We think it was Jean-Luc Godard who once said “the purest form of cinema is Tom Cruise dangling off something very high.” Well, maybe it was Bresson. Regardless, this week sees the release of “Mission Impossible — Rogue Nation,” the fifth in the long-running spy series that over the last twenty years has presented some of the most spectacular set pieces for the screen in modern times, and in a year when action cinema has been thrillingly revived, it marks a high point.
The action movie has been around since 1903’s “The Great Train Robbery,” and when done right, it’s a form of pure cinema injected straight into the veins. It’s a very particular set of skills, one that’s thwarted many great directors, but in able hands capable of precisely choreographing a fight, battle, chase or showdown, to shoot them in inventive and thrilling ways, and to cut them to maximize tension and visceral qualities, the form can reach a level of transcendence.
http://www.indiewire.com/2015/07/the-25-best-action-movies-of-the-21st-century-so-far-261296/
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