The Mission: Impossible movies have been pretty reliable for entertainment. Especially with the release of Ghost Protocol, the franchise has found it’s groove and brought some real unique and exciting action set pieces. Fallout continues that trend.

Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie returns for his second term helming the ship and this guy knows how to make movie magic. Solomon Lane continues to be a bother, his followers forming a new organization under new leadership. They’ve got their sights set on causing mass destruction to create a new world order and it’s up to Ethan Hunt and his IMF team to once again save the world.

Right out of the gate, the plot gets pretty convoluted. There’s a lot of double-crossing going on and it gets hard to keep track of it all. New characters get quick introductions and it’s not clear who they are, where they come from, and who they work for. Being a spy series that’s expected to a degree but it feels like a lot is glossed over and the viewer is expected just know the characters name and be willing to be whisked away to the next scene(I’m thinking of The White Widow in particular). I’m sure some confusion can be cleared up with more viewings and revisiting earlier films for a refresher (Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane was introduced in Rogue Nation). Another point of confusion for me is name confusion. Solomon Lane and John Lark have similar last names and they are often referred to only by their last names. Sometimes I wasn’t sure what name the actor said and would get confused about who they were talking about. It’s also found it weird that once again, the IMF team are cut off from their resources and government help. “We gotta do this alone!” is turning into a well-worn crutch for this series.

While those are some bothersome problems, it doesn’t ruin an otherwise fantastic ride. McQuarrie knows how to frame a scene and shoot action. This movie is oftentimes gorgeous and the action set pieces are mostly all Raise the Bar of the Entire Industry level. This is one of the few movies I’ve seen in a while that demands you go to the cinema to get the most out of it.

Every inch of the frame is utilised. They must have used some crazy new wide angle lenses because the picture looks so expansive. Gorgeous framing with eye-popping cinematography. London and Paris wrap themselves around the viewer and asks you to take a bite.

This wide-angle look is continuous throughout the movie. If you’re watching the team come up with a plan, walking through a location or on a crazy chase through a city or mountain range, you have a view of it all. Action scenes aren’t crammed in tight and cut at warp speed. You can see where everyone is and what they are doing. The positioning is clear and you can follow the madness, often feeling like you’re there.

I watched this in a Dolby Cinema room and I think that’s a big part of why this movie popped so much for me. Monsterous screen, gorgeous picture quality, and a stupidly expensive sound system. Like I mentioned, McQuarrie shoots most of this action wide so when he sticks the camera on the side of a vehicle, or inside of it, it felt like I was right there. This is especially effective in the helicopter scene where you bounce back and forth with a character shooting out of the sides. You can see a ton of landscaping flying by and it totally sells how high up you are and how small the inside of the helicopter is. Watching the actual Tom Cruise clinging to the bottom of the helicopter is memorizing and pushes a sense of realism a lot of action movies these days don’t do. Speaking of realism, the sound work on Fallout is also incredible. The report from handguns was a real stand out and kicks and punches sound so brutal.

The ads show crazy glimpses of a bathroom fight and it totally lived up to the hype. I think the last fight scene that really knocked people out is the hallway fight from the first season of Daredevil on Netflix (something that production as tried to duplicate and never achieved again, so far). It is nuts and needs to be seen. It legit looks like they are beating the stuffing out of each other. Henry Cavill looks like a monster brawler. I didn’t think they’d top that fight and then I’m served up with an absolute slobber knocker of a fight in a cabin that was riveting from start to finish. I think the helicopter chase scene will go down in history as one of the best action sequences ever filmed.

I found a lot to like here and it makes me continue to look forward to more. I think another change of pace, the likes of what Rogue Nation did, is now needed to keep this series on top. Clean up the plot and avoid those M:I cliches. On the action front, I don’t know how they can top this, but hey, that’s not my job. If it was, I’d hire every action choreographer and stunt person from this movie to do it.

There’s a bunch of animated movies I’ve been meaning to get to so here’s a quick hit list for you!

