Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
★★★ 1/2
I'm not an action film buff, but I've always really enjoyed the Mission: Impossible franchise. The stunts are always riveting and impressive, but more importantly, they entertain. Although I love movies that make me think, I'm indeed a person who enjoys shutting off my brain with mindless entertainment from time to time.
This is both a positive and negative aspect of the franchise, but I can not tell you the difference between what happened in Ghost Protocol to what happened in Fallout. In fact, I would love to know the name of the one where Philip Seymour Hoffman was the villain, that was one of my favorites. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One has completely enveloped itself in its absurdity. I may be wrong, but didn't there use to be a little more meat to its plots? That's over now because the dialogue is all quippy statements. This movie could easily be called Mission: Impossible - Exposition + Stunts.
Cynicism aside, this movie is incredibly fun and the action is beyond impressive. Much was made about Tom Cruise's motorcycle jump, but I particularly enjoyed the train car falling sequence. Yes, that one leans more on special effects, but it had me gripping my seat. You know what you're going to get with these movies and though this one isn't at the top of the pack, it's certainly not at the bottom. I never thought sleight of hand would play such a pivotal part in a film with car chases in the streets of Italy or fist fights in a mysterious nightclub.
