'Mission:Impossible' may be the best ongoing franchise in movies

Will all due respect to Marvel, they don't have anything on Tom Cruise. Here's the thing -- I am always going to be a James Bond guy first and foremost -- but those films just don't come out consistently enough. I'd love to see a new Mad Max, but who knows if George Miller and company will ever get around to it. So, for me, as far as big budget franchises go, there is nothing quite in the same league as the Mission: Impossible movies.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite -- but I will say after having seen the new one -- Fallout -- in IMAX (which is ideal), I can say this sixth iteration is probably the most ambitious and the riskiest.

It's the first that feels like it could be the end, and instead it feels like a new beginning -- I know that doesn't make a ton of sense, but once you see it (and I'm betting boatloads of people will) you'll understand.

At 56, Tom Cruise is just as vital a movie star as ever, and yet he's wise enough to know that it behoves him to show more vulnerability and fatigue than he did in say, Mission: Impossible II. It's not that's he lost a step, it's that the stakes both personal and physical in this one are that much higher.

This is the most espionage-heavy of the M:I films to date (which sometimes weighs the movie down with one to many plot threads) and it's the first one I can remember where I genuinely didn't know whether the heroes would survive, let alone accomplish their mission, that's an incredible feat for a series six movies in, and while I genuinely wonder how Cruise can continue doing death defying stunts like he does here, it feels like this series still has so much juice left in it.

It's a movie about endurance in many ways -- this film features what may be the all-time greatest 'Tom Cruise run' and like the last several of his outings as Ethan Hunt, it reminds audiences that he can still be one of the most charming and durable movie stars of all time.

A fantastic supporting cast backs him up here, from series mainstays like Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, breakout star Rebecca Ferguson and new additions -- a stunning Angela Bassett and a glowering Henry Cavill who's natural woodenness is used to great effect here.

It's all sprawling, globe-trotting audience-friendly entertainment of the first order -- but it's also a darker, more brooding entry than what's come before.

I think that's what struck me most besides the longer running time and of course the buzzworthy action spectacle of it all, I was impressed that this one dared to try some new things and give Cruise's character more depth while still not skimping on the kind of remarkable set-pieces that fans know and love.

There is probably nothing in here that tops the Dubai tower moment from Ghost Protocol, but watching Cruise gracefully ride his motorcycle against traffic may be the single most breathtaking bit of action filmmaking I've seen this year.

Every time one of these movies comes out they manage to raise the bar of what's possible. You jaw will drop, you will be on the edge of your seat and then you'll want to see it again.