Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation

Why is it that Hollywood is so fascinated with franchises? Could it be that through the decades of filmmaking, franchise films have generated so much revenue that they just can't resist the allure of staying on that gravy train-- you know, the goose that lays the golden egg? "Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation" is, of course, the next installment of the Mission Impossible franchise and I don't see this franchise ending any time soon, and this is basically number five behind "Mission: Impossible" '96, "Mission: Impossible II" 2000, "Mission: Impossible III" '06, and Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol" '11.

The IMF being forced to disband, compliments of CIA director, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is out in the cold, and the team, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) now face off against a network of highly skilled special agents called the Syndicate headed up by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). These highly trained operatives are hellbent on creating a new world order through an escalating series of terrorist attacks. Ethan gathers his team and joins forces with disavowed British agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who may or may not be a member of this rogue nation-- a sort of anti-IMF entity, as the group faces their most impossible mission yet.

Others to round out the cast are Simon McBurney as Atlee, Jingchu Zhang as Lauren, Tom Hollander as England's Prime Minister and Jens Hulten as Janik Vinter, henchman of Lane's.

This was directed with surprising accuracy and amazing grit by director, Christopher McQuarrie ("The Way of the Gun" 2000, "Jack Reacher" '12). I say surprisingly because considering the limited experience in features films, this guy was a natural--very comfortable in that director's chair. McQuarrie has far more writing experience, but has decided to work from a different angle and it suits him well. It was very well written by McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects" '95, "The Way of the Gun" 2000, "Valkyrie" '08, "The Tourist" '10, "Jack Reacher" '12, "Jack the Giant Slayer" '13, "Edge of Tomorrow" '14), based on a story by McQuarrie and Drew Pearce, which is based on the TV series created by Bruce Geller. Certainly McQuarrie is in familiar waters with this film, but since he writes  these types of films so well, it 's more than forgiving. I can appreciate an artist going 'out on a limb' creatively, but this film had the writer it truly needed--'if it ain't broke, why fix it' mentality. Considering this is the fifth installment of the franchise, it's probably the best one to date. It's fast-paced, riveting, has a minimal amount of pivotal characters to keep one focused, all written in a very entertaining way. Simon Pegg as Benji practically stole the show in this. And the visual effects predominantly created by Double Negative were absolutely seamless, and worked well with the plot at hand.

Presented in a Dolby Atmos format, this film has got to be seen on the big screen, because to see this on anything substandard to this format will lose so much in the translation. Besides, this is a great popcorn flick that one can revel in when you hit the multiplex.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                             Rated: PG-13                                131mins.