Mission Impossible - Dead Recognizing (2025)
Okay you have got me started on reviews again. I just finished watching the new Mission Impossible - Dead Recognizing, with Tom Cruise of course.
It would be easy to point out that each new Mission Impossible movie adds a new benchmark for what you judge each new one by. But the reality is, they've all been pretty damn amazing slices of blockbuster entertainment in their own distinctive ways. Yes, everybody derides the second Woo-helmed entry, but it was still the highest grossing film of the year (something none of the other instalments have achieved), and, if nothing else, proved the unexpected versatility of this Cruise-led behemoth.
So as we come to The Final Reckoning, it's probably best not judging it as to whether or not it's the 'best' entry in this repeatedly, sometimes successively, impossible-to-beat saga, and instead just seeing it as a fitting finale to 30 years of ferocious filmmaking and at-times insane commitment to the world of grandstanding stunts and Big Screen entertainment, tirelessly championed by its star, Tom Cruise.
The Final Reckoning isn't merely paying tribute to all the movies that came before it, it somehow manages to draw valuable threads from all of them together, with one truly emotional reference that works on multiple levels - for not only the films' earlier characters but actually the original TV shows.
But Cruise has still done the impossible, for the eighth time, making a (supposedly) final mission which is likely never ever going to be topped, which has practical stunts and physical commitment that no other person - let alone actor - on the planet would ever even consider, which no studio in this age of VFX (and, ironically, AI) would ever even think necessary, and which all comes together for the kind of blockbuster the likes of which we may never see again on the Big Screen. There's something truly grand about that, and, for all its flaws, this one deserves a respectful nod of resounding approval in all they've managed to pull off. The year won't get bigger - and certainly won't get grander - than Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
A great movie, and two thumbs up from me...
