Review: Mission Impossible: Fallout

Being an old fogey, I remember when the first MI came out back in 96. Back when it was just the latest of that mid-90s trend of movies based on old TV shows. It was kind of a slow burn for me. I liked it fine, but it was hardly the standout during that particularly strong summer. I grew to like it more over the years.

MI 2 I did love at first, but it didn't hold up. 3 was almost seen as a desperation move for Tom Cruise, then still very much in Oprah couch controversy mode.

It wasn't until Ghost Protocol that this series seemed to really hit its stride. That one is still my favorite, though I did like Rogue Nation a lot too.

Fallout is a direct sequel to Rogue Nation, and it feels sort of like the ultimate version of the series. More stunts. More twists. More action. More everything. Frankly, it goes right up to the line of being TOO much.

This one brings in Henry Cavill, complete with his moustache, as a new adversary/partner/mystery man. And Angela Bassett pops up to talk tough for a couple scenes. But it's mostly the old crew. Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin. Everybody is good, of course.

This has some of the best shot action I've seen in a long time. Cruise is of course known for doing a lot of this stuff himself, but even stuff not involving him is very convincingly real. There is a welcome lack of obvious CGI or green screen. All of this stuff hums.

The actual plot, and the twists upon twists, and some of the shenanigans involving the masks, that stuff can sometimes just get tedious. And this one doesn't have many moments of comedy to break up the action.

It's not my favorite of the series. I'd probably rank it 3rd or 4th.

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