Ironically, the most entertaining element of all may be the star's advancing age; Cruise, well into his 50s, scores numerous laughs as the increasingly confused CIA agent, leaping into one spectacular stunt after another and then wishing he hadn't.

The thought crosses the mind: Where can it go from here? The answer is pretty much everywhere. It keeps on going and going, following one exciting sequence with another and then another.

I stayed to the final credit, in case there was a clever tag, but I didn't feel cheated when there wasn't one. I needed the time to catch my breath.

This is action cinema in its purest, most exemplary form. Kinetic, joyful, and artful all at once, this deserves the biggest screen money can afford.