Since these two films are likely the last installments of the Mission Impossible franchise (with Tom Cruise at least) we should acknowledge that we're a year away from witnessing the end of a cinematic era.
This is a franchise that will have lasted twenty-eight years upon conclusion with the same actor in the lead and this wouldn't have been the franchise that it is without Tom Cruise. So far as I can tell, there was only one miss in the franchise and Mission Impossible 2 was still enjoyable on a few levels.
It's hard to not love these films.
People like to talk about great action movies like "roller coasters". That's something that has set these movies apart - they're just fun. They push the limits of our expectations. They have a healthy balance of drama and humor. The tone never shifted to full noir nor did it ever get too bright.
Still, what's been especially great in the last few films is that they've thrown caution to the wind in every conceivable way.
In a world of green screens, compositing, CGI, etc. this franchise stuck to reality. They put the work in and it shows on the screen.
Tom Cruise was older than Wilford Brimley was in Cocoon when he did the HALO jump in Fallout. He really held on to the side of a plane that was taking off in Rogue Nation. It doesn't matter that you're going into every movie with nearly absolute certainty that Ethan Hunt is going to be okay at the end, you're still at the edge of your seat because the rush of the real life stunts just washes over the audience.
The franchise has managed to be consistently ambitious and not pretentious. The films have abstained from Hollywood finger wagging. Every film in the franchise, in their own ways, has been a cinematic accomplishment.
