Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (4k UHD + Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Nov 8th, 2023
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham
Written By: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Buy On Amazon.com
Every Mission Impossible movie has been crazy and epic in scale, with Dead Reckoning Part One being no exception. Cruise pushes his limits with each movie, doing death-defying stunts which makes people laugh, smile and shake their heads in disbelief. I do think the last movie was better but this is still a somewhat incomplete story. Funny that an almost 3 hour movie can’t finish telling its story. Maybe if they cut out all the running that Tom Cruise does, it would be a shorter time?
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise duh) is tasked with tracking down The Entity and preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. The Entity is a powerful rogue AI that knows the steps you will take no matter how hard you try to go against it. Along the way, they encounter a master thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) who was hired by a mystery person to retrieve the keys to The Entity. The keys could grant its wielder absolute control over the AI. Ethan and Grace play a game of cat & mouse until they have no choice but to join forces. Ethan’s old nemesis shows up and seeks to weaponize The Entity for his own nefarious purposes. Ethan must put personal issues aside and focus on the mission at hand, even if it means losing the people he cares about.
I liked this movie a lot but for some reason, I didn’t like it as much as Fallout. The story was a bit complex, especially with the AI stuff. Obviously, it’s scary what AI can do, but then again this is just “the movies” where people can make fake realistic masks that have matching voices. I guess with AI now, the voice part can be true now. Definitely think AI can be weaponized in the way it did in the movie though, but predicting outcomes on what people will do seems a little silly to me.
Tom Cruise continues to be a crazy person with his stunts, always trying to top himself. I just hope it doesn’t end up with his demise one of these times for pushing the boundaries. Having Haley Atwell in the movie was great, and was a nice fresher for the franchise despite the character itself being something we’ve seen so many times in other movies. It was good to see Henry Czerny back, since not being in the movies since the first one I believe. I always love Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames in these movies but felt they weren’t in it as much this time around.
The action sequences for this were, of course, insane. My favorite being in Rome and the cliff jump that was played in all the trailers. That cliff jump and then speed flying down the mountain were some of the craziest stunts ever on screen and Tom trained for it for 3 years. I feel like every stunt he’s doing is training for 3 years which begs the question, is this all he is doing all the time? The Rome car chase sequence was a lot of fun and different because those Rome streets are already confusing and insane, then add in a super tiny Fiat. it puts the Italian Job to shame.
The extras are on the Blu-Ray disc, which is kind of a pain and the fact they weren’t that extensive to begin with. It feels like everything added up to a half hour of content, which Tom Cruise prepared for his stunts for a few years. Doing that crazy jump over and over again in a given day. Then doing the speed flying which just the slightest breeze could have killed him. The train sequence looked the most cartoon-ish of the sequences; didn’t mean I was still sweating from watching it though.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is a fun, action-packed and intense movie that keeps raising the bar with the stunts for action movies. I don’t think I liked Dead Reckoning Part One as much as Fallout but I think in a way, it’s hard to judge since it’s only one half of the movie. Now we have to wait 2 years for it to come out. I liked the humor and banter between Cruise, Pegg, Atwell and Rhames. This movie is Tom Cruise running and doing crazy shit as usual and it’s a lot of fun.
Features:
Audio Commentary
Isolated Score Track
Abu Dhabi
Rome
Venice
Freefall
Speed Flying
Train
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Atmos
French: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Note: French Atmos = Parisan, Spanish = Latin American.
Audio descriptive
Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Bottom Line: Fun and intense movie with unbelievable action. I enjoyed Fallout more but both equally great
Running Time: 163 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
