MOVIES – Your mission, Mr. Cruise, should you choose to accept it, is try to breathe some fresh air in this well-known series. Some episodes were pretty good, clever, exciting and stylish, some were cheesy and stupid, but the fifth episode definitely needs some great ideas or some fresh air. Should you succeed, the name of the series will shine once again, should you fail, your fans will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

If there’s one actor who don’t need any introductions, it’s Tom Cruise. Whether you like him or hate him, Mr Cruise is always able to entertain us with his charisma, his intense gaze, and endless energy. Yes, he’s definitely the kind of actor who would never sway an inch from his very own character and of course this absolutely true about Ethan Hunt, the super spy hero of the Mission Impossible movies.

From a more subtle TV series with a whole team working together Mission Impossible became the all-American James Bond movie starring Ethan Hunt as the main hero and other team members working in the background. What’s actually surprising is that it works pretty well, even if some episodes (especially Mission Impossible II) missed the mark somewhat. However the fourth movie was excellent so I was expecting something equally good with Rogue Agent.

Hunt hunted

The movie isn’t called Rogue Nation without a reason. The whole IMF forces are getting disbanded and Ethan Hunt is being hunted (sorry for the pun, haha) by his very own country’s secret service besides a mysterious international rogue organization called the Syndicate. He must prove the existence of the Syndicate so the CIA and the MI6 (the British Secret Service) instead of trying to catch and kill Hunt, help him dismantle the Syndicate.

Yes, the story is far from being original, you might have already heard it in James Bond movies similar spy flicks, but surprisingly it works pretty well. Yes, it works because the characters are stronger this time around. Cruise goes a bit deeper in his role: instead of being the nonchalant super hero, he’s more vulnerable here, and even when he’s goofing around, there’s a bit more depth to his character.

Impossibly sexy femme fatale and ice cold villain

The female lead actor, Rebecca Ferguson is surprisingly good as well. Besides being hands down the most desirable female character in IMF movies, she’s also a clever femme fatale, sometimes cold as ice, sometimes full of emotions.

And finally Sean Harris (who played Micheletto, the assassin of the Borgias in the medieval TV show) is nothing short of excellent as the cold hearted, cruel, yet, highly intelligent rogue British agent, the leader of the Syndicate.

Other characters are a bit better than usual as well, and thanks to the excellent scenario, they had room to expand their character a bit. (Even if the movie is still about Ethan Hunt and not a team like in the older Mission Impossible TV show.) Jeremy Renner is still pretty good as the smart ass IMF leader, William Brandt, we have to mention Alec Baldwin with his small role (a bit like cameo appearance) of the asshole CIA director, but the best supporting role goes perhaps to Simon Pegg as Hunt’s “side kick”, Benji Dunn.

Nutcase! Period.

Okay, so when they tell you that one actor is doing his own stunts you respect the said actor pretty much. But when Tom Cruise at 53 years hangs bare handed on an airplane taking off – well he must be pretty much nutcase! And that’s one of the reason we like Tom’s movies: the stunts does looks real, because they are actually real and they are really fucking crazy.

Besides the airplane take-off other stunts are pretty good as well, especially the underwater scenes, and the motor chases. Yes, sometimes it gets goofy, like in a scene when Tom’s car flips like six times, but it’s still fits the mood of the whole movie and doesn’t gets cheesy like in Mission Impossible II.

On the other hand the Vienna Opera scene is extremely stylishly executed with some nods to classic James Bond movies and other classic spy thrillers.

Cruise gets it right

I am pretty critical when it comes to old franchises like that (I pretty much disliked the last Terminator movie) but I must confess that Cruise and the director Christopher McQuarrie got it right again after the excellent Mission Impossible 4. Yes, the bar was high, but IM 5 is just as good as IM 4 – yes, there’s a bit less of crazy action, but the spy thriller part is done a bit better as well.

If you like quality action movies, there’s no question that Rogue Nation is a must see.

-BadSector-