The Reel Rejects - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING Part One - Movie Review!! (Non-Spoiler)

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

RIGHT OUT OF THEATER! Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Movie Review - after the amazing trailer for the Tom Cruise film (Mission Impossible 7), we're here to talk about the plot, action sequences, stunts, & MORE from director Christopher McQuarrie following up from their stellar work in Top Gun: Maverick. How does it compare to the previous films in the franchise? Is the A.I. element cool? Well here's our Reaction! The film stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Hayley Atwell as Grace, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, Vanessa Kirby as The White Widow, Pom Klementieff as Paris, Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, Cary Elwes as Denlinger, Rob Delaney as Mark, Indira Varma as Erika Sloane, and Esai Morales as the villain Gabriel. #TomCruise #Mission:ImpossibleDeadReckoningPartOne #Mission:ImpossibleDeadReckoning #MIDeadReckoning #MI7 #MI8 #Mission:Impossible #EthanHunt #TomCruise#Mission:Impossiblefranchise #SpyMovie #ActionMovie#MovieReview #FilmReview #TrailerReaction#MovieReaction #YouTube #Google Follow Coy Jandreau On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CoyJandreau Support The Channel By Checking Out Our Bomb A** Merch: http://shopzeroedition.com/collections/reel-rejects-merch POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Citizens of the Reject Nation. Coy invited me to be his special plus one for an event to go watch Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part Uno. That's got he's ever. One of the most anticipated movies of the last three years or something for both of us. Yeah. We love this franchise so much. I've been watching the behind the scenes. I love this franchise so much.

So easily it was like, yeah, I love to go. We started shooting this at the theater. And when I say started, I mean, like, we just started. We got permission, but then there was a misunderstanding so that we had to evacuate premises. And now we're in the backyard. But guys, before we go into our review, we ask one thing, you know, jump off a motorcycle and land yourself on the like button. Quick little plot synopsis. Let me think about this.

So Ethan Hunt and his IMF crew are back in action on a mission to obtain this other half of a key. They keep reminding you of that. The terrorists and the world superpowers are also after because it'll gain them access to this AI. They could literally control the world. So, you know, they're racing across the globe. There's a new villain here who was a part of Ethan Hunt's past from before he was in the IMF, so it's kind of personal. And they've gone rogue again. You know how it goes, you know how it goes.

And there you have it. That's the plot of Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1. Now, definitely got some positives to go into. We talked a little bit during the credits, but there's also some, I would say, mixed bag terrain that hopefully we will know how to communicate without spoiling very soon. So let's just go over the very obvious positives. Cast and actions, just kick it off. Tom Cruise. What do you think of Tom Cruise?

Tom Cruise is, I don't know how he does it. I don't know how he finds new 11s. Like, you know the concept of turning it up to 11? You think every mission impossible he's found the 11. And yet he lives it here. I've always said he's the drama Daniel Day Lewis and the action Jackie Chan and one very intense body. This is that as like a showcase for two and a half hours. The way he does comedy in this, I really enjoyed because it actually brings in some of his

Tropic Thunder miming sensibilities. He's underrated a comedy. He's such a good comedic actor, and it's the physicality of him because he knows how to not only use his body for drama that is literally not talking, but also comedically. And I feel like this is a big showcase of his comedic physical language. The showcase is that with action in a way that is maybe the funniest action of the franchise.

I think the ghost protocol is the funniest writing. But I think comedically, this has a lot of that Jackie Chan prop comedy that I think Tom Cruise doesn't get enough credit for while also acting his freaking eyeballs out. The Tom Cruise of it all is amazing. There's a reason he's the last movie star. I love Tom Cruise. Yeah.

I love Tom Cruise very much so, too, especially on the big screen. We know he has that passion for the action, but that fervor for the intensity and the emotion to help sell those action scenes that much more. He gets a chance to go back to being a little bit more of a darker Ethan Hunt this time around. I want to say as dark as he gets in like Mission Impossible 3, but also showcase some of the more comedic side. But there's other cast members here who are also great who really deserve to be talked about. Haley Atwell.

