Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861944#Comment_120861944

It wasn't just the cycle jump where the brushing out of wires kinda undermined the stunt: that train crashing off the cliff was a real stunt as well! But same problem with the CGI accentuation kinda undercutting the physicality of a real locomotive plummeting off a height...

https://youtu.be/Kg1NCNh1Sdc

ancapailldorcha

On the whole, I really enjoyed it. Don't know if the middle lagged a bit or I was just pissed off at the parents who brought small children to the showing I went to with their luminescent shoes and crying but on the whole, this was quite good. I don't overly like Tom Cruise but the man always gives it his all so I can't fault him for that. It's a solid romp and the rest are all on Paramount+ so I must check those out as well.

walshb

Maybe in minority here by what a load of over-acted pretentious nonsense. Some a the scenes and dialogue were just absurdly exaggerated. Weird. Remove the action scenes and it was really poor.

And the acting was so ham!! All so scripted with their sentences and interjections. Really felt so stiff and forced.

it was so far-removed from some of the earlier films. Cruise is just very unconvincing. Lacked any sort stage presence.

and wtf was the story with the key? Supposedly the most important thing in the universe and every 5 mins they were losing the fooking thing..

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120863031#Comment_120863031

For anyone without Paramount+ they're all in the Channel 4 app at the moment as well. You have to put up with adverts, but it's free

Arghus

I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was as good as either of Rouge Nation or Fallout.

I know nuance and shades of light and dark are not really the series' thing post MI:3 - everything resembling a plot is essentially just a means to string a pile of set-pieces together. Which I've generally been okay with, but I thought this entry was dumber and broader than what has come before and some of the exposition and dialogue was downright cheesy. The scene where the idea of the "entity" is spelled out in block capitals to Cary Elwes, had me wincing with how naff it was. The plot is an incomprehensible mess.

But, yes, I know, it's not really about that, so that criticism only goes so far. But as a "turn your brain" off blockbuster I don't think it reached the heights of previous editions. Now, those are really high standards, but the action felt a bit less inspired, a bit more tired and definitely less physically real than its most recent predecessors.

I did enjoy it - it's still a superior class of action blockbuster - and would still reccomend it, but I am surprised people are so effusive about it.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120863471#Comment_120863471

I'd no idea C4 was available in Ireland. Good shout!

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120863923#Comment_120863923

Yeah, works as is, no VPN needed. Adverts, of course, but they're no worse than rte player 😋

JP Liz V1

Spoiler Warning

It's a shame Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust was killed off

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120865030#Comment_120865030

Well it was brought up earlier:

Spoiler Warning

Is she? The AI was quite arrogant about Hunt having to choose one of the women, and it'd stand to reason that in a series about fake outs and espionage, Ilsa wasn't dead and they faked it to fool the Entity into thinking everyone was on the path it wanted. Hunt knowing if Ilsa "died" they could control the entity's narrative from there.

Side bar but if people haven't, check out Apple's series "Silo"; Rebecca Ferguson stars in it and she's phenomenal.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120865144#Comment_120865144

On this subject;

Spoiler Warning

I've been trying to remember the journey of the two knives that Grace gets - I remember the camera making a point of seeing where they come from, before she snatches them up and pulls a runner. I remember in that moment, something about the knives tickled my brain, but for the life of me I can't remember what! Then she uses them with Gabriel, before he uses one to kill Ilsa. If there's to be a fake-out here, I'm wondering if that plays a part, introducing the only weapons to that clash between Gabriel and Grace, with Grace walking into it instead of running away. That bit of behaviour never made sense from a character who (reasonably enough) runs away from every dangerous situation - unless it was to make sure he got his hands on these dummy weapons. From that point, he would either 'kill' Grace with them, or allow Ilsa to turn up right behind to fake her own death - either way, completing the Entity's prediction, and giving Hunt et al the edge. Possible, or looking waaaay too into things? (I also just don't want to her to be gone...)

Full_Circle_81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120862533#Comment_120862533

Yep I'm surprised that a lot of people don't seem to rate the first one. I've watched it a billion times and think it still holds up. De Palmas style/direction is so unique and even if a few of the effects look kind of ropey now, the set pieces themselves are very well done (the Langley heist being an all-timer stone cold classic!).

