The embargo has lifted on Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” I’ll have my review up tomorrow.
This is another well-reviewed ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie, it has an 82 on Metacritic (based on 37 reviews). It’s also currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (with 54 reviews logged in).
‘Dead Reckoning’ is driven by action, non-stop, relentless, high-wire thrills. As with all of the other ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, the plot is secondary. In a nutshell, it’s the perfect summer blockbuster.
The franchise is coming off three of its best movies (Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation and Fallout) — although the original 1996 Brian De Palma-directed film is still very much a fantastic piece of filmmaking.
It’s impressive how consistently reliable this franchise has been. Tom Cruise has carried it forward with various different filmmakers at the helm — people tend to forget that Jon Woo and JJ Abrams also directed one of these films.
Cruise now seems very comfortable in having McQuarrie at the helm. The 54-year-old filmmaker hit it big in the mid-90s as the whiz-kid screenwriter of “The Usual Suspects.” He then directed 2000’s underrated pulp noir “The Way of the Gun” before teaming up with Cruise.
McQuarrie has officially written a whopping nine Tom Cruise movies. That’s insane. They include four ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, “The Mummy,” “Jack Reacher,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Valkyrie.” He also did rewrites on two other Cruise vehicles: ‘Ghost Protocol’ and “American Made.”
These days, McQuarrie is all about ‘Mission: Impossible,’ and why wouldn’t he be? “Dead Reckoning,” which opens on July 12th, is the first of a two-part banger that’ll conclude next year with the second instalment. Cruise has clearly found his wingman.
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.