I don't know if it's really a spoiler or not. Not really, because it's the first thing you ever learn about this person. She's a thief. I'll just keep it at that. She's a professional thief, which is very different from a professional spy. It's refreshing. Breath of Fresh Air. Favorite new character since Renner.

She is the absolute standout in this movie. So good. She works well with anyone she's bouncing off of. She fits perfectly into this world. Her chemistry with Tom Cruise is off the charts. She's great. This is a star to match Tom Cruise's charismatic star capability. these by far.

And before we go on some action scenes, I think another one who... Dude, the surprise of the movie for me? Can I, can I... Please. Palm Clementefe.

I've for years... It's actually pronounced Clementeiff. Oh, excuse me. I had to learn that to make sure... When I interviewed her, when I talked to her, and I was like,

Miss Comitief. Palm is a force in this. I'm always struck by how passionate she is, how intense she is, and how, like, joyous and bubbly she is, but in an intense way that isn't cloying. It's a really hard line to walk to be like that much of an energy.

Believe me, I know, I'm a lot. The way they use the energy of palm in this is so different than Mantis. It's so different than I've ever seen. And she's terrified. She's got the thing that I think a lot of action movies try to do where they do the silent assassin. She's just quiet. She's not silent. They do it, I think, the best I've ever seen.

In modern cinema, so impressed with her. She is like a sledgehammer. What I think they did better here with her is what I wanted out of what they did. Like, I enjoy Henry Cavill's presence in Fallout. But they set him up in Fallout as like, he's the guy you're sitting to get the job done. He doesn't play by anybody's rules, but he gets his ass kicked a lot in that movie. He doesn't really seem like the guy you send in to get the job done a lot of the time. She is.

She is that thing that I wanted Henry Cavill to be that they kept saying Henry Cavill would be. She's not really given like a crap ton of lines, but you could tell she's having fun with this role. And especially as so many of us know her as Mantis, this is the antithesis to Mantis. But also like so maniacal and we've, I loved her presence here. I thought she was great. The rest of the cast, as we know, you know, generally pretty great. Ferguson, one of the best working actors. She's not into it that much, but when she's there, it's effective.

Simon Pegg literally shows up on screen, and you're just like, oh, I remember what happiness is. Heart felt, sincere, Luther, Ving, Rames, great. Like, the rest of the cast is really good. Now, the action scenes, this is, like, the main thing people show up for, right? There are some stupendous action scenes in here, I would absolutely say. The one that you see T's in the trailer a lot of the time, where it's Tom Cruise and Haley Atwell, who are, like, handcuffed while inside of a car. I would say my favorite action scene of the movie. Coy was talking a lot about the comedy that can be infused in some of the action here.

I really thought they had a great balance of that. Like, that was a scene that was truly exciting, intense, also was making the theater laugh a lot. Yeah. Intentionally, though, like, they had things in there. And the other thing, too, they go through a lot of the same locations that they go through in the car chase scene and the bomb and Fast X. Like, literally, some of the exact same spots. And it was cool to watch it here because you're like, but this is real. Like, these are locked off shots. You can tell there's none of the CGI stuff.

happening here because that's a mission impossible the franchise thrive so much on. So it's cool to get this comparison and it felt that much more vital and real because we just saw one that it used a lot of crazy fantasy action. It's literally like a one-to-one ring. It's an old-style movie making a new style movie. And it's beautiful to see how they do the wreckage. It's carnage. This feels like when you're a kid and you go see a blockbuster and I feel like that's

now been made into a negative. People are saying that derogatory, they're like, oh, it's a blockbuster. When we used to say that it meant a good thing and I'm using it that way, it feels like going to the movies and having yourself some popcorn, but not in a way that dumbs down the experience. It's just so joyous. There's some stuff I have a bit of a mixed opinion on. I know someone else who saw it at a different screening and they said their crowd was losing their shit on the part where the one they've been promoting a lot where he jumps off the cliff with the motorcycle. Free falls. I had a different experience here

where I was, I was let down by the overall scene because the stunt in it of itself is so goddamn dangerous and so impressive. Yet in terms of it being a scene, I feel like there's reason not a lot of early reactions have actually been highlighting this moment. Because more than a lot of the other stunts in this franchise, it really felt like Tom Cruise, he wanted to do a stunt, and he got to do the stunt, and the stunt in and of itself is cool.

