Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Director: Brad Bird

Writers: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and 1 more credit

Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 133 minutes

 

 

 

This is number 4 in the long running MI series and this one was the most successful critically and at the box office. So we can expect further adventures with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as splendidly backed up with the unforgettable MI theme tune. In fact, the last scene of this one almost guarantees one more as Ethan and his team – the nerdy Brit geek (Simon Pegg), the beautiful kick-ass IMF agent Carter (Paula Patton) and the cool government spook (Jeremy Renner) – kick back, grab a beer and toast their recent adventure a la the A Team (or any other team action flick).

I still have little idea what the IMF in this incarnation actually does and trying to follow the plots of any of the MI films is an impossible task, but this is high octane escapism and nothing more. In this one the story concerns a lunatic Scandinavian, some nuclear launch codes and impending Armageddon, but it’s hardly important. This film, as per the others, takes us around the world for some eye-popping stunts and gives Tom Cruise a thorough physical workout.

Cruise is in phenomenal shape here. He is a genuinely odd person away from films, but in work like this he is so completely committed that it is a sight to see. Most of the stunts are on a massive scale and bone crunching with the Cruiser there in the middle of each. Again he gets to do some flat out running straight at camera, a signature move, but also he swings from the world’s tallest building (the Burj Khalifa), makes a prison break and jumps around an indoor car park. Behind all of this action are plenty of MI gadgets of course, lots of noise, flashes and general mayhem.

For me this is a good action movie and a decent 2 hour watch, but not a lot more. The MI films may not aim to, but they fail to stand up to the Bourne ones and Ethan Hunt is not an interesting central character. Where this #4 of the MI franchise works well is in the fast and playful action scenes and that has a lot to do with Brad Bird the director. He comes from Pixar where he made one of my favourite films of all time; The Incredibles. Here he shares some of that Incredibles magic and MI4 benefits massively with the some unique cartoon like set pieces.