Moana– A beautiful tale set in ancient Polynesia, Moana is a young woman who sets out on a quest to save her home from a curse that was started by Demigod Maui. He stole the heart of the island and now Moana must find him and make things right. Fantastic, vibrant animation (think Finding Nemo: Above and Sometimes Under the Ocean) with some great characters. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is perfect as Maui and he plays great against/with Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. Cute, funny, and sweet, this is a great family movie with pops of fun action. Does a great service for the Polynesian culture, I recommend it.

The Secret Life of Pets– File this one under “It’s good, I guess.” I don’t have much to say for this one as there’s nothing much to talk about. It’s best for very young children as there is little plot to speak of. “A day in the life” is more like it as the creativity of this movie comes mostly from ideas of how pets spend their day when their owners aren’t home. Instead of having a plot that can engage all age types, like Pixar does, Life of Pets spends most of its time on figuring out how to get animals from point A to point B in different ways. Good animation and standard gags that highlight how animals behave (cats are aloof! Dogs sniff butts to greet each other!) should hold your attention enough to get you to the end. Nothing special here…I consider that it’s only 80 minutes long to be one of it’s best features.

Despicable Me 3– This one felt very similar to The Secret Life of Pets. At around 80 minutes, the movie is short but the script was clearly padded to reach a full-length feature run time. The main premise is good, Gru finds out he has a twin brother, Dru, and Dru wants to tag along and revive the families business of being a world-class villain. The main antagonist, Balthazar Bratt, is probably the best idea and follow through in the movie. It’s a very by the numbers DM movie though. The animation is fine, there are some clever moments but it’s all rather boring. The unicorn sub-plot is a complete waste of time. Bratt doesn’t do much for the run of the movie, disappearing for long stretches of time and he seemingly just sits around for most of the movie after he gets the giant jewel. Having Steve Carell do the voice of Dru seems really lazy to me and it makes the brothers too similar (they’ve been apart for something like 40 years and Gru never knew Dru existed). I never cared for anything the minions do in this movie and they’re off doing their own dumb thing (i.e. very little) for most of the movie. Only one part of this movie was worth paying attention to, the other two parts were 20 minutes or so of spinning plates to make it seem like more was going on. Disappointing.

Coco– And now here’s another showcase of why Pixar is the best in the animation business and makes all the money. Miguel is an aspiring musician at the age of 12. His family has banned music from a traumatic event that occurred two generations earlier. Miguel must hide his dream and talent from his family. Then, as Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) approaches, his family finds out when he wants to sign up for a talent show. His grandmother smashes his guitar and Miguel goes in search of a new one. When he tries to borrow his great-great-grandfather’s guitar (a legendary musician) he’s transported to the Land of the Dead where he meets his deceased family members and finds out a whole new aspect of his family.

It’s a fantastic and timely story about the importance of family and the legacy we leave behind. Lovely and endearing characters I grew to know and love, I think Coco is a brilliant example of powerful story telling. On top of the rich and complex story that has laughs, twists and turns, and heartbreak, the visuals push Pixar to the top of their craft. Ignoring the standard brilliant animation they have for their characters, the detail in everything around the characters is unmatched. The colors, the effects, it all makes a digital world come to life. The world never looks like a set made up of simple shapes and plastic, but a real place with three-dimensional depth. The soundtrack is great too! I loved Coco and recommend it to everyone.

Sausage Party– I think the goal of this project from the start was to make a crazy edgy movie like Team America. But it gets nowhere close to that quality. I think I laughed 3 times. So that’s not a good batting average for a comedy. It’s just…not good. Let’s make all the characters stereotype’s based on what food they are. Let’s curse just because we can. Let’s have half the characters be obsessed with sex because that’s….funny? To keep it from being completely shallow, we’ll make it an allegory for…religion? Oh and there’s no good way to end the movie so let’s break the 4th wall and call it a day. If you never watch this movie, rest assured you haven’t missed anything.