But normally, the buildup to the stunt is tense. Then the stunt scene itself is super intense. But here, the buildup is tense, but the actual stunt, while still cool, surprisingly doesn't feel as impactful of a scene. I think my issue was in the edit, because I was invested in the stunt, and I was invested in the other plot that was happening

but I think the choice to leave the stunt when they did to go to the other plot and then come back undermine both of them because they're totally so different you were like I want to know more about I guess I want to stay here do I stay here yeah the momentous buildup to the stunt kind of felt like it kept getting interrupted instead of ramping up excitement to it it makes you not enjoy the juxtaposition as opposed to being like I'm fraught with peril you're like wait now I'm undermined

the other part of it is because this is an insane thing that they did If you watch the behind the scenes of it, it is a gnarly thing, and it's the reason why they've been promoting this stunt. It's easily the craziest stunt of the movie. The issue is, is that that stunt in it of itself makes for just a short-lived moment and not a full scene. If you think about, like, even him going underwater, even though there were some CGI enhancements, that scenes like a few minutes long.

Hanging on the plane, that's a full scene. Climbing on the Burge. Climb on the Burge, that's a full scene. So even if you see the behind-the-scenes, you still get the drama of that scene. And here it's like, he's off the cliff. Hey, there it goes. It's exactly as long as it is in the trailer. And that does change the intensity because you're like, wait, I've seen this.

But I know some people who saw it. I want to see it with a crowd that has that reaction. We saw it with a full crowd and no one reacted to it. But I want to know if we would react differently with a crowd. Definitely, definitely. That's cheering. And then the other big one that's been teased a lot. And this is the one I see people constantly talking about on social media is the train sequence.

Now, here's where I feel like I'll have the most unpopular opinion. It would be such a spoiler for me to tell you what this train sequence entails. The best I can say without spoils, it kind of reminds me of a part of it in uncharted two, I would say. This train sequence, I love in concept. I could tell a lot of the crowd was on the edge of their seat. I could tell you were right next to you were very much. I was literally on the edge of my seat. The thing that was kind of pulling me on, here's what I'm going to sound like a total asshole.

I know. It's just the fact of the matter is that preceding this moment, there was already. some stuff on top of the train that was super cGI the thing is this the mission impossible franchise has been so well revered for they don't do cg i and if they do it's only to help hide some stuff but not such a thing that will overshadow a moment i found moments being very much overshadowed by that and in this particular train scene it's a lot of people are really good much crediting i love the concept of it obviously the whole thing with like the performers are not cg i you can tell the performers are really doing stuff but a lot of their surrounding landscape

I still felt like they were encapsulated and ultimately what was a green screen and maybe I'm wrong, but it certainly looked that way. And I think that's the difference. And that's what would make me not feel the danger to the sequence. This is a weird thing to be like, I wish they were really doing this. And I miss your life more.

Because I'm so used to Mission of Possible doing that. Because I'm so used to this franchise doing that, it distracted me that much more so I wasn't able to get as immersed into the suspense. Like, obviously these guys will be fine. We've seen every Tom Cruise stunt And we've seen promoting the movie So we know they're going to be fine in the end

These actors But the idea is to be so immersed into the moment That you forget about that And here I never forgot about it And when you said that in the credits We were talking about that scene I immediately was like oh you're right And I acknowledged it

And in hindsight I can take myself out And I was like oh that would have removed me But since to me I was so focused narratively on some of those elements It didn't pull me out until he said it And then I was like so I think you'll have one of two experiences I didn't say it while you were watching. He was like, hey, did you notice that?

This is so cool. You said? No, but when we said it after. Loudly over the thing. No, but like when he mentioned in the credits, I was like, oh, you're right. But in hindsight, I can acknowledge that. So I think you, viewer, will either have the experience where you're so in, you can acknowledge it after. Or you'll have, like, Greg's experience where you're like, man, we're in this.

