New to theaters: Next film in ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise set to release tomorrow
More than 20 years after the first movie was released in the “Mission Impossible” movie franchise, actor Tom Cruise will reprise his role as Ethan Hunt with the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) for the sixth time in “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” set to hit theaters this weekend.
Beginning in 1996, the films follow the missions of the IMF’s main field team under the leadership of Hunt, who is forced to take over after the team is betrayed from within in the first film. The series focuses on Hunt as the lead character. A few other characters, such as Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, “Pulp Fiction” and “Bringing Out The Dead”) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg, “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”) have recurring roles in the films.
The series is the 20th-highest-grossing film series of all time, with a worldwide gross of over $2.7 billion to date, according to Box Office Mojo.
The latest installment is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the second film in the series after “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” to be directed by McQuarrie, which makes him the first person to direct more than one film in the franchise.
The cast includes Cruise (“Top Gun” and “Jerry McGuire”), Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson (“Life” and “The Snowman”), Rhames, Sean Harris (“Harry Brown” and “MacBeth”, Michelle Monaghan (“Pixels” and “Gone Baby Gone”) and Alec Baldwin (“The Departed” and “It’s Complicated”), all of whom reprise their roles from previous films.
Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel” and “Justice League”), Angela Bassett (“Contact” and “Strange Days”) and Vanessa Kirby (“The Crown” and “About Time”) join the franchise. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team must outrun a CIA agent (Cavill) tasked with killing them after a mission goes wrong.
Filming took place from April 2017 to March 2018, in Paris, Britain, New Zealand, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. It will be the first in the series to be released in RealD 3D, and will also have an IMAX release.
The critics consensus on the website Rotten Tomatoes says, “fast, sleek, and fun, ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout” lives up to the ‘impossible’ part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them.”
The film is guaranteed fresh on the website, with a 96 percent tomatometer rating and has an NR rating at this time.
Other films making their way to the box office this weekend include:
n “Teen Titans GO! to the Movies,” directed by Aaron Horvath and Pete Rida Michail and starring Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton and Tara Strong, follows the superhero crew as they look to star in their own movie. But de facto leader Robin is determined to remedy the situation, and be seen as a star instead of a sidekick. If only they could get the hottest Hollywood film director to notice them. With a few madcap ideas and a song in their heart, the Teen Titans head to Tinsel Town, certain to pull off their dream. But when the group is radically misdirected by a seriously super villain and his maniacal plan to take over the Earth, things really go awry.
The film is rated PG for action and rude humor.
n “Puzzle,” directed by Marc Turtletaub and starring Kelly Macdonald, Irrfan Khan, David Denman and Austin Abrams, i{span}s a closely observed portrait of Agnes, who has reached her early 40s without ever venturing far from home, family or the tight-knit immigrant community in which she was raised by her widowed father. That begins to change in a quietly dramatic fashion when Agnes receives a jigsaw puzzle as a birthday gift.
The film is rated R for language.