Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One

This is going to meet all of the expectations.

Like a motorcycle leaping off a mountain, this movie has very high highs and very low lows... But as soon as the action started, especially the last action set pieces, I could've rolled right into the sequel immediately.

The stunts are enough to make it a good time… They’re not enough to make it a great movie, or even a great Mission: Impossible movie. Like its AI villain, Reckoning may have become too self aware.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is absolutely a mixed bag of tricks. The high points are stratospheric, but the low ones are frequently head-scratching.

Adrenaline-pumping sequences, flirtatious interludes, high pitch drama and a save-the-world plot do their jobs. However, something about the process doesn’t feel new.

Kudos to Cruise for knowing his audience and how to please it. He nails a nearly impossible mission: becoming the summer’s box office savior riding a sequel, again, while performing stunts that would terrify actors half his age.

Cruise's motorcycle stunt is exciting exactly the way thrillers should be exciting. You know that you’re watching a movie, but also you forget that you’re watching a movie.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is an unforgettable cinematic experience that will leave you breathless. This is why we go to the movies.

McQuarrie and Cruise seem very aware that their storytelling beats are a metaphor for moviemaking: meticulously prepare and plan, vamp wildly when something goes wrong, and brazen it out before the fade to black.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 is the summer blockbuster you’ve been waiting on. Once again, Cruise delivers a great cast to real locations, amid beautifully crafted action sets.