Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (USA, 2015)

                             Nine Things About the Movie                                 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

1. This is the fifth Mission:Impossible movie. It's mildly entertaining and fun to watch, but I think it's time they officially changed the name of the franchise to Movie:Impossible. They have seriously left reality behind.

2. For being the fifth movie about super-spies, there's barely a plot; it can be summarized in two sentences. The CIA has shut down the IMF because they always make a mess of things. Ethan Hunt goes rogue to find a dude that belongs to a mysterious new group of bad guys called The Syndicate. If you haven't seen any of the other films, don't worry. You can just jump right in.

3. The movie has become a caricature of what the series used to be. It's almost half comedy. It is melodramatic and overacted. There are cheese-ball lines like when the CIA director says, "Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny."

4. The movie tries to build up suspense, but the main actors do all the dangerous missions, so you know that nothing is going to happen to them. Actually, now that I think about it, not very many people die at all in this movie. And when they do, there's no blood.

5. The technology is as fun as it is impossible. Saxophones turn into sniper rifles. Police batons turn into sniper rifles. Opera programs turn into computer screens. Holographic keys open any lock. Tablets remotely control Russian airplane doors and reboot super-secret security bases. And catwalk hand railings turn into sniper rifles.

6. There are more plot holes than bullet holes in this movie. And that's a lot of holes. But the movie avoids confronting all of its problems by just never stopping. It goes from one mission to the next, and everybody betrays everybody else so many times that you really don't have time to pause and reflect on the fact that it's all completely illogical, inconsistent, and, well, impossible.

7. Rebecca Ferguson is a new actress, but she's one of the best parts of the movie. She's both sultry and kick-ass as the double/triple/whatever agent Ilsa. Just ignore the sexist undercurrents of her character and the way she is filmed.

8. There are only one or two good chase scenes in the movie. But there are a lot of gadgets that beep, and many things flash red or green.

9. The cast of the movie seems like they had fun making the movie, and that shows on screen. In the end, that's what it is - harmless fun.  It manages to stay just above boring, a flashy but empty distraction from real life.