Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens July 27 in wide release. Credit: Paramount Pictures

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens July 27 in wide release.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens July 27 in wide release. Paramount Pictures

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Defend your willingness to see the new Tom Cruise movie. (This premise will self-destruct in 474 words.)

Guess what: I can’t defend it. Aside from the thing of just liking what you like, I really can’t account for how much I enjoy Tom Cruise movies. By which I mean proper late-period Tom Cruise movies, the ones with stunts and running, especially the Mission: Impossible series—the sixth installment of which, Fallout, opens July 27.

By the way, this is not a review of Fallout. I haven’t seen it. Yet. They didn’t screen it in time for our deadline; why bother when they know how much people who care about cinema hate Tom Cruise?

Sean Nelson has worked at The Stranger on and off since 1996. He is currently Editor-at-Large. His past job titles included: Assistant Editor, Associate Editor, Film Editor, Copy Editor, Web Editor, Slog...