And I do want to say, while we're talking about stunts in this franchise, this is an action franchise that I would put above 90% of action franchises. It's tricky because of this mixed bag. stuff we're on now is because it's not over 90% of the Mission Impossible stunts in action. It's grading on a bell curve. Mission Impossible is so far above everything else that we're saying this in compared to itself, but it's still better than 90% of action movies ever made. So I would say, like, this is around the middle of my MI experience, but that's still in my top 5% of action movies.

Okay, this is, there's seven movies, right? Yeah. I would easily place, because here's the thing, guys. I love, absolutely love, three through six, so four films. I love, right, three, four, five, six. It sounds weird when you say through six. I love three through six. This one I liked, and I feel like I'll like it even more in a second viewing.

Here's the thing, and maybe this is why I wasn't as wrapped up in the narrative, so to speak, like you were saying, with that train sequence, which is this movie's two hours and 43 minutes. There's a lot on paper that I appreciate about what they're going for, and when the two hour, 43 minute runtime, most of it is not. action. It shouldn't be action. I'm not saying that's the problem. The parts where I would say it's not all negative. And you know if I have a super negative about it, I would not watch my words. I would tell you guys if I was just like, oh my God, I hate this or I was bored. It was such a fluctuating mixed bag for me with most of the movie in terms of everything that surrounded the action scenes that would lead into the action scenes. And sometimes it would actually take away some of the excitement and pulse pounding nature of the action because I wasn't enjoying the stuff that

wasn't action as much. I mean, there are elements where it seems like they're aiming to capture that specific dark espionage tone from the first Mission Impossible movie, which I do appreciate. The best way I could say it is this is in the most simplistic terms is like it has all the ingredients of all the other things I loved and all the other Mission Apostle movies for the things that were not in action. I mean, Christopher McCory wrote and directed this movie and he wrote and directed the last two that I absolutely loved.

The recipe that was ultimately cooked up, okay, I get that they're going for something that's a little bit more topical to today. Sometimes the commentary feels like way too heavy handed and I feel like someone is talking ideas at me and not really living so much in the moment. Not all the time, but a good amount of time. A lot of the time it feels like they're going for something that is darker, but it doesn't resonate as menacing or intense. It can just resonate as dramatic dower. So it loses a little bit of life. Not all the time, but a good amount of the time it can feel that way. Maybe it only stood out to me this time on my first go around and maybe I won't have it as much of my takeaway on a second go around, but on my first

go around, it would definitely impact the way I would ultimately feel about sometimes when we get to an action scene. Sometimes I have to feel like, I'm relieved we're at an action scene right now. As opposed to attention. As opposed to like, we built up to here. Yeah. Which is like the other movies that it's so well. I know some people will come at me and be like, we're just taking on its own merits. This is number seven. And this is clearly a movie that is not standalone. Also, we're fighting over which one is like the fifth or fourth best in a film of seven. Like, that's how good these movies are. We're like, what's the fourth, fifth best of a seven like they're all that good but if you want honest opinion like i i have some

similar qualms with uh the movie's got an ai element that is the plot i felt that at times i was impressed that 20 years ago when the first one came out the plot itself would be a sci-fi this would be like oh my god blade runner now it's present now it's a topical like you said and sometimes i was like man they trust the audience they're letting us just have this their spoon feeding us and then other times it's like here's a shovel of data and i was like you just trusted us so much so much exposition So many keys. The way they go over the key, I made it think about the key thing in the plot,

when I was talking about the plot, because they kind of treat the audience like they're an idiot in the first one minute. And then sometimes they don't. And I'm like, where is this writing? So I would say that while we're judging the action also in the script element, there are times that it's that clever mission impossible,

high brow intellectual action film. And other times where it's like, oh, we're releasing a movie against other things. We've got to make sure everyone gets it. And I've never felt that mission possible. I've never felt they were like, let's just take it down. And I'm like, don't do that.

to me, trust me, this is seven. How I'm imagining someone hearing what we're saying is going like, but I feel like the other movies kind of did that. I'm like, yeah, they do. They just do them better. It's like your baking metaphor. And this is also two hours and 40 minutes. So this also gestates a lot longer.

