JEANNE’S REVIEW

Exhilarating, exciting and wildly entertaining, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING is the snappy sequel to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD  RECKONING PART ONE (2023), directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen. Tom Cruise stars, as he has for almost 30 years, as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, on a “mission” to save the planet from the diabolical AI program known as “the Entity”.

Supposedly the final film in this long and illustrious series, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING begins two months after the events of DEAD RECKONING PART ONE. Hunt is still after Gabriel (Esai Morales) who is still after “the Entity”. There are very serious discussions amongst past players like Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), the President of the United States, Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), director of the CIA, General Sidney (Nick Offerman), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham), a U. S. Intelligence agent, about allowing Hunt to complete this particular mission.

No one really trusts him, except President Sloane. However, at this rather serious point in time, there is no one else capable of pulling off Hunt’s insane plan, but Hunt. And he still has his crack team, Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and the newest member, Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), to support him.

This spectacular series spanning 30 years has been a herculean effort by Cruise and his vast team of collaborators. Each new film creates a huge amount of speculation regarding Cruise and his absolutely wild and crazy stunts, and now MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING is the “pièce de résistance”.

The underwater sequence with Hunt diving way down through very dark and very cold water to a wrecked Russian submarine is beyond nail-biting intensity. Not to mention claustrophobic. The cinematography by Fraser Taggart in these scenes, along with red and yellow biplanes zipping across a gorgeous South African landscape, is magnificent.

And the resounding question remains --- how does Cruise do all that? He’s been doing his own stunts forever --- and living to tell about it, but apparently there was a point in filming when it was believed he had passed out on the wing of the yellow plane. That is the ultimate example of his undeniable dedication to Ethan Hunt and the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE legacy.

I don’t care what anyone thinks about Tom Cruise --- the only thing that matters here, as film critics, is the fact that for all these many, many years, he has been at the forefront of entertaining moviegoers around the world. And MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING is the ultimate experience --- including the eclectic/electric soundtrack by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey.

If you’re not a fan --- don’t go --- and certainly don’t complain. But --- if you are --- strap in pal, because it’s a wild ride you soon won’t forget!

Opinion: Strong See It Now!

                DAVID’S REVIEW

If you had to pick one individual to save humanity from extinction, it would have to be Tom Cruise, er, Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). Such a task is difficult enough, even in movies like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING, and very few of us would be up to the task. Hell, I get in trouble when I bring home the wrong kind of cheese.

Part of the appeal of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise, of course, is the well-known fact that Cruise does virtually all his own stunts. And at 62, he hasn’t lost a step. Whether dangling from the wing of an airplane or performing some other bit of abnormal human behavior, Cruise is great fun to watch --- and equally terrifying, in a good way. He makes acting look so easy that he often doesn’t get enough credit, but he’s always on point in these movies.

Hannah Waddingham joins the cast for the first time as Admiral Neely. She is totally credible in the role of a naval officer. Almost stealing the show is Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, formerly of the CIA, now portraying President of the United States. Bassett’s character is tasked with the ultimate decision of whether the U.S. government should trust Ethan Hunt to be the savior of mankind.

Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and writer Erik Jendresen return. This is McQuarrie’s fourth turn at the helm of a MISSION film, and Jendresen is back for his second writing stint. And of course, what’s a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie without the fabulously stirring theme music made famous by Lalo Schifrin.

The team of McQuarrie and Jendresen, and their crew, have enabled the stellar cast to give moviegoers a hugely entertaining conclusion to what has been one of the most successful franchises in cinema history. For sheer tension and excitement in the movies, it doesn’t get any better than MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING. Not to be missed --- and see it on an IMAX screen if at all possible.

Opinion: Strong See It Now!