3.5 stars out of 5
Full disclosure: Yes, writer/director Chris McQuarrie was a friend of mine in high school. Yes, around 1991 he said I should come out to Hollywood. Yes, I decided to stay in a crappy marketing/training job in Ewing, New Jersey. And yes, soon after, Chris won an Oscar for writing The Usual Suspects. Look, I am not here to dwell on the past and play “what if.” I’m here to review Mission: Impossible 408: You’re Not Still Thinking About That Scientology Documentary Are You?
I just looked back at my review of 2012’s Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, and not much has changed. I enjoyed that one too, and also gave it 3.5 stars. I’m still only seeing Cruise in the M:I films these days. He looks even more tired than he did in Ghost Protocol—perhaps even a little bloated. And for the second installment in a row, the franchise has opted to skimp on high-wattage co-stars. (An exception is Alec Baldwin, who’s kind of phoning it in as a by-the-book government guy, but come on, it’s always good to see Baldwin.)
Of the familiar co-stars, Simon Pegg gets the most to do, Jeremy Renner talks a lot, and Ving Rhames returns to active duty but generally stands around twiddling his thumbs. The best surprise is Rebecca Ferguson as Ethan Hunt’s… partner? Nemesis? McQuarrie’s script does a real nice job keeping us guessing which side she’s on. Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust is a pleasingly strong female character, classy but kicking ass, with a hint of a love connection yet not overdone, and I really appreciate that she wasn’t oversexualized, despite the obligatory stepping-out-of-a-pool scene.
It is Mission: Impossible, so there’s going to be some dumb stuff: a congressional committee that looks like the Star Chamber, really fake-looking sound stages, a “six months later” scene with a now-bearded Cruise that made me laugh out loud, etc. And the blatant product placement (BMW, Cisco, Halo) was pretty distracting. But there is also a lot of cool stuff (for example, a nice twist on the overused concept of a ledger containing all the names of the bad guys) and several exciting set pieces: on a plane, in a record shop, at the opera (where thankfully, no one notices gunplay), in some sort of water-filled spinning turbine, in a flipping car, on motorcycles. Plus masks and dart guns and that theme music and all that other fun spy junk.
I think McQuarrie knows we’re not supposed to take any of this too seriously—we’ll leave that to some other action franchises—so the overall mood is light and there are laughs throughout. It’s summer—go to the movies and relax—forget about some crucial life choice you hypothetically did or didn’t make 24 years ago….
Jack Silbert, curator