MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

Here's the short version. Tom Cruise built an intriguing, well-written, well-directed spy thriller, and it earns its four stars honestly — it moves fast, keeps you guessing, and rewards you for trying to figure out who's really on which side. That's rare, and it's worth your evening.

The cost is language. Excess profanity is the film's one real flaw, and it's the reason this isn't a clean family pick. On the other side of the ledger: no sex, mild and bloodless-in-detail violence, and — unusually for the genre — a moral worldview where truth wins out, Scripture is quoted, and the Bible plays a real part in saving the hero.

If you're an adult or have teens who can handle rough language, this is a smart, satisfying watch. If profanity is a hard line for your family, wait and choose something else.

A Mission Impossible team sets out to stop a scoundrel from stealing a list of every classified undercover agent in Eastern Europe. The mission goes wrong, several team members lose their lives, and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) — the one man left standing — is pegged as the mole responsible. Ethan knows he's innocent. Clearing his name means teaming up with disavowed agents and staying one step ahead of the very organization hunting him.

Four stars means this is genuinely excellent craft, and the source review backs it up: well written, well produced, well directed. The movie moves quickly and keeps you on the edge of your seat, leaning hard on the pleasure of not knowing who's a good guy, who's a bad guy, and whether the whole thing is one elaborate sting. Cruise, who also produced, delivers on the premise: an intriguing spy thriller that earns the attention it demands.

This is a spy thriller with an unexpectedly moral spine. Truth wins out in the end. Scripture is quoted. The Bible itself plays a unique part in saving the hero — a detail you don't expect to find at the center of a big studio action picture, and one worth noticing. Lying, deception, and fraud drive the plot, but they're the tools of the story's villains, not something the film asks you to admire.

The one real blemish is language: excess profanity runs through the dialogue, enough that the source calls it the film's major flaw. That's a cost worth weighing, even alongside the positive references to God and the Bible elsewhere in the story.

At its heart, this is a film about a man wrongly accused, fighting to be vindicated when the truth seems buried. Scripture speaks directly to that ache: "No weapon that is forged against you shall succeed... this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17).

Tom Cruise and company built a genuinely clever, well-crafted thriller — one with truth, Scripture, and a hero worth rooting for at its center. The profanity is real, and it's the one thing keeping this from being an easy family recommendation. Our answer stands: worth the trip — ages 13 and up.