‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ review round-up: Tom Cruise ‘raises the bar of popcorn entertainment’

Vincent Mandile
·4 min read
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On July 12, 2023, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” was released by Paramount Pictures, holding fresh at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus that reads, “With world-threatening stakes and epic set pieces to match that massive title, ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ proves this is still a franchise you should choose to accept.”

Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent whose team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Nothing comes easy though, as both figures from his past and a commanding enemy track him on his global adventure. The ensemble cast includes Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Cary Elwes, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, and Pom Klementieff. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to read our full review round-up below. 

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Nicholas Barber of BBC.com praises the film, stating, “Tom Cruise’s seventh Mission: Impossible film is an unusual mix of high-tech and low-tech, of ultra-modern and defiantly traditional. The villain in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ (let’s call it Mission: Impossible 7 or M:I-7 for short) isn’t even a human being, but a sentient artificial intelligence called The Entity.” Barber adds, “Cruise and Atwell’s jokey interplay ensures that M:I7 is bright and likable, and doesn’t feel as long as its two-and-three-quarter-hour running time.”

Eric Marchen of Rogers TV states, “Per usual, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie go above and beyond with death-defying action sequences that’ll have you on the edge of your seat wondering how the showmen are able to pull off the impossible.”

Peter Gray of The AU Review says that the film “Effortlessly raises the bar on what it is to be the epitome of popcorn entertainment, melding an unnervingly topical threat with impeccable action sequences, pleasing chemistry across its ensemble, and more-than-expected bouts of genuine humour.” Gray continues, “This is action executed to near-perfection, delicately balancing the thrills necessary for the genre with intelligent storytelling, neatly placed emotion, and an overall sense of humour that lets us an audience know that everyone here involved is aware of their popcorn temperament.”

SEE Tom Cruise wants to make ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies until he’s 80

Rodrigo Perez of The Playlist writes, “Largely exhilarating across the board, ‘Dead Reckoning’ is easily the best installment thus far (at least for this writer who has desperately wanted that aforementioned pulse), and perhaps precisely because the movie is actually about something this time. Not only does it reflect on the poignantly shaped notion of the “greater good,” service, and sacrifice—and putting those ideals to the test in interrogation—but the notion of these ideals as the ultimate burden the main character has to bear: the axis point wherein his higher oath conflicts with his personal desire to keep his friends safe. Maybe it’s only relatively more meaningful, given the scope, scale, and ambition behind all the pulse-pounding spectacle, but boy, it is appreciated and sold well in the clutch moments.”

Leo Brady of AMovieGuy.com notes, “His nickname should be The Unstoppable Tom Cruise. After the amazing success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ a film that many deemed to save movie theaters after the pandemic, he doesn’t slow down, he revs the engine back up. The last standing movie star left me in awe after ‘Mission: Impossible- Fallout,’ so the idea of going up a level with ‘Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One’ seemed like an impossible bar to reach. But that’s the point of Cruise. He accepts the challenge. He has to do it because if he doesn’t then nobody will. It’s that kind of bold and daring approach to creating cinematic entertainment that forces us to give Cruise our praise.”

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