Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation | DVD review - More white-knuckle thrills from Cruise & co | Movie Talk | What's on TV

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation Tom Cruise Rebecca Ferguson.jpg — (Image credit: Keith Hamshere)

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise’s fifth outing as daredevil spy Ethan Hunt, delivers another hugely entertaining round of white-knuckle thrills teetering on the edge of absurdity.

And it’s the dizzying audacity of the film’s opening scene – which finds Hunt clinging to the side of a cargo plane as it careers down a runway and takes off – that softens us up for the preposterousness of the ensuing plot.

With Alec Baldwin’s testy CIA chief striving to disband the Impossible Mission Force, Hunt is on the trail of a shadowy organisation of renegade spies, aided by Simon Pegg’s bungling comic-relief sidekick Benji and by lithe and mysterious femme fatale Ilsa Faust (terrific Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson).

Along the way, there’s a gripping, Hitchcockian suspense scene at the Vienna Opera and a scorching motorcycle chase through Casablanca, before things reach a climax in London with some typically dextrous and dazzling IMF trickery.

Certificate 12. Runtime 131 mins. Director Christopher McQuarrie

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is available on Blu-ray & DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment from Monday 7th December.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIyFIZIgwA

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.