Man, "Part ONE" -- coming "NEXT YEAR" -- a tough sell (when's Part 2 -- when AVATAR 3 comes out? lol), but credit Tom Cruise for keeping movies alive. And nice to see him bringing back Henry Czerny too.

That said, I don't remember a darned thing about the last one. I have it sitting on the shelf, but I honestly don't remember anything about it. Was Baldwin in it?

Good trailer. Nice to see the bad guy from the first movie is back.
I appreciate that the M:I movies always look pretty real. Obviously there are tons of FX, but they look like they exist in our world, versus Dr. Strange for example, which has the first scene showing such bad cgi it made me cringe.

Too bad about Balfe being back for the music, as it was the worst part of the last M:I movie.

Showing the Bond fans how it's done.

John Johnson wrote: ↑Mon May 23, 2022 2:58 pm Showing the Bond fans how it's done.

...and this won't end with a weepy Ethan Hunt allowing himself to get blown up because he can't be with his kid, either.

New Trailer.

Kind of amazing this is the first full trailer for the movie since the teaser dropped a full year ago.

I have been happy with this series all told. They are fun and they don't try to be more than what they are. I agree that they are better Bond films in a number of ways. I expect a better send-off for Ethan Hunt all told.

Eric W. wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 9:19 am I have been happy with this series all told. They are fun and they don't try to be more than what they are. I agree that they are better Bond films in a number of ways. I expect a better send-off for Ethan Hunt all told.

Yeah, don't expect Ethan to have a million bombs rained down on his head because he can't be with the kid he's only known has existed for...uhhhh, two days.

I confess the last 2 of these have been a bit forgettable/interchangeable, especially compared to GHOST PROTOCOL. In fact since this movie's release has been so long in coming, I couldn't remember if there had been 2 or 3 of these made since then -- it's just two as it turns out, but honestly I don't remember a whole lot about them except for Rebecca Fergson running around.

That said Cruise is going to get an awful lot of goodwill going here after TOP GUN MAVERICK, he's basically the last movie star left -- out to single-handedly revive the entire theatrical experience -- so he'll get a lot of folks to the theater again.

What I don't really understand is the "part 1" and "part 2" thing -- why not just call them separate titles?

He didn't like Top Gun Maverick much either but I've also seen someone say its "not as good as Fallout" which is not a ringing endorsement. We will see...if this isn't good this summer is going to be a mess for the industry.

I am tired of the COVID excuses for things being under par.

You can only go back to the well so many times. That's part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that this movie is really "part 1 of 2" which may be working against it. The fundamentals have to be sound.

My guess is it will be a decent romp but that assessment is probably going to be accurate. I've enjoyed the films but it's not like they have been Shakespeare writing and the Second Coming of "great movies." His assessment could easily apply to the entire series if we get down to it but I've enjoyed them for what they are. Hopefully, that continues to the end. Don't give us a No Time to Die for Ethan.

I don't understand the rationale in marketing this as "Part 1." It's not like this is HARRY POTTER or another book adaptation. Why not just give "Part 2" a different subtitle? I mean there will be some people who will avoid this movie knowing it has no ending and Part 2 will be out next year!

8/10

Tom Cruise nails it again with this 1st "Part" of DEAD RECKONING, getting a good amount of mileage out of new cast members like Hayley Atwell and a returning Henry Czerny for a lengthy but never dull blast of summer espionage escapism. The plot is actually pretty straightforward for a change -- a wayward AI is threatening mankind with a series of players, including IMF head Kitteridge (Czerny), all trying to obtain a "key" that could either stop the machine or enable whoever controls it to have unchecked global power. Ethan Hunt, of course, wants no part of the latter, so he heads out with his team (the returning Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson) to help a thief (Atwell) who's corralled part of the key before she ends up dead at the hands of a villain (Esai Morales) from Hunt's past.

Christopher McQuarrie returned to direct and co-write DEAD RECKONING which offers another series of finely orchestrated set-pieces and a slightly wayward running time that only feels bloated in its Venice section. Outside of maybe too many early scenes of Cruise sprinting from point to point, "Dead Reckoning" is enthralling and one of the series' best, accentuating Cruise's interest in real locations and action that, even if it's CGI'd, looks and feels more "real" than anything the competition currently offers.

Atwell's performance seems a little uncertain, a little too hysterical early on, but she gets better as the picture progresses, while Czerny adds some grit and enjoyable tension to a role that nobody in the series has ever inhabited better. While Lorne Balfe's exhausting score is too much (and features so much drumline percussion you'd think the UCLA Marching Band was rehearsing for halftime), the movie is a finely tuned Hollywood product -- not as loveable as "Top Gun Maverick" but nearly as well produced in its own way. The climax, featuring Cruise and friends on the Orient Express, is just tremendous as well, setting up a sequel that will surely have many audiences set to accept the next "Mission" in 2024.

I thought Dead Reckoning was terrific...tense, witty, surprisingly laugh-out-loud funny at times (especially the Rome car chase) and with an escalating sense of play that made the plus-sized running time breeze by. Cruise remains one of our last great movie star showmen, the man who puts pure entertainment over social conditioning experimentation every time, and it's great that he's the one really calling the shots over this franchise. Unless Part 2 fumbles the ball completely, the Mission: Impossible series will likely go down as one of the most consistently enjoyable film franchises in cinema history.

Agreed that Lorne Balfe's crushing score is the one majorly disappointing element of the film, plodding around leadenly on top of action sequences instead of skittering around fleetly underneath. I still don't know why McQuarrie couldn't have retained Joe Kraemer's services, unless it was a studio mandate ("Get a Zimmer Pet in there...!"). Hell, just a few months ago, I was surprised how solid Balfe's music for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was, so it's not like he's totally incapable of delivering something good.