Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Ultra HD Review

THE MOVIE — 3¾/5

Plot Synopsis: Ethan Hunt (TOM CRUISE) and the IMF team (VING RHAMES, SIMON PEGG) must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.

Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh movie in the long-running, vaunted franchise going on 25+ years now, has all the trademarks of the series, especially under Christopher McQuarrie’s direction, with amazing stunt work often with Cruise doing them himself. It also has the espionage elements with masks and nifty devices and a lot of humor thrown in to balance things out with some of the heavier elements.

The acting from the ensemble cast were mostly great for this type of movie with Tom Cruise in his element as Ethan Hunt with a good range of emotions while the other original cast member Ving Rhames here in a more limited role before his Luther character disappearing completely to go off-the-grid. Simon Pegg provides his usual quirky humor even in the more serious scenes while Rebecca Ferguson marks her third appearance in the franchise. Also returning from the 1996 original is Henry Czeny as government spook Kittridge who I guess is now the de facto IMF leader though no explanation where he’s been in the past couple of decades. In any case, nice to see the character again whose motives are in the grayer side of things.

Dead Reckoning also fills in a few gaps, first we get a glimpse into Hunt’s past before IMF and that agents within the agency had dark pasts where they are given the “choice” of getting a new life, which is where a character named Gabriel, played by Esai Morales, is the face of an A.I. villan, who has a connection with Hunt. We also get filled in with the “deal” made between Kittridge and Max from the first movie in a scene between himself and The White Widow.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5

This release comes with a glossy slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Outside of the commentary, all bonus material are on a feature-only Blu-ray disc, there is no Blu-ray with the movie.

Disc 1 (4K UHD):
Audio Commentary — Co-Writer/Producer/Director Christopher McQuarrie and Editor Eddie Hamilton. There’s no Tom Cruise unfortunately (he had done ones with McQuarrie in the past, but these two still provide insights into the production.

Disc 2 (Blu-ray):
This second disc takes us through the various exotic locations and featured stunt sequences with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with primarily crew members the cast were MIA (SAG strike maybe?) outside of a few snippets. Here is a breakdown:

• Abu Dabi (3:55)
• Rome (4:12)
• Venice (4:12)
• Freefall (9:05)
• Speed Flying (4:17)
• Train (5:32)

All told there’s 31-minutes of featurettes but put together not quite a complete as one would think for a production of this scope. I can only assume once “Part Two” is released, Paramount will package to the two together with a bonus disc of additional featurettes and even deleted scenes.

VIDEO – 5/5, AUDIO – 4¾/5

Paramount releases Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One onto 4K Ultra HD where it’s presented with a 2160p high-definition transfer and the original 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio. No real surprise here, but the picture here looks excellent with amazingly sharp detail throughout and colors are nicely balanced from the warmer, color-filled scenes to the more darkly lit scenes that have good black levels.

The included Dolby Atmos track takes advantage of all of the action sequences displaying a great amount of depth, along with clear dialogue coming from the center channel as well as any off-screen audio for the side tracks. Lorne Balfe’s bombastic score also takes advantage of the multiple speakers, while the LFE kicks on to deliver an extra push.

OVERALL — 4/5

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One might not be the strongest in the long-running franchise with a story that’s obviously only half told (the second part isn’t slated to be released until 2025 and will come with a new title dropping the “Part Two”. Still, the action sequences were excellent as always and even though it is well over 2.5 hours, there’s never  a dull moment and is entertaining from start to finish.