Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs

6. The Fantastic Ensemble Cast

While this film's ensemble cast is practically bursting at the seams, McQuarrie does his level-best to make good use of them.

Of Ethan Hunt's classic crew, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames in particular get more to do than they did in Fallout, while the most compelling new addition to the cast is thief Grace (Hayley Atwell), who serves as a fun foil-slash-ally to Hunt.

Elsewhere it's great fun seeing Henry Czerny back in the series for the first time since the 1996 original as IMF director Eugene Kittridge, and Czerny tears through his various verbose monologues with a clear relish.

Other worthwhile additions include Pom Klementieff as the savage-yet-underwritten French assassin Paris, Cary Elwes as Director of National Intelligence Denlinger, and character actor Shea Whigham as the ever-exasperated Jasper Briggs - an enforcer tracking Hunt down.

While some among the cast are certainly served better than others - Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust feels like an afterthought at times - on the balance of things it's a ton of fun watching this huge roster of talented actors working together.