Mission impossible: Rogue nation -- Ethan Hunt back with bang

Staring: Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, Jeremy Reyner & Rebecca Ferguson

Rated: 8/10

Last time Ethan Hunt had your jaw dropping and you praying fervently for his life when mounted the sky scraping Burj Khalifa in Dubai to dangle from dizzying heights. This time, he does the same — and in all earnestness — when he dangles from the outer door of a military aircraft carrying nerve gas all those 20,000 feet high swaying with terrifying winds, hanging on to dear life literally with his finger nails.

This is the fifth time since 1996 that Tom Cruise, as the inscrutable Ethan Hunt, has kept his promise of entertaining his loyal viewers with thrills, fills, kills and a little bit of unsaid romance — of course with a fellow agent.

Rogue Nation was initially being touted as the last of the Mission Impossible series but seeing the youthfulness of Hunt, and probably the meticulously ‘kept-high’ entertainment value that this James-Bond lookalike series always delivers, Cruise announced that more were coming and this fifth one was not even a pause in the franchise.

Contrary to all doubting Thomases, Rogue Nation is a full-on entertainer with good old action values, real time stunts by Cruise and a story that keeps you more than mildly interested. For a fifth in a row, it is quite a feat that familiarity does not bear down heavy on the film as the now ageing but still looking unwrinkled Cruise carries the tradition forward.

In times of high tech gizmo tics, to be living with human action so to say, is highly energising and keeps you connected with the power of man over machines.This time round, Ethan Hunt is up against the faceless but deadly Syndicate spearheaded by Sean Harris in frightening coolness. He kills, conducts genocides and manages a network of rogue agents with the chutzpah of a genetic killer even as Hunt is on his trail having himself being declared a fugitive by the CIA director played by the obese Alec Baldwin (he was such a dish in his old days that you feel sad watching him in such a heavy weight issue).

Hunt’s IMF, the super secret agency he is part of, has since been dissolved and it has been employed to track him down for a treason trial. But such vagaries from fellow beings and also the enemy is the kind of fodder Hunt has grown on so he takes this one on too with a tantalising mix of action, humour and embedded romance as he trails a rogue agent (Ferguson) who is working for Harris and falls for her as she spares his life umpteen times — only to have him do a job assigned to her by her handler.The case (including the bike trail in the ending sequence) is thrilling and does its job of taking your breath away. Miss all this only if you are a loser. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, August, 9, 2015