‘Mission: Impossible’ is still going strong in wild ‘Fallout’

Posted on August 3, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

Hollywood has always had an issue with age, tossing actors and actresses aside when they would be reaching their prime in pretty much any other field. Of course, that’s a rather broad-brush statement, but it holds true well enough to use it to begin a review of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.”

Actor Tom Cruise is 56, so it’s downright amazing that he continues to convincingly lead a summer blockbuster franchise, and that Hollywood has continued to allow him to do so, especially considering his propensity to perform his own stunts.

The “Mission: Impossible” film franchise, which began back in 1996, seems to be aging just as gracefully as its lead star, with almost every installment improving on the last. I honestly thought “Ghost Protocol,” the fourth movie in the series, would be the franchise’s high-water mark, but then came “Rogue Nation,” written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. That film gave the series its best villain to date, which is the reason it is probably still my favorite, although “Fallout” comes really close.

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