To keep with that, the souffle, sometimes too hot, sometimes not hot enough. It falls and sometimes it burns. It really needed kind of a punch up. It was the first time. And I know that they must do this for the other ones. This was the first time I really felt like they came up with action scenes first. and then they thought of plots to work their way to them a lot of the time. And this is the first time I was distracted by that.

There's clearly other moments like that in the other movies, but here I felt that a little bit more. And then they have this other villain here, Asiah Morales, I think is the same. They do have something in here with him that is an attempt to make it a more personal villain for Ethan, link into his past, but it honestly feels like some stuff they made up just for this movie,

not like it's always been a part of the character, so it doesn't really land that strong. He's a charming actor, but after the villain that we got in the last couple, I'm like, I don't know, it's like, it's kind of the problem I have with the way a lot of these characters are written this time around. Everyone is just given, like you said, data. Everyone is just given explain shit. Everyone's given exposition to the point where... Never felt that. Yeah, where I'm like, of course these movies have exposition.

This is the thing. It's like, when you say stuff, you're like, but don't the other movies do it? Yeah, we see you comments. But the way this movie does it is, I feel like a lot of time I was listening to ideas in an outline less than I was listening to characters. Yeah. Yeah. And also there's some style choices that make it more severe. I think you and I talked about the like 180 rule a couple times. And that's super nerdy film stuff.

But there are times where it shot distractingly avant-garde and like it causes a certain like paranoia and noir. But sometimes it doesn't fit the tone or it does like this break of the 180 rule where you're like, I feel like I'm watching the BBC behind the scenes of the scene. And I'm like, wait, we were just with this character. Why are we over here in this room? I think meant to be disorienting. But it's disorienting in a way that's like it feels messy and not a style choice. It just felt messy to me. I feel like we got so caught up and trying to communicate that it was just a mixed bag and that we're not negative necessarily.

And now it's negative. Because I had such a good time. Because overall, I'm like, no, watch this on the big screen. I think I've read to me. I'll be like, boy, doesn't like everything. I really read it. Like, watch this on the big screen because it's so certainly worth it. And I am definitely excited for part two of this movie.

Yeah. That's the thing is like, Indiana Jones, I canceled all things I had to watch it again. I was like, no, I don't care to watch it again. This one, I have tickets to go watch it again. And I'm like, I'm looking forward to me. I'm still looking forward to it. I think we were positive for 10 minutes and then negative for 2, but we're so in love with the movie that it's like, man, those two felt bad.

Like, the act of saying bad things about something you enjoyed is hard. So, like, I enjoyed a lot. So it's still like a Mission Impossible movie. It's still one of the best action movies ever made. It's just, we're trying to be honest. I am considering the fact that, like, no, the main things you show up for really more than deliver. So I would still give it an 8 out of 10 just due to that fact. You know what I mean?

But overall, for me, like my personal feeling, on a first go-around. I would say it's 7.5. I'm between 7.5 and 8.5 in my overall just feelings, I would say for a Mission Impossible, it's a 7.5. For an action movie, it's a 9. So it lands at a 8.5. You said it way better, yeah.

So you know what I mean? Like, that's where it is. It's just there's two scales. There's the Mission Impossible scale. There's the action movie scale. And it's high in the action movie scale and good on a Mission Impossible scale. It would be easier to talk about this movie if we were just plain and simple, like, just purely negative. Then I could just, like, be super blunt.

But I'm like, but I don't want people to think. I'm going to see it. It's one of those where I get so caught up in my head, and now I'm just talking way too much. Yep, we've been wrapping for 20 minutes. All right, guys, well, which one's your favorite Mission Impossible movie? Leave your thoughts down below. I've got to get to cutting this up. Feature length.

This, what you have on here on YouTube? It is nowhere near as long. That's a coin I have filmed. This is the benefit when you're out of theater is it forces you to be on. We should have let him kick us out. Souter!