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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One: Yes, it’s still not over yet! But apparently, after Part 2, next June, Tom Cruise (The Outsiders: Complete Novel Limited Edition 4K Boxset on 4K Blu-ray Unboxing) & co. will finally – reportedly – put Ethan Hunt’s missions to bed.
This time round, there’s a key in two parts to be found, but it takes us to a Russian submarine, where the operatives are doing cod Russian accents for English dialogue… just like reality…
However, the sub is soon doomed (albeit no implosion), the occupants are relieved of their key parts, and…
But, about that plot aspect, when it came to the recent Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the baddies wanted a key, which of course was split into two parts, requiring a lot of globetrotting, and once put together, all hell would break loose. Unsurprisingly, exactly the same plot point for Indiana Jones, except the key was the ‘dial of destiny’. I felt like asking someone to wake me up once they’d finally found it all(!)
Good Lord! Do all these films share the same scriptwriter?!
And like with the big T, once again, I keeping thinking of the gem below from the Comic Strip’s Bad News, when Nigel Planer and Rik Mayall need a key, because Peter Richardson and Adrian Edmondson have locked them in the toilet. Watch the video below – which is the whole album, so go to 13 mins 22 seconds, for the right spot for the sketch in question. Oh, and the whole album is NSFW.
And how many times have we had action films where people are running along the top of train carriages? And almost every other film in this series!
Plus, we find out that annoying ex-BBC Breakfast host, Natasha Kaplinsky, is now the head of the BBFC! No, that’s not part of the plot, it was noted on the BBFC title card before the film started, and it’s actually true! How did she get that gig?! Jesus wept! Where’s James Ferman when you need him?!
Anyhoo, as this latest film brings us 27 years after the 1996 initial entry in the series, we go back 30 years to a time before the whole thing began, with a fabricated story about a woman – Marie (Mariela Garriga) – being killed who was with Ethan, he took the rap for it, even though it was Gabriel (Esai Morales) wot did the deed… Yep, bringing in a brand new character to ret-con the storyline, despite her never being mentioned before.
But never mind that because there’s a thing Gabriel’s involved with called The Entity, which will take down data centres – leading to everything is being typed out in hard copy – which takes us into some government HQ with cameos from Rob Delaney, Mark Gatiss and Indira Varma, plus the other Robin Hood, Cary Elwes (Last Train To Christmas), being a bigwig in that department. Yet, he’s small fry compared to Henry Czerny (Ready Or Not), because for the first time since the original, Kittridge is back!
Of course, they had to have him pseudo-consoling Ethan with “I understand you’re upset” – *almost* the same as “I understand you’re very upset” in the restaurant scene from 1996.
Once complete, the key will deactivate the Entity. Ethan wants to get the key, but the trailer featured his and Kitteridge’s conversation with alternate angles, and similar goes for alternate angles and shots when he and Luther talked about how “None of our lives can mean more than this mission”, to which came the reply, “I can’t accept that”.
Other random observations in the film:
- Tom Cruise is riding horses along the Arabian Desert like in John Wick Chapter 4
- It takes 30 minutes before the opening title appears.
- After this, Tom Cruise spends a fair bit of time somehow dressed lke Roger Moore.
- Why is there no security in the baggage area into which Simon Pegg enters?
- Venice now appears to house Rome’s Colloseum (Ah, according to IMDB: “Filming started in Venice on the same day Northern Italy locked down for COVID-19. Production was hastily moved to Rome, only to be shut down again.”)
The two cops – Briggs (Shea Whigham – Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis – Top Gun: Maverick) – are more like Laurel and Hardy in their effectiveness, and also walking on the top of the train! Who in their right mind would do that?! He’s got to come down at one point! Their characters are completely surplus to requirements, as is Vanessa Kirby‘s (Pieces Of A Woman) White Widow. There really is just too many characters onscreen at once, and once again! Pom Klementieff‘s (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 IMAX 3D) Paris is like Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye, but not making anywhere near as much impact and dressed like she fell out of a pack of playing cards.
Plus, while Esai Morales was great as Del Rio in the first season of Ozark, here, he’s not putting in any effort whatsoever. In fact, everyone’s just going through the motions, apart from Cruise’s mountain jump, which would’ve looked great as an IMAX scene, but because they knew this film was going to have a mere week or so in IMAX screens before Oppenheimer came along, they decided to stick with 2.39:1 throughout, so no scenes are opened up to 1.90:1, unlike Mission Impossible: Fallout. Apparently, Dead Reckoning Part 2 will have two scenes in 1.90:1 IMAX.
Oh, and I nearly forgot about Hayley Atwell (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness IMAX 3D) as Grace, forever tagging along with Cruise… but that’s easily done because her character is easily forgettable. She left zero impression on me, both the actress and the character. May as well have been any other female character, the writing is so bland.
Overall, with lots of double-crossing between everyone (yawn!), Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One just feels like an overlong series of set-pieces, which is pretty much the case for all films in the series from No.4 onwards. I mean, 2 hours 43 minutes?! There’s a serious lack of reins being pulled in, there. What are Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie going to do for the finale – top the three-hour mark?!
However, the Orient Express train section towards the end is effective, albeit that part was shorter than I’d have liked. Add in a few more train carriages, and cut down on some of the other nonsense. I also thought that was going to make the film end on a literal cliffhanger, and go a little something like this…
And a couple more observations, but these contain SPOILERS!
And I feel like I’m the only honest person reviewing this film, since most people be like, “uH, iT’s tOm cRuIsE rUnNiNg aGaIn… iT’s gR8!”, before awarding it 10/10.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 163 minutes
Release date: July 14th 2023
Studio: 2.39:1 (Dolby Vision, Anamorphic Panavision, X-OCN XT(4K), ZRAW (4K, 6K)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 6.5/10
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Producers: Tom Cruise, Leifur B Dagfinnsson, Christopher McQuarrie
TV series: Bruce Geller
Screenplay: Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie
Music: Lorne Balfe
Cast:
Ethan Hunt: Tom Cruise
Grace: Hayley Atwell
Luther Stickell: Ving Rhames
Benji Dunn: Simon Pegg
Ilsa Faust: Rebecca Ferguson
The White Widow: Vanessa Kirby
Gabriel: Esai Morales
Paris: Pom Klementieff
Kittridge: Henry Czerny
Briggs: Shea Whigham
Degas: Greg Tarzan Davis
Zola: Frederick Schmidt
Marie: Mariela Garriga
Denlinger: Cary Elwes
NRO: Charles Parnell
NSA: Mark Gatiss
DIA: Indira Varma
JSOC: Rob Delaney
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.