The New em Mission: Impossible /em Marks the Triumphant Return of Cinema's Greatest Special Effect

A year after saving the summer box office with the smash hit Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise is back for another round of speedy-motorcycle riding, choppy-handed running, and look-Ma-no-CGI stuntwork in Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh and supposedly penultimate entry in the now 27-year-old action franchise. In the able hands of Christopher McQuarrie, who has directed the past three M:I movies in addition to writing or co-writing the past four, Dead Reckoning displays the serene if at times demented confidence of a series that's found its voice. Even at 163 minutes, it somehow moves with the no-nonsense briskness of a good airport thriller. To be clear, there is some nonsense involved: Dead Reckoning's plot hinges on an espionage-related MacGuffin so technologically advanced it might as well be magical. And there are several of the franchise's time-honored and much-memed "mask reveals," in which a character suddenly rips off their own face to reveal another cast member underneath.