Directed by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects (1995); Top Gun: Maverick (2022); Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)) and starring Tom Cruise (Top Gun (1986); Mission: Impossible (1996); Jerry Maguire (1996); Jack Reacher (2012)), Simon Pegg (The World's End (2013); Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015); Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction (1994); Mission: Impossible II (2000); Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)), Rebecca Ferguson (The Greatest Showman (2017); Dune (2021); Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)) and Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger (2011); The Duchess (2008); Christopher Robin (2018)).

Action adventure, 163 mins; 12+

One of this year's Hollywood summer blockbusters... The opening scenes of this seventh in the MI franchise see a Russian submarine, the Sebastopol, nearing the end of a long mission to test new technology, one which makes it virtually invisible until, that is, it seems that enemy forces have located it.

Fast forward to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) receiving his orders for another mission, to find a two-part key (which nobody apart from the audience realises was used aboard the Sebastopol) before it falls into the wrong hands and its technology is used to destroy mankind. A bit like the atomic bomb, really...

He is transported to the Arabian Desert where he believes one half of the key is, guarded by someone with whom he has previously worked, Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson); but other sides are there too, after the same thing...

Amazingly, he survives that almost without a scratch and then teams up with his wingmen Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), with the clues leading to an intended swap in a Middle Eastern airport. The use of technology used there is very well done, and quite entertaining in places, as individuals are not whom they may first appear - also helped by the use of rubber prosthetic masks. There they make first contact with a new character, Grace (Hayley Atwell), a thief whose sleight of hand is quite something, and they offer her to change to work with them (but is she double-crossing them?).

The action then takes them to Italy, notably Rome (they must have cordoned off ALL the roads around the Colosseum) and Venice (where just some of the canals were used), as well as the Austrian Alps which feature strongly, as do a significant number of other characters, all involved in their own sub-plots.

A great summer blockbuster that is sure to wow audiences with its high-octane action, fight and chase scenes involving atop a moving train (as seen recently in the opening scenes of Dial of Destiny...) and involving a Fiat 500 around Rome, also the aspects of hacking into computer systems which was both done BY and TO the MI team....

Currently being screened in Luxembourg at Kinepolis.