Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation review: Tom Cruise returns to another era

In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise's secret agent Ethan Hunt does all those familiar Tom Cruise things: he valiantly pulls off impressive physical feats, tenses that famous jaw, and looks very serious while talking about the next improbable item he must obtain. This is the fifth Mission: Impossible feature in two decades, and while it's somewhat predictable it's also well-made and enjoyable.

The film, in many ways, is a throwback. In this age of suicide bombers and drone strikes, it's dedicated to spy networks and steely operatives. Even the bit players look stylish and menacing as Ethan's Impossible Mission Force pursues The Syndicate, a covert network spreading terror worldwide, while the US government through a doubting CIA director, Hunley (Alec Baldwin), tries to rein Ethan in.

There's a great deal of plotting, spread across Europe and North Africa, and while it's cleanly handled by writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, the pleasure is in the dry humour that circulates between Ethan and his very English offsider, Benji (Simon Pegg), and the mordant twists that further the set-pieces. The film puts unexpected hitches in front of Ethan, just to torment espionage's great over-achiever.

Each Mission: Impossible movie has reflected a differing director, whether it's John Woo or J.J. Abrams, but McQuarrie, who previously directed Cruise in 2012's patchy Jack Reacher, has turned his outing back to Brian De Palma's​ sleek 1996 franchise debut. An extended sequence in a Viennese opera house with multiple assassins intersecting is a homage to De Palma's choreographed visuals.

This film and the first both make reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, with a female lead trapped by duplicity, but Emmanuelle Beart​ was a passive, pouting presence in 1996 whereas the Swedish-born actress Rebecca Ferguson, as the formidable Ilsa, is Ethan's equal. She's the Ginger Rogers to his Fred Astaire, doing everything backwards but kicking her heels off first.

This dynamic duo team up for hand-to-hand combat and an extended motorbike and car chase that has an impressive physicality. They're such a good match that Jeremy Renner's Brandt, another Ethan cohort, spends much of the movie sidelined. Thankfully McQuarrie keeps the bond between Ethan and Ilsa fraternal, realising that creating a genuine sexual spark is not his leading man's strength.

When the pacing slows the film is never too far from the ludicrous – Hunley has a line about Ethan's magnificence that is unintentionally funny – but in this era of endless superhero movies there's something refreshing about high-tech secret-agent shenanigans. Between this and last year's Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise is making a success of his fifties.