Composite Score: 81.87

Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Simon McBurney, Tom Hollander, and Alec Baldwin

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Writers: Christopher McQuarrie and Drew Pearce

Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Espionage

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and brief partial nudity

Box Office: $682.72 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is the second in the not-rebooted reboot series of Mission: Impossible films that started with Ghost Protocol, has been recently continued with Fallout, and will have another sequel next year in Dead Reckoning Part 1. Consistently, this second batch of Tom Cruise’s action franchise have outshone the original trilogy both critically and financially (many have made the argument that Fallout is the best action movie ever made). The middle of this sequel trilogy is the one we want to focus on for now. Rogue Nation opens with its Tom Cruise stunt sequence – the actor clinging to the side of a plane while it takes off – and continues its high-paced action for basically the whole runtime. As an action film, Rogue Nation shines with great chases, heists, fights, and everything in between. As an espionage film, it also succeeds with a litany of plots, subplots, diabolical villains, double crosses, double agents, and everything else you might want from such a film. Rogue Nation time and again reminds you of Cruise’s inherent action hero status that has yet to be eclipsed (or probably even approached), while attaching to it a quality story and an interesting and well-selected cast of side characters.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                This is one of the more straightforward action films of the last few years, and while it does not suffer for its lack of deeper messaging, it is somewhat simple. This is an action film that entertains to its fullest extent with very little underlying agenda (aside from the continued promotion of Tom Cruise as the coolest action star currently in operation). On the one hand, it doesn’t necessarily need a whole lot of substance, as its style is of the highest quality. On the other hand, something that often helps elevate a good action film is a higher level of social commentary. Rogue Nation’s deepest commentary is that the intelligence community is full of guys trying to cover up their own errors with little to no regard for the good of the rest of the world, which we get from basically every movie that has any kind of spies or CIA agents or MI6 agents.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                In terms of action and spy adventures, Rogue Nation is among the elite of the elite in what it has to offer, only lacking slightly in its use of gadgetry in comparison to some other films in the genre. Its car/motorcycle chase is thrilling and comedic in all the right ways. The stunts are incredibly well-executed, as is to be expected of a Tom Cruise film at this point. The many layers of espionage and double agents is just hard enough to follow without becoming convoluted, making reveals and double crosses highly satisfying for all audiences. Even the scenes of torture and combat bring solid action to the table, playing on some tropes while staying true to others. Rogue Nation brings the complete package of action and thrills that you could want in an espionage thriller.

                A not completely mindless action espionage film, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation brings so much thrilling spy action to the table that it far outshines its lack of deeper concepts and commentary and makes its way firmly into the list of Great Films. It’s hard to imagine looking for an action film to watch and ignoring this film and its sequel (which will get its own review eventually, no worries). Rogue Nation is the perfect Saturday afternoon watch that manages to be unique within a genre of many repeated tropes – worth watching and rewatching.