Two things came to mind while I was watching "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One": one, this movie needs to cut its runtime; and two, the stunts are still bonkers enough that you want more even from a nearly 30-year-old franchise.

Don't get me wrong: "Mission Impossible" has been one of the most consistent action franchises on celluloid. It's the anti-"Fast and Furious" or "Transformers" as every flick is better than the last except maybe the John Woo "MI:2."

This time around, though, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with -- what else? -- another impossible mission: stealing two parts of a key that unlocks an underwater vault containing the source code of a malicious AI called The Entity. Said Entity, which funnily enough has a Winamp visualizer, has the power to hack into systems, rewrite data and cause haywire to all forms of digital communications, the usual end-of-the-world stakes.

Every nation in the world wants "The Entity" so it's up to Ethan and company including Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and a criminally underused Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to take the McGuffin before it ends up in the wrong hands.

Ilsa has part of the key while new addition Grace (Hayley Atwell) somehow ends up with the other. We've got airport chases and wild goose chases, gunbattles and knife fights, too much expository dialogue, some unnecessary characters plus the welcome return of Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the director of the IMF and CIA last seen in the first "Mission: Impossible" movie in 1996. Big baddie Gabriel (Esai Morales) has a dark secret tied to Ethan's past while henchwoman Paris (Pom Klementieff) is a different kind of assassin hunting the IMF.

And of course, we have the stunts.

Instead of getting stupider, the "Mission Impossible" movies just keep pushing harder on the stunts. Instead of Keanu Reeves in the John Wick movies, we have action maven Tom Cruise proving his superstar bonafides by: a) dangling from the ceiling in a supersilent office in Fort Knox; b) electrocuting himself to disarm a micro-explosive; c) dangling off an airplane; and d) dangling off the tallest building in the world.

Here, we have a both thrilling and hilarious car chase in Rome using a Fiat 500 that would make Mr. Bean proud. They also have an absolutely mindblowing sequence where the IMF's overreliance on technology becomes its Achilles' heel.

And of course, we have THAT scene which has been promoted endlessly since last year -- Ethan Hunt driving a motorcycle off a mountaintop, basejumping off said vehicle and then landing on a speeding train. The actual stunt only takes seconds but the buildup to that scene is insanely thrilling; this would have worked even better if the production had held off on promoting it so much.

Thankfully, there's still one more action setpiece that's even better than the mountaintop jump -- this one involving a dangling train.

In this day and age where people would rather wait for a movie to stream, "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One" proves there is a reason to go back to the cinema. This is visceral action spectacle, with stunts that are dangerous enough that it will quicken your pulse and make you grip your seat. Some day, Ethan Hunt may decide he's had enough of planes and helicopters and decide to base jump off the International Space Station. Till then, make mine "Mission Impossible."

"Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One" is now showing in Philippine cinemas.

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