MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner

Writer: Christopher McQuarrie

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

The latest Mission: Impossible movie begins with the Impossible Mission Force being shut down after CIA guy Alec Baldwin takes them to the intelligence community's version of an industrial tribunal. Whoa, shortest M: I movie ever, I thought as I sat there, and not really worth me taking a trip to the cinema. They could have just sent me a text along the lines of "IMF shut down. Our bad." followed by a sad face. Of course, that isn't where the movie finishes, it's only the start of the latest round of far-fetched shenanigans as Cruise's Ethan Hunt goes off the grid to bring down "an anti-IMF" called The Syndicate and to restore the good name of his impossible mission-completing team. Which means going up against bad guy Solomon Lane (Sean Harris, sounding like he's in need of something for his sore throat).

It's not just Cruise returning to the fold either. Simon Pegg is back as perpetually exasperated tech geek-cum-field agent Benji Dunn, as is Jeremy Renner's stoic, serious William Brandt and Ving Rhames' cooler than cool Luther Stickell. Ghost Protocol's Paula Patton is one person who doesn't make a re-appearance so the vacancy for a smart, deadly, butt-kicking female operative is filled by Rebecca Ferguson as the mysterious Ilsa Faust who initially springs Hunt from Syndicate captivity even though she's working for them. Or is she really working for them? Is she actually working for some other agency? Or is she working for both sides? And if she is working for both, who's she double-crossing? Is she double-crossing everyone? Or is she being double-crossed? Or does she knows she's being double-crossed and so she's double-crossing those who are double-crossing her? Okay, I'm going to stop this now.

At this point I should probably be explaining the finer points of the plot but it's one of those stories where it's probably best to be swept along with the action as it hops from Vienna to Morocco to London. Which is my way of saying that I gave up on the plot early on and just revelled in its relentless action set-pieces and the amusingly smart-arsed to-and-fro between its main characters. Look, if you really need to know a bit more about the story, it's something to do with dead agents who may be anything but dead. There's a computer file, protected by insane levels of security, that needs to be acquired. The British Prime Minister is involved. The Austrian Chancellor is involved. American Intelligence is involved. British Intelligence is involved. Scooby-Doo is involved.

Hold on, I'm sure one of those doesn't belong...

Yes, Ethan Hunt still manages to mount handsomely-equipped stealth missions although his IMF credit card has been cancelled. Yes, Hunt is able to evade the best and the brightest that the forces of good and evil can muster. Yes, Hunt can die and be driving a BMW with few ill effects a couple of minutes later. And yes, the resolution of the plot relies heavily on Character A second-guessing the entire set of moves of Character B and then Character B second guessing that Character A will second guess Character B's entire set of moves and use that knowledge to trump Character A. Or something like that. And if these things bother you, Rogue Nation will drive you batshit insane.

Me? I'm happy to go with the flow in this case for a number of reasons. Firstly, Christopher McQuarrie is terrific at generating suspense, particularly in the extended sequence set in the Vienna State Opera which is mightily impressive. It's everything you want - tense, funny, exciting and all against the clock. Secondly, I have to mention The Cruiser himself. Say what you like about him but he's a bonafide action star. That's really him hanging on the outside of a plane. The bloke commits to these movies, that's a fact. Thirdly, the action is assembled beautifully. A long chase sequence between Cruise's BMW and a squad of motorbikes is a flat-out masterpiece of editing - it's so good that it probably should have been at the end of the movie rather than in the middle. All of these things make Rogue Nation worth your time. However, the reason you should be seeing this is Rebecca Ferguson.

As Ilsa, Ferguson could be Emma Peel's even more lethal cousin. She has absolutely no qualms about taking on a bloke twice her size in a knife fight. She's a crack shot with handguns and sniper rifles. Unarmed, Ilsa takes out her enemies with a variety of acrobatic moves. She could probably break someone's arms with her eyelashes. At the same time, she's intelligent, her sense of humour is deliciously dry and she's clearly not there to go gooey over Ethan Hunt and to fall into his arms. She'd probably break the aforementioned arms with the aforementioned eyelashes. Star power of Tom Cruise notwithstanding, Rebecca Ferguson is easily the best thing in a movie that possesses its own fair share of good things.

Granted, if you like your spycraft only if it's served with a Le Carré level of realism then this latest Mission: Impossible outing will almost certainly send you running for the exit. Then again, so would any of the previous outings in the franchise. For M: I and/or Cruise fans this is, in my opinion, better than Ghost Protocol (which in itself was pretty decent) and has an ace up its sleeve in the amazing Ms Ferguson. It may not draw too many new followers to the series but confirmed Mission: Impossible addicts will find plenty to enjoy.