MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION (4K UHD)

“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” is the latest mission that the IMF team has chosen to accept. The difference is this time the IMF is being broken up by the CIA. Alec Baldwin shows up to lay down the brass tacks, as the team has upset recent activities by the Syndicate. The Syndicate is a privately funded super spy team that seems to be hell bent on creating a rogue nation. Throw in the scene of Tom Cruise riding the plane in Russia to accentuate the point.

This fifth outing plays like a spiritual cousin to the first motion picture. From the opening with the girl in the record shop to the constant back and forth among the team, you never know who is loyal to whom. Relationships are forged and new exotic team members are added with great panache. Ultimately, we end up getting a villain that doesn’t really add much to the mix.

Tom Cruise is the modern John Wayne and he brings a certain magic to the action films that he touches. Even when he makes a film that I don’t dig, I’ll still watch to see what the man does with the material. However, there is a bizarre need to turn Cruise into a modern Superman. Nothing can kill any of his characters and he seems to have a cartoonish way to defy death and injury.

Chris McQuarrie directs and writes action in a way that I’d like to see other emulate. Playing with sound, set design and crowd placement allows McQuarrie to create a wonderland of choreography. I did find that he went over the top with the globe trotting. But, I guess that’s par for the course with espionage flicks. Just streamline the process, as this film hops to more new locales than a Star Wars flick.

If this is the face of modern American action movies, then our cinema can match and top James Bond. Ethan Hunt lacks a defining supporting team, but it’s not like Bond was ever known for his sidekicks. Before you chime in, Q is not a sidekick. He’s a department equal that serves OHMSS just as much as Bond. I don’t know what you can say for Benji.