Rogue Cut

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) is the fourth of the Tom Cruise M:I movies, if I'm counting right. (Checks IMDB - no, it's the fifth. Never mind, let it stand.) They each have a different director and they are getting better and better. They are like a seminar on the modern action film.

This one is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote Edge of Tomorrow. It is a modern action film to an almost comic extent. There are ridiculous stunts (Tom Cruise hanging on to the outside of an airplane - done without special effects), rapid development (I blinked and suddenly everyone is on motorcycles?), high-tech McGuffins, and plot twists both clever and "WTF?". The look is almost comicbook-like, with some lovely compositions of underground lairs, etc.

It has a lot of the old crew (yay, Simon Pegg!) but one of the crew that is torturing Cruise then secretly helps him escape, is a new character, Rebecca Ferguson. Cruise asks "Am I supposed to know you?" She has one of the best parts of this movie, both as a bad-ass fighter and a woman of mystery.

I can't say much about the plot, because it whipped by a little too fast for me. There was a scene at the opera with everyone trying to kill someone, then "Australia: Six months later" (or was it Morocco?). I guess I need to watch it again - in fact, I want to watch the entire series again, and see the Modern Action Film emerge.