'Mission: Impossible – Fallout's Ratings Are Impossibly High, So Run To The Theater ASAP
Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which has been going for over 20 years, arrives in theaters this coming weekend. But even if 56-year-old Tom Cruise might be getting a little long in the tooth as Ethan Hunt, the film series itself is aging like fine wine. At least, that's what the reviews say. Mission: Impossible - Fallout's ratings are high enough that Cruise probably would think it was a good idea to perform stunts off them.
The original Mission: Impossible was less an American version of James Bond it's become and more an attempt to create a movie franchise off the 1960s era TV show, and its familiar theme song. Released in 1996, the Brian DePalma directed film has a respectable 63 percent rating. But the follow-up, the dully titled Mission: Impossible 2, was a flop in 2000, scoring a low 57 percent with reviewers and audiences.
That's where the franchise sat for half a decade. Mission: Impossible III revived it in 2006, with a 70 percent rating. Since then the series has fired one off every few years. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) both scored 93 percent each on Rotten Tomatoes. Mission: Impossible - Fallout has done them both one better. It is the highest rated film, 22 years after the franchise began, with a certified rating of 97 percent fresh.
Roger Ebert's site practically burbles over it:
It's got that finely-tuned, perfect blend of every technical element that it takes to make a great action film, all in service of a fantastic script and anchored by great action performances to not just work within the genre but to transcend it.
The Washington Post gives backhanded compliments.
Even its most irritating parts don't fatally damage a whole that works amazingly well, despite its own excesses.
And in a comparison between Mr. The Rock and Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise apparently wins, according to The New Paper:
If you think Dwayne Johnson's stunts in Skyscraper are insane, wait till you see what Cruise does in Fallout.
As for the box office estimates, original long-range tracking put the film to at least cross the $60-$75 million mark this weekend, which would be a franchise best. If they hold out, Mission: Impossible - Fallout will beat the Mission: Impossible 2's opening weekend of $57.9 million, the franchise's current record holder.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Glowing reviews could prove a major boost for the sixth outing in the film franchise. Presently, the $178 million boasts a 97 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the best score for a Mission: Impossible film, as well as for any Cruise film (the actor's next best is Risky Business with 96 percent). Heading into the weekend, Hollywood's leading tracking service, NRG, shows Mission: Impossible 6 debuting to $50 million. Other services show it opening in the $52 million to $57 million range.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout opens this Friday, July 27, 2018, across the US.
