review: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

MISSIONARY IMPOSITION: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING
Review by Jeff DeRouen

For me, 1996 was the best summer of movies ever. My hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, had finally leveled up its theatrical experience and I spent those months sitting in the brand spankin’ new United Artists Theatres air-conditioned auditoriums.

I was surrounded by Dolby and SDDS sound and lost in the perfect picture quality of hits like Twister, The Nutty Professor, Independence Day, The Rock and more. It was banger after banger that summer and, for a college- aged movie nerd like me, it was absolute cinematic paradise.

I specifically remember shoveling popcorn into my mouth and drinking real Coke when I was introduced to agent Ethan Hunt in a stylish action thriller called Mission:Impossible – starring an actor who always delivered, based on a TV show I had never seen, and directed by a guy I really loved because I was a video store geek. I was hooked.

I needed to pee, but didn’t dare leave my seat as Ethan hung there, suspended above the floor in the much-publicized Langley heist. This safe and insurance-friendly display of a movie star doing impressive gymnastics was awe-inspiring and would evolve into Cruise becoming Hollywood’s best stunt man, constantly risking his life for our enjoyment.

I won’t bore you with specific plot elements of the new installment and it’s fine if you get lost like a five-year-old in a Wal-Mart. All you need to know is Ethan and his crew must stop the Entity or it’s the end of the world. It’s a shame, though, the movie slogs along for over an hour with Ethan being driven and flown from conversation to conversation, exposition-heavy scene after scene in place of plot-driven sequences, until FINALLY he’s under water doing something and The Final Reckoning kicks into gear.

With his team (and collaborator/director Christopher McQuarrie), Tom plans, builds, and executes, the kind of grand and complex stunts that give him the rush he craves while flying through the air, making the audience squeal with pleasure knowing he could hit the side of a mountain at any moment because it’s ACTUALLY him.

And boy is it exciting when we see Tom hang off a real airplane for the climax of The Final Reckoning - hundreds of feet in the air in one of the most exhilarating action sequences ever put on film. The sheer size of it all begs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible and it was specifically filmed for IMAX, so it periodically opens to the full aspect ratio of that giant screen – see it there if you can.

Alas, Tom and I have both aged since 1996 – one of us better than the other – and he seems ready to bow out as Ethan Hunt. This movie may not be the best in the series, but it’s a fitting send off to one of the more consistently dependable popcorn properties. And, on the bright side, there’s plenty of opportunities to pee before it starts to cook.

Mission : Impossible - The Final Reckoning plays across the city