Brad Bird’s resolutely buoyant Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol repositioned a series of otherwise contrived money-spinning sequels on top of the summer tentpole, making it easy for an inevitable predecessor to sock out of the park. It’s back to business as usual when Cruise Factory gag-writer-turned-contract-director Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow) extends a textbook example of Hollywood’s dependency on effects as a means of supplanting storytelling. It’s a comedy/espionage demolition derby – think The Blues Brothers meets Roger Moore’s late-period 007 – with McQuarrie’s handling of the dialog scenes serving as a telltale reminder of the franchise’s small-screen roots. There’s the opening wing-walk, for which our star famously performed his own stunts, and a high-octane motorcycle chase. The rest is swish-pans, comic book background baddies who couldn’t hit a fly were it trapped in a gun barrel, airborne debris, and air brakes in the form of cutaways to comic relief Simon Pegg. (2015) — Scott Marks
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