Movie Night - Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

So Thursday night was movie night, which mainly involved indulging in a Venti Starbucks English Breakfast Tea with a dash of milk and a delicacy from their muffin and biscuit range (currently the biscuit of choice is a Nutella cookie) and on this occasion some action filled adventure with the IMF Team. 

Now I must admit, I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan, I think in his career I maybe like three of his movies, namely

• ·       Outsiders
• ·       Rock of Ages
• ·       Top Gun

Other than that I can pretty much take or leave the rest.  When it comes to the Mission Impossible series, I wasn’t overly impressed with the first 3 movies.  I didn’t like the way they made Jim Phelps a bad guy.  I was a child of the 80’s and saw the original TV series on re-run and the idea of taking that character and making him the complete opposite to how I perceived him kind of rubbed. 

By the time we got to Mission Impossible 5 and the introduction of Jeremy Renner as Brandt and the development of Simon Pegg’s character Benji I started to enjoy the franchise more and that I think it what I like about Rouge Nation. 

While the movie has the typical ‘hold your breath’ stunts that we’ve come to expect from Cruise the fun for me was in the play off between Ethan and Benji.  Benji makes the movie fun and it seems to have lightened Ethan Hunt’s character from the first film.  There are some great one liners and the typical kind of comic mishaps you expect from any character Pegg plays and that’s what makes him likeable and fun to watch. 

The story – I’ll try to keep it spoiler free – follows the hunt for the Syndicate who are an anti IMF group.  Like all good espionage movies there is a central villain and Hunt is determine to unmask him and all that comes along with that.  Old favourites including Ving Rhames return and Jeremy Renner’s Brandt has taken on the mantle of representing the politically savvy pseudo man in charge.  I like this dynamic of a smaller team that over the last two movies you’ve become more invested in rather than the only constant being Cruise with an ever changing cast around him. 

There is of course a gorgeous femme fatal played by Rebecca Ferguson who some may remember from the adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s “The White Queen”.   Rebecca is great in this role, she has a real depth to her and you do wonder whose side she’s really on.  The ‘girly girl’ in me loved her wardrobe in this movie, it’s exactly how you would imagine a femme fatal to look and had elements of old Hollywood glamour with a hint or contemporary elegance.

Anyway, the movie is extremely fast paced, with the right amount of comedy to action and the spy style special effects you have come to expect from this franchise.   I really enjoyed it and wouldn’t object to seeing it again which is always a good sign to me, if I can go back to the cinema, next visit or visit after and see the same film without feeling bored or disappointed that’s a thumbs up.