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120863967#Comment_120863967

Sadly the option to pay to go ad-free isn't available without a credit card linked to a UK address. Myself and Mrs Sleepy watch a lot of All4 and wanted to subscribe but couldn't!

cheese sandwich

I watched the film yesterday and I can’t understand the hype around it. It’s pretty entertaining and the action scenes are well done but the storyline is so abysmally stupid I found myself frequently laughing to myself at how preposterous it was. I don’t expect a strong plot from a 100 minute B-movie, but this was 2hr 45 mins long with a lot of talk about “The Entity” and that stupid key, so I think viewers were entitled to expect something better. Plus I found Cruise’s overacting very annoying at times and Simon Pegg continues to be miscast. On the upside, the scene at the end on the train was well done. But overall, it was 3/5, no more.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120865805#Comment_120865805

Mission Impossible 1996 is a great film. Leagues ahead of this one.

walshb

Another thing: Cruise needs to give up the action man nonsense. He looks ridiculous. Has a massive ego. I watched Impossibe Missions the other night. Hour long doc about the mission impossible movies.

Tom, Simon and Hayley. It’s Simon and Hayley telling Tom how great he is for the whole hour and him grinning like a Cheshire Cat lapping it up. Cringe.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120867158#Comment_120867158

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120867287#Comment_120867287

Have you seen any of the others? Cos part of the appeal of these films has been precisely that action-man schtick, with Fallout the zenith for real world, insane stunts.

Honestly I can't stand Cruise as a person at all, but I respect and admire the man's desire to restart the simple of concept of Blockbusters containing proper daredevil stunts and visceral action; between these films and Top Gun: Maverick, he fronts up as an action lead. He and Keanu leading the way among a sea of fakery.

Having tried to watch The Flash and its awful, awful CGI I appreciate Cruise's mania all the more.

Agent Coulson

On Ilsa.

Spoiler Warning

They did the fake out on her death in the desert at the start of the movie would they do it a second time on the bridge?

JoeA3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120867287#Comment_120867287

I dunno, I think Cruise always seems very self-aware in interviews and seems up for a laugh. Other actors and directors generally seem super eager to work with him / for him which must count for something? Obviously people will want to work on a guaranteed blockbuster Cruise project to boost their own profiles but if he had a reputation for being difficult/ego-centric/an A-hole, the people queuing up to work with him would very quickly diminish.

This is years old, it dates back to the appalling MI:2 but I think it shows he is very self aware and more than willing to send himself up…

https://youtu.be/Fb_qhPP6IUk

RunningFlyer

Thinking of going to see this next week… do you need to have seen the other recent MIs to understand the plot more or is it ok to go to watch as a stand-alone?

Ive seen Ghost Protocol I think on TV before but wasn’t paying too much attention to the plot, just enjoyed the action scenes!

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120868655#Comment_120868655

Not at all saying he’s an A-hole. I think he comes across sound. Very genuine guy, albeit very intense. I just think he has really regressed as an actor.

I used to love Cruise in films. He was extraordinary in some roles. These action roles he’s been playing years are stale in my view.

JoeA3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120868690#Comment_120868690

There are some references back to all of the previous films yes, barring MI:2 I’d say!. Right back to the first one in fact, as a major character from the original movie reappears in this one.

That said, the plot isn’t too taxing and I don’t think you need to sit through all of them.

Loughc

I got paramount plus on the cheap last week and rewatched MI 1 & 2. 1 still holds up today and 2 made me audibly laugh out loud at all the slow mo scenes in it. It looks and feels like a bad 2000 music video.

Dead reckoning was grand set pieces and action sequences looked great.

The Entity name was beyond annoying if they said it once the said it a million times. The two agents assigned to track hunt down should be handed their p45s. And the villain had absolutely no menacing aura about him at all.

Just looked smug and smary over evil and threatening.

Paris had a better showing than Gabriel. Absolutely ruthless when needed to be.

