The quintessential action film

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2016)

Full disclosure: I have never seen any of the previous Mission Impossible films. Not sure how I have avoided it, but it's true. I do vaguely recall the original TV series.
This is the quintessential action film. It has chases, explosions, danger, tension, extreme stunts, an evil conspiratorial cabal led by an implacable foe, everything. It is unsullied by much in the way of romance, no shoehorned-in sex scenes with the obligatory female character, which was excellently portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson, a Swedish actress with whom I was unfamiliar. Cruise was Cruise, a successful, if unlikely action hero. Good work by also by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.