from the series Movie Corner…
4/5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Spy/Drama
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
Like all the previous seven Mission Impossible films, The Final Reckoning is a high octane adventure that seems boundless. There’s always a purpose for The Mission Impossible installments and The Final Reckoning is no exception. There’s one man Ethan Hunt, a hero (like Superman, Batman or Spider-Man) and a spy who performs stunning stunts in the air between airplanes, on the ground or risking his life in a sunken Russian submarine on the verge of going over the edge.
Hunt, along with his longtime covert fixers Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, and a new member Grace, a former girlfriend, are out to save the world from a monstrous, self-serving Gabriel. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), as The Entity, has seized all the nuclear power available.
Nothing will stand in the way for Hunt, including the antagonists Briggs and Degas, two vexing agents. Hunt convinces a former nemesis, Paris, to join him against a formidable opponent. Hunt has a powerful ally in U.S. President Erika Sloane. He takes on the most heroic undertaking ever: to save the world.
There’s plenty of adrenaline in The Final Reckoning. There’s plenty of awe to bring the audiences along. I have to acknowledge that director Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun [2000]) held his audiences for nearly 3 hours. I don’t always object to a movie that is 160 minutes or more. The 2023 Oppenheimer is 180 minutes and nine seconds, but I hung on to every sequence till the end. Has anyone seen David Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia at 221 minutes runtime?
Is The Final Reckoning the last of the Mission Impossible installments as Hollywood alludes? I remain a skeptic on the matter.
Cast: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Hayley Atwell (Grace), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Esai Morales (Gabriel), Pom Klementieff (Paris), Henry Czerny (Kittridge), Holt McCallany (Serling), Janet McTeer (Walters), Nick Offerman (General Sidney), Hannah Waddingham (Admiral Neely), Tramell Tillman (Captain Bledsoe), Angela Bassett (President Erika Sloane), Shea Whigham (Briggs), Greg Tarzan Davis (Degas), Charles Parnell (Richards), Mark Gatiss (Angstrom), Rolf Saxon (William Donloe), Lucy Tulugarjuk (Tapeesa).
Director: Christopher McQuarrie. Screenwriters: Bruce Gellar, Erik Jendresen, and Christopher McQuarrie. Cinematography: Fraser Taggart.
Running time: 169 minutes. (PG-13)
Howard McQuitter II is a longtime movie critic. He has been reviewing movies for the alley since 2002.
