If I were to ask you to name spy characters that appear in movies, how many could you come up with? Don’t worry I will wait for you….. Ok what did you come up with? Let me guess James Bond, Ethan Hunt, and Austin Powers. Now I know someone of you came up with more, but no one likes a show off, so let’s just stick with those three. The three I named have very little in common, except two of them originated in the sixties, while one was active at the same time only to be frozen for use at a later date. While there has been many Bonds, there has only been one Hunt, and he is back again in the latest “Mission Impossible”.
If you recall at the end of “Ghost Protocol” Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) was laying out a plan with his team to bring down a group called “The Syndicate”. Picking up where that film left off, Hunt is hot on the trail, but has some problems when the C.I.A’s director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) gets Congress to shut the IMF down. Hunley does not believe in the Syndicate, and orders William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) to bring Hunt back home. Of course Hunt is not going to listen and soon enlists the help of Benji (Simon Pegg) to help him find the man who Hunt believes leads The Syndicate. While putting all the pieces together, Hunt runs into Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who is a rouge agent from MI6. With the help of his team, including O.G. team member Luther (Ving Rhames), Hunt must stop The Syndicate, and save the world once again.
“Rogue Nation” is the fifth installment in the successful film series, and it keeps the streak going of showing Tom Cruise is a bad-ass, while also giving Ving Rhames a job. Bringing on it’s fifth director of the series, Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher, The Way of The Gun), who also takes care of screenwriter duties, which is a good thing, since he won an Oscar for writing one. While that is a positive, what is amazing is how Tow Cruise is hanging off the side of a plane, while most men his age think running is to strenuous. In this film Cruise reminds everyone how he is not on the same level when it comes to leading a movie. It is amazing what the man does, and with a good story and screenplay by McQuarrie, this series like Cruise, continues to get better with age. The way this franchise has reinvented itself, something other franchises can take notes from. This is a fun movie, with really only weakness coming from it’s predictable ending, which doesn’t kill the momentum the film had built up to until then. Some of you come for the story, but most of you are coming to see Hunt do some cool things, and for those of you who want that, you will not be disappointed. While this film is just hitting the theater, the plan for the next one is already in motion, probably because no matter how great Cruise is, he is not getting any younger. Knowing the next one is coming gives you something to look forward to yet again, but with “Rouge Nation” it will more than fill you up on your daily requirements of entertainment, should you choose to accept it.
Brian Taylor
