Mission Impossible: Fallout (Dir. Christopher McQuarrie, 2h 27m)

There is a certain admirable longevity to the entire Mission Impossible franchise, as it weathers everything from a start that had to deal with comparisons to a much loved TV series, to its encounter with slowmotion dove addict, John Woo, to its weak third instalment, Cruise's bizarre, attention seeking midlife-crisis period, and onwards and upwards to the sunlit uplands it now inhabits as one of the best, if somewhat uneven, actions franchises around.
For its sixth instalment, and the second by McQuarie, Fallout picks up much where Rogue Nation finished, with double crossing agents, jawdropping practical effects, high speed chaos, and a plot no-one can follow, nor really cares about, with Hunt et all setting off, after a bungled operation, to track down three plutonium cores, and stop them being used in nuclear bombs to enact a doomsday scenario by The Apostles, a rag-tag band of former agents turned terrorists. It's as enjoyably daft, high-speed and action packed as it sounds

At the centre of this franchise, and at the centre of this film, is, undeniably, Tom Cruise; the character of Ethan Hunt is now entwined entirely with Cruise, through the low points with Cruise's private life muddying the franchise, with the third film among the weakest, through his own resurgence and return to form, and it is far to say that, at this point, Cruise has cemented his position as one of the best action film stars around, performing most of his own stunts, including the jump that delayed the film's progress for several months that remarkably made it to the final cut of the film. There is an innate unstoppably to Hunt, despite what the film throws at him, best seen in the bruising chases across Paris and London that punctuate the film, and the finale between Hunt and the main villain is a suitably bruising encounter full of fist fights and helicopter collisions that make you wince with every blow.

Around Hunt is his team, from the likable duo of Ving Rhames' Luther, and Simon Pegg's Benji, who act as a comedic foil to the admittedly charming Hunt, though they are given far more to do in the film as a whole, as well as his tech support and wheelmen,, whilst Ilsa Faust returns from Rogue Nation, forced to carry out a mission that jeopardises Hunt's own, and whose verbal sparring with Hunt lends the duo some well-written chemistry-there's an excellent, if slightly surreal scene in which her and Hunt engage in a game of cat and mouse through the streets of Paris., in which he seems to keep one . Henry Cavill's Agent Walker is an equally enjoyable sparring partner for Hunt, of a different nature, a far more physical, shoot first, ask questions later type who works for the CIA, and whose cool personality belies a menacing nature that eventually brings him into conflict with Hunt-if there's one issue with the main elements of the cast, it's that Cavill is an unlikable, rather violent,
character whose role in the first half of the film is to make you hate him.

Pitted against them are a motley crew of assorted terrorists, from Rogue Nation's returning villain Solomon Lane (a surprisingly cold and understated performance from Sean Harris, who alone among a cast of bickering, larger than life figures provides a touch of real danger to proceedings, with every scene he and Cruise share sparking with venomous energy, to Vanessa Kirby as a socialite arms dealer who is just as effective a speaker as a fighter, and is more than a match, (with her brother in tow), for Hunt. John Lark, when he finally arrives, after a couple of well-placed red herrings of impressive size, is a worthy foil for Hunt, and a suitably nasty, and driven figure, even if his true identity can be seen coming a mile off.

As with many of the previous films, the true villain of the piece, in reality, the setpieces that Hunt and his team traverse, and never has Mission Impossible felt so fluid, so full of momentum-in its globetropping romp from Berlin to Paris to London to Kashmir, from a foiled heist and subsequent chase through the streets of Paris via truck, bike and boat, to a footchase across London that seems to take shortcuts through everything from a funeral to a busy office, the film satisfyingly gathers pace, raises its stakes, and pushes Hunt and his team to the limit.

This is not to say Fallout is flawless-at points there is so much going on, in already busy scenes that the film completely forgets what it's actually doing, or pulls something so jaw-slackingly daft (for a franchise not exactly huge on realism as of late) that it becomes comedic, or at the very least, more tongue-in-cheek than expected-there's an early scene in which the group essentially punk someone, including a fake news report which includes a minor villain's utterly crazed manifesto read out, only to suddenly reveal that the events have been entirely fictitious. This is not to mention that there are several plotlines that simply disappear, mostly notably the Apostles, who after their initial introduction, seem to vanish into thin air.

But there is such a momentum to Fallout that it merrily brushes most of not all of its mistakes away with ease, and the film's breakneck pace, its heavy use of practical stunts, and its strong, no-nonsense lead deserves comparison to films suich as Mad Max Fury Road and Die Hard. This film, if nothing else, is an adventure in that great classic globe-trotting, pedal-to-the-metal, do-or-die cast, and only further cements Cruise as one of action's great stars.

Rating: Highly Recommended