Grade: B+
For a handful of years, I was in a production of A Christmas Carol where the actors provided narration – straight from the book – when they weren’t playing a character. There might be up to three or four of us each trading off a sentence, or maybe just a fragment – but there was a rhythm and momentum that hopefully made it sound like the book was being read to you. There’s a scene early in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One that plays similarly. It takes place in a conference room, where several people are providing expository details to each other and to us. Nobody jumps over one another’s sentences, nothing is repeated, and everything is grammatically impeccable. It all feels very calculated, prepared, and rehearsed. The conversation would never in a million years happen like that in real life, but here, there’s a certain campy appeal to it.
We’re off to the races even before the all-familiar musical theme in 5/4 time kicks in. Different scenes work on their own specific level of action. There are the straight up fight/chase sequences, and others where the excitement is more of the psychological/narrative variety. There are three strong, tough, fierce women who seem to be competing for the title of Resident Femme Fatale. Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Vanessa Kirby (The Son, Pieces of a Woman) and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter from the MCU) all make compelling arguments.
Like a certain other film currently in theaters, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One features an elusive object that everyone’s trying to get, which promises huge results. We also once again have fights on TOP of a train, with occasional interruptions when they have to lay down for those pesky tunnels. Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are back, after appearing in at least most of the previous M:I movies. The biggest laugh for me came during a phone call between Pegg and Tom Cruise. Pegg is ranting and raving about how much pressure he’s under, then we cut to Cruise on his motorcycle at a massive cliff’s edge, as he contemplates how to descend onto a moving train. And Pegg, safely in his car on the ground, wants to talk about pressure?
The train scene at the end is what earned the movie its grade – and I thought about going even higher. I sat up in my seat and muttered a few choice words, as Cruise and Atwell impossibly (excuse me) make their way from one train car to the next – right in the nick of time, before each one individually disconnects and plummets off a bridge. The forthcoming Part Two is appropriately set up in a way that will build anticipation. The PG-13 rating means the violence never gets too intense. I said it so recently with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but the shoe fits once again: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a hell of a fun thrill ride at which I think everyone will have a great time. See it on the biggest screen you can. To paraphrase the star’s ex-wife from the AMC pre-show commercial, there’s sound that you can feel.
Grade: B+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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