Film review: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (or is it?)
Article content
Let's get one thing straight. This will be Tom Cruise's final Mission: Impossible movie. Unless of course it turns out not to be. Also, this prediction will self-destruct in five seconds.
Article content
Article content
Granted, there is a sense of completeness in that subtitle — The Final Reckoning — but also one of confusion, since this is the continuation of 2023's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, but without the decency of being called Part Two. It is also, for those of you who miss the days of Roman-numbered franchises: M:I VIII.
Article content
The previous instalment ended with Cruise's superspy Ethan Hunt in possession of a cruciform key that could be used to control — or destroy — an evil AI entity known as 'the Entity.' (Not very creative, these AIs.)
Article content
Article content
Director Christopher McQuarrie returns for his fourth Mission feature. (He also made the 2012 Cruise movie Jack Reacher, presumably as a form of audition.) He opens with a greatest-hits montage over a message from the president (Angela Bassett), lest we forgot what a badass Ethan has been since the first Impossible film, now almost 30 years ago.
Next, the obligatory getting-the-band-back-together sequence, as Ethan reunites with Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Grace (Hayley Atwell).
Article content
They'll need all the team members' skills and then some to defeat both the Entity and the evil Gabriel (Esai Morales), who no longer has the key but has stolen a digital poison pill that has to be combined with the AI's source code to cut the Entity down to size. MacGuffins within MacGuffins …
Article content
Article content
It's serious stuff, but not so serious that you can't chuckle at it from time to time. I was chuffed to see 'Gulf of Mexico' (not America) on a map wielded by the U.S. president, and amused that, after one ship is described onscreen as being 'somewhere in the Atlantic,' the next one we see says 'Location: Classified.' Come on, movie! We won't tell!
Article content
Article content
But as with all the M:I movies, it's the journey rather than the destination that matters, and this one doesn't disappoint. Although I have to say it doesn't quite match the summer-popcorn insanity of the last one, which featured a bonkers motorcycle jump, and that scene where the Orient Express falls to its doom: One. Railcar. At. A. Time. Ethan and Grace had to scramble to survive that from inside the train, at one point dodging a plummeting piano.
Article content
This one has an extended sequence of Cruise infiltrating the sunken Russian submarine, which decides to slowly roll over on the ocean bed like a restless sleeper, causing missiles and torpedoes to rattle around inside the hull like so much uncooked spaghetti. There's also the bit promised by the posters – Gabriel and Ethan fighting in the sky, the latter clinging to the wing of an upside-down yellow biplane.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Sawatsky Sign-Off: Pinball Champ
Sawatsky Sign-Off: Pinball Champ Adam finds out how a boy with autism, who worked on a Hollywood movie, grew-up to become a World Pinball Champion
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
Seasoned and rookie actors come together in Silver Stars production ‘Agent Quest'
What do you get when you blend summer action blockbusters with a little bit of Golden Girls? The Silver Star Musical Review Society is proud to present its 40th show -- Agent Quest. It's a take-off on spy movies with a number of operatives all interested in becoming the newest James Bond character. It's a custom script written by Gail Whiteford with spies singing, dancing and trying to eliminate each other in pursuit of their goal to become the next 007. 'I thought since there's a big kerfuffle about who the new 007 for the movie (franchise) is going to be, why didn't we do that?' said playwright Gail Whiteford, who also directs. 'There's a little bit of comics, a little bit of the Austin Powers franchise and there's four characters from the James Bond franchise.' This is the third custom script Whiteford has written for Silver Stars. The actors range in age from their 40s into their mid-80s and some are seasoned performers while others are making their stage debut. They audition for roles and sometimes Whiteford has to be able to pivot when she runs into age-related issues with the actors. 'I had this great idea of one of the characters who plays the pilot from a James Bond movie and she was up (on stage) and she was going to come down and sing in the audience,' said Whiteford. 'She said to me 'I can't do stairs, I have bad knees' so we've got one with a bad back, two with bad knees, one with a bad foot and two with bad legs.' Former professional performers Silver Stars was founded in 1998 by a troupe of former professional performers who wished to continue bringing the magic of Broadway to the stage. For the last 27 years, they've chosen an annual theme and have produced energetic, entertaining musical revue shows for spring time audiences. The group's mandate is to facilitate artistic expression and foster inclusion in their productions. 'It is so motivating and so heartwarming once you are in with a group of people who support each other in their aspirations,' said Hanna Hess, president and performer. 'Because being creative doesn't always give good feedback or it's got its ups and downs as far as growing pains go.' Hess says she's one of the two oldest performers in their mid-80s. 'If you look at the name 'silver' you may think it's really senior,' she said. 'But we are encouraging a lot of people to come in their 30s and 40s to join us as well, because we are a high energy group, anyone who comes to the show will see that energy and just because of age, it doesn't preclude the energy.' Hess says the group meets twice a week to rehearse their roles because she says sometimes they forget too much if they leave it a whole week. The Silver Stars performers are always looking for new members to join them on stage. 'We're inviting anyone who would like to come and just have the fun of performing,' she said. 'It's not for the faint of heart, there's a big commitment but it's fun to come out.' Agent Quest will host three performances at the Irish Cultural Society, 6452 – 34 Avenue NW on Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and the third on Sunday, June 8 at 2 pm. Learn more about Silver Stars and it's latest production here.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Will this be the summer of Addison Rae?
