Basically, this movie is big, loud, and stupid.
Definitely TOO loud, in fact. The music attempts to turn even the most minor scene into some sort of heart-pounding climax.
There are endless ridiculous fights in which Tom Cruise is predictably unstoppable, no matter how many opponents he's up against. Slim girls get to beat up multiple men. (Emily Blunt was right when, commenting on a fight in "Sicario" in which, refreshingly, she loses to a bigger guy, she noted that Hollywood fight scenes in which 110-pound women whip larger males are "so cheesy.")
The dull, tepid, way-too-pretty villain is, implausibly, a formidable fighter but sure doesn't look like one. An action movie is only as good as its villain is evil; this guy looks like a French fashion mogul.
He and Cruise fight on top of -- wait for it -- a moving train! Haven't we seen that ridiculous sort of thing a hundred times before?
The tediously overcomplicated plot makes it hard to keep track of who's on which side, nor do we care. Apparently, as is usual these days, we're supposed to root against the U. S. government.
In all scenes involving conversations, virtually EVERY line is merely plot exposition in which characters tell us, in stilted dialogue, what's going on, what's supposed to happen, and how we're supposed to feel.
The much-touted parachute jump is actually disappointing. It's over quite fast, and its main source of interest is that, if you've seen the promotional video, you know that Cruise himself actually made that jump.
The only truly enjoyable sequence -- the cleverly worked-out rescue attempts on the falling train -- comes at the end, after nearly two and a half hours of empty cartoonish nonsense...
Including, of course, an overlong cartoonish car chase, obligatory in dumb summer movies.
Definitely TOO loud, in fact. The music attempts to turn even the most minor scene into some sort of heart-pounding climax.
There are endless ridiculous fights in which Tom Cruise is predictably unstoppable, no matter how many opponents he's up against. Slim girls get to beat up multiple men. (Emily Blunt was right when, commenting on a fight in "Sicario" in which, refreshingly, she loses to a bigger guy, she noted that Hollywood fight scenes in which 110-pound women whip larger males are "so cheesy.")
The dull, tepid, way-too-pretty villain is, implausibly, a formidable fighter but sure doesn't look like one. An action movie is only as good as its villain is evil; this guy looks like a French fashion mogul.
He and Cruise fight on top of -- wait for it -- a moving train! Haven't we seen that ridiculous sort of thing a hundred times before?
The tediously overcomplicated plot makes it hard to keep track of who's on which side, nor do we care. Apparently, as is usual these days, we're supposed to root against the U. S. government.
In all scenes involving conversations, virtually EVERY line is merely plot exposition in which characters tell us, in stilted dialogue, what's going on, what's supposed to happen, and how we're supposed to feel.
The much-touted parachute jump is actually disappointing. It's over quite fast, and its main source of interest is that, if you've seen the promotional video, you know that Cruise himself actually made that jump.
The only truly enjoyable sequence -- the cleverly worked-out rescue attempts on the falling train -- comes at the end, after nearly two and a half hours of empty cartoonish nonsense...
Including, of course, an overlong cartoonish car chase, obligatory in dumb summer movies.