Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Yesterday, thanks to the timely intervention of a sitter of babies (though ours are not exactly babies, we accepted the offer), my wife and I got to take in a matinee. While I had movies I wanted to see, none were absolute must-sees. She, on the other hand, was adamant. And so, we saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

I will preface this by saying that I enjoyed and own all previous three M:I movies on DVD, though I only saw MI2 (the one directed by John Woo) in the theatre.

If you are a fan of the M:I franchise, you will enjoy MIGP. Brad Bird proves he can totally handle live action, and lively action as well. There are some great action set-pieces, some wonderful fight scenes, and a couple of outstanding visuals. This is a movie that should be seen on the big screen. I will still be getting it and watching it on our widescreen at home, but this movie was undoubtedly built for the theatre.

The team assembled – which of course includes Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, but also includes Jeremy “mother-fuckin’ Hawkeye, bitches!” Renner, Simon “how many more awesome movies can I be in?” Pegg, and Paula “I have no idea who she is but she’s hot and kicks ass, so welcome!” Patton. As you may have already surmised from the trailers, the IMF has been shut down, the team are acting without support, and the Jeremy Renner character may, in fact, be the Avenger known as Hawkeye.

That last one is totally untrue, but the character isn’t exactly what he says he is, so there’s that tension as well.

Everyone delivers solid performances. As my wife and I agreed, Tom Cruise may be a total nutjob, but he can really deliver in the right role. We also recently saw him in Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, in which he also totally delivered the goods.

There’s really nothing negative to say about the movie. I’m sure there are plot holes, but the action was moving along so nicely, I wasn’t tuned in to note them. There’s nothing ground-breaking in this movie. It’s not going to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards (but, then again, the average vote for prom queen is less fraught with social dynamics than the Oscars), but it is a really great actioner.

I’ll say it again, if you dig on M:I, Ghost Protocol will likely feed you what you crave. I give it 4.5 self-destructing messages out of 5.

Find more info on the movie at it’s IMDB Page or at Wikipedia.