Id give it a 6/10. Grand way to pass a night away. Will still go see part two but don’t think this will be one to rewatch again.

B.A._Baracus

Saw this last night and enjoyed it. That said, I am in the camp of that the first mission impossible is the best. That's a film while the rest are movies - if that makes sense.

If you go in accepting what it is then you will enjoy yourself.

Decuc500

I loved the first half of it. There were a couple of great set pieces. But when it got to Venice it lost me a bit, especially with the fate of that one character.

The second half was a bit flabby and I was never exactly sure who had the key at any one time.

Of course the final set piece was spectacular but we've seen Tom Cruise driving off that cliff so many times it lost a bit of the magic actually seeing it in the film.

I'd like to see Christopher McQuarrie going back to do a smaller film like The Way of the Gun.

razorblunt

It was OK. Definitely the weakest of the series. One of the opening scenes in the debrief room where ...everyone got .... Chance to speak... And say a ... Few words that .... Kept... the sentence going ... but just looked ... .... (oh wait it's my line) ...and sounded Ridiculous.

The amount of literal head nods between Atwell and Cruise in front of everyone was so camp and twee. Adding a character that was so green into a plot that was trying to convey this was the greatest threat ever didn't really fit in well.

Also, he's some man for [spoiler] bumping a love interest out of the way for a new one [/spoiler] it was like an old Bond movie.

The train crash looked good ... in parts and awful in others. The last minute saves were just laughable.

The villain was actually quite cool I thought and had a lingering physical threat but they let it all done with the "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn" moment.

5/10.

RickBlaine

I am also a little puzzled by the CGI distracting from physical stunts that Cruise does. In Fallout, I initially didn't know he actually did the HALO jump because he was surrounded by a CG lightning storm. I get you can't have Cruise jumping into an actual storm but how about amending the script to properly showcase the realistic stunts. The plane hanging shot from Rogue Nation and the Burj Khalifa climbing scene from Ghost Protocol worked best because there was minimal noticeable CGI (I'm guessing it mostly involved removing safety harnesses).

The problem I have with the CGI overlay on the ramp in Dead Reckoning is that it seemed too rocky for the speed the bike was at. I think it needed to be more grassy. Actually doing some set dressing on the ramp itself might have helped too rather than fully relying on CGI assuming it would have been safe to do so.

But I still admire the huge amount of preparation Cruise and the team did to pull it off.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120874721#Comment_120874721

I suppose set dressing would have necessitated an even larger crew halfway up the mountain - between the dressers & the materials themselves - and set dressing requires continuity maintenance between takes as well (there were 6 apparently?); so I guess the hope and belief was that the post-production CGI would be good enough to look convincing. IIRC the shoot was during CoVid as well, right? Perhaps that also factored into things, where the production could only have X number of crew behind the camera for the entire stunt.

Agree otherwise; Rogue Nation and Protocol's stunts have aged much better precisely because they had much less CGI in them (bar the sandstorm from Protocol that was off in the distance); and even in Fallout the later stunts with the helicopter chase & foot-chase through London left more of a mark because they involved minimal CGI.

ShaneU

Some of the scenes were ridiculous like the debrief at the start with everyone finishing each others sentences but the meeting at the night club was the worst....

Spoiler Warning

"The AI told me I will get the key on a train tomorrow but only after one of Ethan Hunt's friends DIEEE!!! LMAO I thought I was watching a parody, so ridiculous! And then only one of the White Witch's bodyguard's carries a gun of course! Some serious suspension of disbelief required for these movies, felt the exact same watching John Wick 4.

johnny_ultimate

I loved that early debrief sequence. It was such a heightened, immensely watchable scene - leaning into the artificiality and genre tropes while filming it all with real verve and energy. Is it preposterous? Of course, but it's fundamentally a preposterous series, so it's great to see McQuarrie and the cast having a lot of fun in how they stage what could be rote, bog-standard scenes.

RickBlaine

I don't go to MI films for the realism of its plotting. McQuarrie has said they start the writing with a number of action set pieces they want to do and then base a plot around them. That's fine with me for the type of films they are. They aren't trying to be Le Carre.