By DANNY BUTTLER
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (M)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin
IT’S an ice-cool name for a very lukewarm movie.
But then, tickets for ‘Mission Ho-Hum: Routine Boredom’ would never sell.
Nevertheless, this is by far the most disappointing outing yet for the franchise.
A couple of ripping stunts – headed by the initial ‘Tom Cruise stuck outside the plane taking off’ episode – are very enjoyable indeed, but the rest is boring filler.
The leaden script lets down almost any attempt at levity and provides minimal engagement between characters and audience.
Tom Cruise – lacking much to work with – phones it in, and has zero chemistry with his compulsorily attractive female lead, straight from the ‘highly boring’ department of central casting.
You’ve seen the plot a million times: someone’s trying to assassinate someone at the theatre, and… zzzzzz … sorry, I dozed off for a minute there.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bad guy just isn’t bad enough, recalling the old Austin Powers joke of the villain who was like Diet Coke: “just one per cent evil”.
After much anticipation, it appears a few good action scenes simply weren’t enough to stop this movie jumping the shark.
The final blow is Alec Baldwin reprising his usual role of “angry government guy” yet again.
Avoid at all costs – wait for video.
– Jason Beck
