Mission Impossible—Fallout

This year’s summer release schedule is crammed with limp, sad, flavorless, nobody-asked-for-this-shit sequels. There are now two The Equalizer movies, three Hotel Transvylvania movies and four The Purge movies. Any new hope for a Star Wars comeback fades further away with each passing release. Marvel movies remain as insipidly anonymous as ever, no matter the director. The Harry Potter extended universe is running on the fumes coming off Johnny Depp’s mustache. Ben Affleck is Batman. All of this is to say that while Mission: Impossible has become arguably the best and certainly the most reliable blockbuster movie franchise in circulation, it certainly doesn’t have a lot of competition for the titles. Still, that’s not a knock against Christopher McQuarrie’s vigorously entertaining Fallout, the sixth movie starring Tom Cruise as indestructible superspy Ethan Hunt. It’s as polished, precision-tuned and effective a piece of filmmaking as you’re likely to see all year long.