Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

*** ½ out of ****

The “Mission Impossible” movie series has become almost the “anti-movie-series”. The first one was awful, the second was okay, the third pretty good, and the fourth really terrific. “Rogue Nation”, the fifth in the series, continues that trend as it is the best of the bunch (so far).

The IMF has been disbanded at the insistence of the CIA director (Alec Baldwin), who believes Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is just a rogue agent manufacturing situations to justify the division's existence. The other IMF members, Benji (Simon Pegg) and Brandt (Jeremy Renner), are absorbed by the CIA, leaving Ethan alone in the field to try to prove the existence of “The Syndicate”, a secret terror organization Hunt has been pursuing for years.  If he can prove its existence he will prove his value to his country - if he can't he will eventually be captured and tried for treason.

Does that all sound like very complicated, cloak and dagger stuff? It is, but the film frames it in a way that doesn't fall victim to the typical James Bond “this is too complex to even try to understand” disease. The plot moves quickly, concisely and smoothly, as Hunt starts to figure things out and draw his old team back together. In a film filled with great sequences and stunts, the best one has the team undertaking a plan to steal a database, involving breaking into an underground, underwater computer data facility. Right up there with the “Dubai Tower” scenes from “Ghost Protocol”, it's simply great movie-making.

The villain this time around isn't quite as compelling as the villains from the last two films, but the action is edge-of-your-seat and relentless. Pegg is entertaining as always, and everyone in the cast is excellent in their roles. Cruise is the quarterback of course, and his ability to carry an action movie has never been better (and has always been very good). They even leave the ending hanging in such a way that ensuing sequels will be easy to set up, with Baldwin probably joining the team as an "M" type of director.

Cruise takes a lot of crap in the tabloids because of his odd behavior in his real life, but the guy just keeps delivering good movie after good movie. This is another one, and along with last year's “Edge of Tomorrow” he shows that age is just a number, and his 50s will offer us a lot more fun cinema.  Very highly recommended.