Summary: Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a fun cartoon for grown-ups, a roller-coaster-in-a-theater. You will see on the screen every dollar spent to make it. When watching, see how it differs from the 1960s TV show. This shows how we have changed.
Review of Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
This film shows Tom Cruise, in fantastic shape at 56, in constant action. The sets and cinematography are excellent, even by the high standards of modern Hollywood. The acting is uniformly excellent, with small but powerful performances by Alex Baldwin (head of the IMF) and Sean Harris (as big bad guy Solomon Lane). Harris gets most of the good lines (such as “governments are descending into madness”, which is quite true).
MI-F exempifies the dominant genre in modern film: cartoons for adults. It is a high budget and heroic Bugs Bunny for grown-ups.
M:I-F quickly establishes its mad cartoon tone. The heroes do a very dangerous HALO jump (High Altitude – Low Opening). The do this to gain entrance to a disco. A disco. We know never to question why Bugs Bunny does something. There is no why in a cartoon. The whole plot of M:I-F is like that.
The 150 minutes run time consists mostly of action (fights and car chases) separated by brief bouts of exposition. The action follows The Cartoon Laws of Physics (as described by Mark O’Dowell in Esquire, June 1980). Cruise’s motorcycle crashes at high speed, sending him flying (without a helmet). He gets up and walks away. A car hits his girlfriend; she gets up and walks away. In fight, people are thrown thru walls with no injuries. Cruise drives rapidly through crowded intersections, without a bump or scratch.
MI-F takes place in a cartoon version of Paris and London. Cruise roars down empty streets. Cruise fights in a club’s giant bathroom, undisturbed by patrons — or security people wondering about the loud noises and the gunshot. That and even more massive fights in public — with many dead bodies — attract little police follow-up, despite the ever present cameras (Cruise’s face would be on every TV news show by nightfall).
Children’s cartoons vs. adults’ cartoons
Adults needs more excitement to produce the same thrills as children get from simple cartoons. Today’s action adventure films use high tech and massive budgets to give the audience a virtual roller coaster ride. As with the carnival ride, we enjoy the ride although we know where we will end up. There are some nice small surprises in the plot.
MI-F follows the tropes
The bad guys shoot a lot, but can’t hit anything. America sends only three agents to save the world, but the bad guys have scores – limitless hordes — of minions. The highly trained super agents make inexplicable mistakes to advance the plot. As in my favorite: “Where’s the plutonium?” Oops!
MI-F follows one trope that is a recent addition to the canon: the bad guys’ motivations range from mad to bizarre. In a world overflowing with terrorism, Hollywood must invent causes. The real causes that motive terrorism are politically incorrect to use.
Compare the films with the TV “Mission Impossible”
The MI films differ from the TV show (1966-73) as our America differs from that of the Greatest Generation. The original Impossible Mission Force was an off-the-books or even private group. The recourse to illegal means was extraordinary and rare. We are less naive now, and the films shows the IMF as just another government agency — and its illegal methods just business-as-usual.
Comparing then and now also shows the dumbing-down of American culture. The 53 minute TV shows features complex plots in which the IMF relies on brilliant psychology and subterfuge — and little or no force. In the two hour plus films, the IMF relies on acrobatics,relies on tech, and brute force. The TV shows were drama; the films are cartoons. America, then and now. The only hing in common between the TV shows and the films are the name and theme music.
The US government was a benign force in the TV shows, and is a bureaucratic morass of untrustworthy officials who betray more than they help the IMF. We have learned much since the 1960s.
A last word about then and now
“{Hollywood used to make} musicals and comedies and dramas and detective stories and noir and war movies. …Now Hollywood puts out scads of superhero junk and things like this with a protagonist that does things that are impossible for an ordinary human being. It’s all fantasy …”
— Review of MI-F by Tony Medley at his website.
Do we watch these because that is what Hollywood makes? Or does Hollywood make mostly action cartoons because that is what we want (the same reason McDonald’s makes fast food, not vegan cuisine).
For more information
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all film reviews, reviews of Disney and of Marvel films, and especially these about recent films…
- Star Trek reboots to give us simple stories, the cartoons we like.
- See Solo, a Star Wars film that says much about America.
- Incredibles 2, a Father’s Day gift from Disney.
- Ocean’s 8: the most dangerous film of the year.
- See the secret theme of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- Ant-Man and .the Wasp: fun for kids, boring for adults.
- Star Trek Enterprise was a mirror. We hated what we saw.
The Trailer
Another photo of Vanessa Kirby, The White Widow in MI-F
