Ticket 2 Ride

I loved the television show, but have a hit and miss liking of the films. Mission Impossible has turned into one of the most successful action-adventure franchises in film history. It’s Tom Cruise’s personal ATM machine, making him exceedingly wealthy.

Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part One is the latest offering, should you choose to accept it. The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your viewing. For ease of writing, I’m just going to refer to it as Part One. Never has one film attempted to crisscross so many film genres. It wants to be a bit of everything: funny, deathly, breathtaking, fantasy, high concept and quirky. That mission is impossible.

Will audiences find it satisfying? They obviously did. But is it a good film?

First of all, it looks great on the screen, obviously a lot of Paramount’s money went into the production and it shows. A travelogue like the Bond films, the scenery is beautiful and the special effects are quite good. The action sequences are the best parts of the movie. Tom Cruise’s stunts are what people talked about: primarily the motorcycle scene. Did he really do it, or how much of it was him? It seems that each Mission Impossible film has its own signature stunt sequence, reminiscent of the Bond films: put the audience on the edge of their seats and get them to wondering, how did they do that?

So, what’s this film about? I’m not even going to try and summarize the plot because it’s incomprehensible, except that Hunt and his adversaries were all after the other part of a key. Putting the key together unlocked something big. You know there’s a problem when the actors are given the task of explaining in to the audience in their dialogue. For all the action, Part One is very talky, and not in a good way. McQuarrie has managed to populate the film with familiar tricks of the trade for escapes, stunts, false disguises, etc. Exciting, but not very original.

The IMF (Impossible Mission Force) currently consists of Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). Hayley Atwell plays Grace, a thief who allies herself with Ethan and at least for now joins the IMF. Rebecca Ferguson has portrayed reoccurring character Ilsa Faust, an MI6 agent, usually an ally. Throughout the film series, characters have come and gone, with some popping up again. The longest running supporting characters, Benji and Luther, have little to do in this film. Their roles are experts in computer technology and disguise creation. In Part One, they mostly offer up pearls of wisdom and provide heartfelt reflection, almost as if they thought up these points ahead of time. Pegg and Rhames are fine actors and now serve as the emotional heart of the film. I expected them to start singing “That’s What Friends Are For,” during one scene.

The Mission Impossible film series has used numerous A-list directors, including Brian de Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams and lately, Christopher McQuarrie, who has worked on most of Cruise’s films over the past decade. Many writers including Robert Towne, J.J. Abrams, and McQuarrie have penned films in this series. McQuarrie had written, produced or directed most of these films. McQuarrie does good work, his films with Cruise have made billions of dollars.

So what do I really think?

Part One was less Sean Connery and more Harry Potter. Mission Impossible is veering dangerously into fantasyland and total suspension of belief. Sure, the Artificial Intelligence storyline is topical and compelling, but there is a line between realistic fiction and pure fantasy, and this film wants to put one foot in each at the same time. That’s certainly admirable and daring, but McQuarrie and Cruise wonder too far afield for me.

A good film raises questions and pushes for answers that may not exist. It’s like finding the sweet-spot between the gas pedal and the clutch. These guys like the grind the gears and hope the audience is high on the thrill. One has to admit, Cruise is darn good at underplaying this scene.

McQuarrie and Cruise are too ambitious for some of what they want to pull off. Does that make this a bad film? No. They’ve raised the bar on themselves, which happens in a film series. The plot is made far too complex and murky, and the film is far too long. What I’ll remember about the film are the action scenes, beautiful scenery and the technical wizardry of the production crew, not the film itself.

The film got bodies back in theaters and made for a great summer viewing experience. Even on the small screen, the film is visually impressive, let’s just go with that. There’s a Part Two?

3/5