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Mission Impossible 5 Review


What I liked: Scotty is by far the best part of MI 4 and MI 5. Ethan Hunt has finally lost it; yes he is still the star and yes he still saves the day but there is nowhere left for his character to go besides a retirement home or an insane asylum. The girl is as replaceable as everyother girl in these movies: good trade craft, good looking, good side switching, goodbye. Hawkeye is very concerned, he is concerned about his job, his friends, his country. He is a very responsible suity type, would probably make a great PA. No, Scotty is the one who we connect with, who we cheer for, who we laugh at; Scotty saves the day. As always with MI movies I liked the gadgets (sadly I only remember one mask) and the absurd situations (notably the car chase of death and, as dad calls it, the computer washing machine). At two points I did feel like they were channelling National Treasure and may have quoted the lines that no doubt everyone else was thinking. I liked the moment when hawkeye and scotty find each other. And there is a fight around some pillars that actually has pretty cool aesthetics. It was fun and flashy but not brilliant.
What I didn’t: I may have already given you my opinion of all the characters in the section of what I liked. I may have only liked one of them. It is rather pointless to comment on the absurd situations the team finds themselves in or the absurd ways in which they solve their problems; this is of course all part of the long and time honored legacy of mission impossible. I do however feel the need to point out that possibly the best entry into a whirlpool of death is at ground level and not 4 stories up. If you can sneak in 4 stories up, you can sneak in on the ground floor and people will have less opportunity to see you as you are plummeting to your doom if you jump 2 feet than if you jump 60 feet. Also why do we have so many secret bunkers around that are still fully accessible? I feel like in this budget minded economy someone would notice the power bill running a decommissioned MI safehouse with all the gadgets on. All I’m saying is that if they mothballed the MI program all of that should have gone to army surplus stores. I may be waiting at one just in case. I’m not really sure what the bad guy was going for, possibly a long elaborate con-scheme to get money? but his organization doesn’t really seem to be strapped for cash, I didn’t see them trying to catch an uber for the car chase. The other bad guy could have taken a lesson from everyother spy movie. Clearly the best way to coverup a major debacle is through assasinations not through confusing and ineffective double agent schemes. I mean you will obviously still loose since you are up against the MI team but at least your plan would make sense.
Who should watch this? People in need of a new acceptable action flick.
Would I watch it again?No once was enough. Of the MI movies 1 and 4 are the best and there are enough other spy movies I would watch 12 of those before I got back around to this one.

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