist in the US government a smart one as he never needs more than a minute or so to get that part of the story across.

The downside to this all tension, all the time formula is there’s very little fun or humor. Simon Pegg’s Benji barely gets a laugh this time around as he is often in grave danger or deeply worried about Ethan. Pegg plays this perfectly, but it’s kind of a shame that there isn’t a bit more levity to the proceedings.

Nevertheless, this is such a good spy thriller with excellent, easy to understand fight sequences that it’s well worth checking out. Just don’t be surprised if you feel yourself wishing you could pause for a breather somewhere near the halfway point.

Rich, Aaron, Cal, Chris and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: