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.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.