Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

[**** stars / *****] 

Afterthoughts rush through my mind tunnel after catching up with Mission: Impossible – Fallout on the big screen. 

That there are three kinds of people in the world. 

One with pot bellies like us, watching the latest MI movie with wide open eyes, the second kind who are into fitness, and the third of which there is only one on the planet, a 56-year-old man called Tom Cruise. 

Why does the MI franchise still work, 22 years since the first film came out? Tom Cruise and his "I will do it myself" stunts. Cruise fills his role with an old-world action hero passion. Watch him running, this is not an ageing man, this is a man beating himself to the finish line.   

Breathless, Exciting Action! 
Mission: Impossible – Fallout would have been a dull affair, but for Cruise hopping off buildings (breathtaking), a swift, impressive escape on a motorbike (scintillating), the stunning skydive sequence (aha!) and a nervy helicopter ride finale (superb!).

But it is the punch-pounding, gritty bathroom fight - Cruise, Henry Cavill vs Liang Yang that is among the film's most seat-gripping moments. 

The action feels real and dangerous. No special effects, please! At least not until the culminating cliff sequence.  

The rest of it, though not always convincing, is clever. 

It's like they put the best of previous MI movie plots into a mixer... and still managed to come up with decent stuff. The face mask element (a much-repeated MI plot element) is given a nice sharp twist here. Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson are all good. 

But without Tom Cruise, there is no MI.

P.S: Inspired by Cruise, I am doing my own stunts from now on too. The first one is called, "Jumping out of bed and landing on the floor, at the first sound of the alarm clock." 

Do not try this at home. 

Wish me luck!