July 21 – 27

7 pm Nightly
Matinees @ 1:30 pm: Sun July 23 & Thurs July 27
Rated PG — 2 hr 43 min
Action / Adventure

Last summer, Tom Cruise was given credit for saving the theatrical experience with the widely beloved Top Gun: Maverick. Can he be Hollywood’s savior again? I hope so because Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a ridiculously good time. We’re seven films in and nothing about M:I, from the star’s incredible stunt skills to the silly-serious tone, is showing any sign of slowing down. Ethan assembles his usual gang, consisting of Luther Stickell (Ving
Rhames), who has been on call since the first “Mission: Impossible” (1996), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg). Also in the mix is Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who made her début in Rogue Nation.

The image most people associate with Mission: Impossible is probably Mr. Cruise stretching those legs and swinging those arms. He does that more than once here, but it seems like the momentum of that image was the artistic force behind this entire film. Dead Reckoning Part One prioritizes movement—trains, cars, Ethan’s legs. It’s an action film that’s about speed and
urgency, something that has been so lost in the era of CGI’s diminished stakes. It’s outrageously enjoyable – a spectacle of sheer stamina, scale and brio. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is mysterious, superfit, and the leader of a top-secret intelligence/combat unit brought in by a shadowy US government agency when they want deniable stuff doing.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is incredibly fun. It feels half its length and contains enough memorable action sequences for some entire franchises. The pure fun involved in this film, its silly-serious alchemy, and the way the franchise seems to strain at something crazily bigger with every film, is something to wonder at.

Will Cruise save the blockbuster experience again? Maybe. And he might do it again next summer too.