10th Anniversary TLDR: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
He has made you his mission.
Plot: Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating 'The Syndicate', an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.
Direction & Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie has directed every M:I entry since Rogue Nation. This just isn't my series, but I think this movie is fantastic. I think it's the first one I saw in theaters (I was on the Grauman's Chinese Theatre tour and they walked us into the theater to see the new IMAX screen...perfectly timed with the plane stunt. I thought, "I have to see the rest of this movie." It was great marketing...) and I think that it stands on its own. Sure, you might not know who this guy is or why this government agency is mad or who is double-crossing or whatever, but it explains enough. It's a great standalone summer blockbuster.
Performances: Tom Cruise is a tricky one. There's no doubt that his personal life is...shall we say...suspicious...but nobody seems to care anymore. (I've noticed this particularly with mid-Gen Zers. They're not old enough to remember Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch or Michael Jackson climbing on top of that SUV. I'm gonna sound old saying this...but it might as well be Custer's Last Stand for them. It's just something they read about. It means nothing. And it doesn't cloud their opinion of these people.) But goddamn it if he isn't a movie star. He makes big-ass summer movies that people please. The rest of the cast is too big to mention them all (Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, and I don't even mind Jeremy Renner here), but the silly-serious performance from Simon Pegg and femme fatale Rebecca Ferguson deserve extra attention.
Cinematography: Robert Elswit is best known for being Paul Thomas Anderson's cinematographer for years, and less known for being Jake Gyllenhaal's godfather.
Best Moment: How could it be anything other than the plane...
Fun Fact: ...he actually did that shit!
Imaginary Accolade: Best Mission: Impossible Movie (I've only seen three of them.)
Everything is too long! Is it too long? 131 minutes for an action film is fine.
Rating: Two large buckets of popcorn. But you have to eat them like this. And make sure you don't eat it all before the movie starts.
Credit: Plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.