Five Word Review: Thrilling, Tense, Witty, Perfect Action

Rating: 9/10 (8 August 2015)

Since a 1960s TV series was made into a Tom Cruise action flick in 1996, five different directors have offered their own unique takes on five different Mission Impossible films. Constantly threatening to become a big franchise, but never really becoming one, we've seen the directors of The Usual Suspects, Face/Off, Star Trek and The Incredibles offer up very different spy films. Now, by Christopher McQuarrie's Rogue Nation, the franchise finally appears to be a solid, consistent franchise.
I loved Ghost Protocol (2011) but having now seen Rogue Nation Brad Bird's MI film pales in comparison. This film picks up where the last ended, with Cruise's Ethan on the Hunt for a mysterious, anti-IMF organisation called the Syndicate whilst Jeremy Renner deals with Alec Baldwin and the fallout from the last film. Simple premise, simple execution, and the beauty of Rogue Nation is that it achieves exactly what it sets out to do, and it achieves it spectacularly. No need for anything over-elaborate, just fantastically staged action, including a standout thrilling and tense Bond-style scene in an opera house. Best use of 'Nessun Dorma' I'll see in a while. Cruise is still a solid lead, who at 54 can still inexplicably cling on to planes as they take off, yet his scenes are often stolen by the literally perfect comic timing of Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Jeremy Renner, each of whom make for amazing support. The film really belongs to both Cruise and the mysterious character of Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) who easily holds her own against Cruise and is definitely one to watch out for in future. Sean Harris makes a suitably creepy and scarily clever super villain, whilst Tom Hollander playing the British PM (his In the Loop character Simon Foster in all but name) also makes for some hilarious scenes.
There is little not to love about MI: Rogue Nation. The best sequence has to be a thrilling car and motorbike chase through Casablanca, which manages to upstage even the heavily marketed plane stunt, intelligently put at the start to increase expectations of things to come. Disbelief must of course be heavily suspended for the multiple car flips and truly diabolical bad-guy-aim, yet if you go into this film and don't come out having absolutely thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it, then you either hate action or espionage. If you've ever liked either of those, though, then see Rogue Nation for some of the best of both ever put to cinema. Easily, almost nonchalantly the best in the series, this incredible year for spy films continues with this, and it will be interesting to see how 007's Spectre holds up against this breath-taking ride of action and suspense. 85/100.