Directed by:
Christopher McQuarrieCinematography:
Fraser TaggartComposer:
Lorne BalfeCast:
Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, a secret agent framed for the deaths of his espionage team. Fleeing from government assassins, breaking into the CIA's most impenetrable vault, clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers... and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth. (Paramount Pictures)
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Reviews (14)
The best Brosnan movie of the 1990s inadvertently released in 2023. If I leave aside the slightly WTF technophobic foundation and the chaotic motivations and donkey bridges arising from it, this is a king-sized portion of superbly constructed and charismatic action in which the climax aboard a train is the dominant feature. This is probably what Nolan’s take on Bond would look like. That’s good enough for me. I'm looking forward to part two, aka The Hunt for Red October.
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Ethan Hunt protecting his women vs. an entity with the IQ of six thousand gym teachers. This is the realization of differing views on the form of higher good, as a frail old-school action skeleton aware that variations on Lalo Schifrin's iconic theme and an epic train crash, a must since Buster Keaton, help stimulate the viewer's subconscious. There are a few missteps (running across the roof of an Abu Dhabi airport just for a joke, a fight on a Venetian bridge with an unexpectedly ineffective emotional climax), and Esai Morales' gray mold can hardly compete with Cavill's musk. However, Christopher McQuarrie can comfortably say about the duo of Beautiful Dream Plastic Surgeons that in the 21st century, no one makes Bond films without Bond as well as they do. Hopefully, in Part Two, Holly will show us a proper Queeg.
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The echo of the 90s, sending postcards about villainous AI through a time machine, sometimes appears to have the upper hand over the audience, but do not be lulled by the admitted stupidity, because the running scout Cruise and McQuarrie send it uncompromisingly into the present. It's not about WHAT, but HOW. Seeing a film that layers action scenes with stunt attractions, as well as plot twists of "good guys vs. bad guys vs. (other) bad guys," is an absolute delight for the audience. If Fallout is an amusement park of action entertainment, Dead Reckoning is the top form of creative concentration. Venice may be an early peak, but the climax of the episode with the trains, when the appreciation of the second part of the game "Uncharted" is realized, ultimately closes it off as the peak of this year's popcorn entertainment and easily parks this part of the film series behind the unattainable Rogue Nation.
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At first glance, Dead Reckoning Part One is the weakest instalment of the franchise, as it paradoxically offers half the attractions of the best of the previous instalments in the longest runtime. The car chase in Rome is nothing to write home about and the train scene is lifted from the first Mission: Impossible, plus there is a hopped-up version of the most thrilling scene from The Lost World. BUT! On the second viewing, I found Dead Reckoning Part One to be the most entertaining of all the Mission: Impossible movies thanks to its plot. The way the movie’s subject perfectly coincides with the threat of artificial intelligence; the constellation of characters from the previous instalments, including Kittridge from the first one; the new ultimate bad guy Gabriel, whom Ethan Hunt has double the reason to hate more than anything else in the world; the sincere emotion of the scene on the Conzafelzi bridge in Venice; the new beauty Hayley Atwell, who shares perfect chemistry with Tom Cruise; and plenty of humorous and imaginative details that dress up the scenes that seem less than innovative at first glance – the airport, the car chase in Rome, the incorporation of the well-known motorcycle jump into the train and the almost cinephilically orgiastic climax that transforms the aforementioned scene from The Lost World into an absolute blockbuster thrill. And we’re only halfway through the movie. If Part Two has the build-up that Cruise and McQuarrie know it must have, Dead Reckoning will become the alpha instalment of the franchise and will possibly set a new course for the multi-part delivery of Ethan Hunt’s future impossible missions. The news that Tom plans to keep making them until he’s eighty made my day.
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Some brilliantly overblown action sequences in a generally problematic film for me. MI may look deadly serious, fateful, whatever, but I'm afraid we're already on the level of the Fast and Furious franchise in terms of plot intelligence. The whole AI stampede is utterly ludicrously contrived, the plot still has to be explained verbatim by one of the characters to get the viewer to at least frame it, but it doesn't help much. If we forget about the craftsmanship and just think about the plot itself... I don't believe it makes sense to anyone. For example the dialogue exchange at the Venetian party, WTF? We spend over two and a half hours looking for a key, next thing we know we're diving towards a submarine for over two and a half hours, then Cruise shoves the key up the AI's ass and it goes nuts or something. 83 percent and 620th best movie, My God.
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