SONNY BUNCH: Tom Cruise, the Living Manifestation of Kino.

Late-stage Mission: Impossible movies are absolutely perfect pop art confections, and Dead Reckoning: Part One is no exception. Imagine The Fast and the Furious series, but good: headlined by a genuine star, featuring coherently shot set pieces, and looking like they exist in something like the real world instead of a CGI-composited bag of garbage. I’m glad Tom Cruise is making them and I’m glad they are resounding successes; theaters need evangelists like Cruise if they are to survive.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sad to see Cruise’s complete absorption into franchise fare over which he has near-total control. Since Edge of Tomorrow, he’s been in precisely one non-franchise feature (American Made); the movie he’s shooting with SpaceX isn’t likely to be that different from the recent Mission: Impossible films.

Such is the way of the world, I suppose; all of Hollywood has been consumed by intellectual property. Perhaps it’s just one final way that Tom Cruise truly is the living manifestation of American cinema.

The latest Mission: Impossible film is also Critical Drinker approved. He compares it to the new Indiana Jones movie, except that the elements that are disastrous in Harrison Ford’s film — the stunts, the age of the lead, his female costar, and the McGuffin — all work in the latest M:I.