Social Sharing Over the last five years, Addison Rae has managed to make the jump from young internet celebrity to legitimate pop star. It's a transition that can be almost impossible to manage, but with the success of her 2024 song Diet Pepsi and a brat summer tailwind from her appearance on Charli XCX's Von dutch remix, the former TikToker is ready to emerge as an artist all her own. Today on Commotion, culture writer Joan Summers, music journalist Maura Johnston, and rapper Rollie Pemberton join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to share their thoughts on Rae's self-titled debut album, Addison. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion on the new Lorde single and the latest from the band Turnstile, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: We met Addison Rae as a TikTok influencer, and she's managed to do the improbable — which is, become a legitimate, bonafide pop star…. Today the debut album, Addison, came out. Joan, we've been talking about this moment for a minute…. Why is 2025 gonna be the summer of Addison Rae? Joan: I think Addison Rae, you said just perfectly, did the impossible by fully transcending from TikTok stardom to pop stardom. It is a pipeline that has been paved by many other people before her, but none quite like her, where they started on the internet as a TikToker. She was a college student, cheerleading. She was in Louisiana, got on the Internet, and fully transitioned from that to this. And I think she's really the first one to do it in this way. What I think people are picking up on is, when she debuted, there was a lot of chatter about authenticity. Is this real? Can we trust what she's doing? Is this really coming from her heart, her soul? And I think despite all the criticisms she faced post- Diet Pepsi — which were totally unfounded and mostly teenagers on the internet, if you ask me — I think that she stuck to her guns. She did something weird. She put out something unlike any of what her peers are doing right now. She found some luminaries in New York, overseas to help produce the record. And speaking of that record and those luminaries: all women. I think it's one of the first pop albums this year that we can confidently say is produced entirely by a team of up-and-coming young women. So I'm very proud of her. And I just think that people are finally resonating with what she's rocking. WATCH | Official music video for Fame is a Gun: Elamin: Joan Summers said Addison Rae is for the girls…. When you survey the way that Addison is landing, Rollie, does it feel authentic to you? Do you hear this record and go, "This feels like you are trying to give me something that is coming genuinely from you."? Rollie: You know, typically … my soul would tell me this is contrived, but knowing what's actually going on, I feel like it really is authentic. You know? I definitely feel like there was a bit of a PR blitz to establish Addison's coolness…. The Charli XCX co-sign — which by the way, that Von dutch remix is amazing. It's such an incredible song. That was the first thing that perked me up where I was like, "Oh wait, she's really about that life. She really wants to make music." It's not just a TikTok celebrity who's like, "How can I be more famous? Let me be an artist." It felt very authentic. I think the fact that she's going with the Y2K aesthetic — you know, the headphones on, she got the iPhone earpods and everything — it feels like it's really true to her interests. And the aesthetic actually just works so much for her. I feel like seeing people like Charli XCX and Lana Del Rey really getting behind her, that's the ultimate co-sign for me. They don't just do that for anybody…. I'm like, okay, these are people who are genius pop stars, strategists, artists. They see something of that in Addison Rae, and that's why they want to get behind it, I think. Elamin: I think it's really important to absorb how unlikely all of this is, because we are, I think, in a cultural moment that is very allergic to the inauthentic. I think we can kind of smell it right away. There's a sense of, "Oh, this feels like something beyond our control came together," [or] "This was assembled in a boardroom somewhere." And whenever you get that sense, I feel like there's a sense of, I don't want to mess with this. I'm not rocking with it. But for her to transcend that mountain, it's a much higher and harder mountain to climb.
