I've seen better films out of Bollywood

Rating: 4/10 (3 February 2016)

If you have seen a Bollywood film, you know most are all flash with very little substance. Unfortunately, I would have taken one of those over this rubbish.
I picked it up on the great reviews I had heard, and watched it in Blu-Ray. When the beginning credits start rolling, when I saw that China TV and Alibaba were financing this, I had a hunch this was going to be bad.
Without giving too much away, this is a Tom Cruise love fest, with a rehash of old stories. Once again, IMF is in trouble, but this time from the Feds for funding and incorporation into the CIA. All because one agent (Ethan Hunt) believes in the "Syndicate" and there is collateral damage. Hey, this is like the first movie when he gets "NOC"'ed off and has to prove himself innocent. Action is always with a suit that somehow can weather the worst of conditions (off an airplane, bombing, fights, desert, etc.). The bad guy somehow has the unique insight to be indefeasible until Hunt is able to use some plot that appears to be hatched out of a Shamylan picture. Plot is pretty much a skeleton of the last few MI films, with some "twists" (which are pretty lame) in between. The supporting cast is basically there to give either humor (Pegg), crazy technical assistance (Rhames), glam (Ferguson), or just a warm body (Renner). Man, I could have used a few musical numbers with Cruise and Ferguson in some outlandish outfits with backup dancers to spice this movie up!
That being said, the action scenes are kind of cool if you watch them in a vacuum. In context to the plot, they become tiresome; either they drag too long, or they fail in the sense of "Everyone else is deaf, dumb and blind". I would rather watch Jackie Chan fight scenes from his worst movies; at least I know he is taking a beating for real, they work in context of the film, and he can make it look good.
While I understand that the MI films are what Tom Cruise can bank on for a check, it gets pretty stale when comparing the MI show of the 60s. The TV show at least had everyone participating in a pivotal role to carry out their mission. It never was about Phelps, Collier, Hand, or Armitage; they all worked together to make the mission work. Tom's MI film are him doing the dirty job so he gets the glory.
Old Tom is getting up there in age, and it really shows in this film. He needs to let some more talented actors (not just one, but 3-4) take the reigns of the franchise and just produce it. Grow up Tom. Even Burt Lancaster knew when to hang up the action movies.
Don't waste your $1.50 rental on this film ($1 on DVD)