Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

[Reviewed on December 18th 2011]

I saw this over the weekend, just after seeing Brian's Twitter feed that he saw Mission Impossible over the weekend as well and mentioned that Tom Cruise does a lot of running in the movie.  Agreed, the man knows how to run gracefully onscreen.  But the big question is:  did you like it so much that you felt compelled to climb up on Oprah's sofa and start jumping up and down while proclaiming your love for the movie?  In any case, here is my short movie review.

Main Takeaway

Big summer movie in December.  Verdict:  Recommended, definitely in IMAX if you have the chance.

Pros

• Lots of gadgets
• 2nd act (that takes place in Dubai) worked really well
• Tom Cruise doing his thing, talking in short, controlled bursts of verbage when he isn't doing some crazy ass stunt
• Brad Bird (director of the Incredibles and Ratatouille) makes a fun, action packed movie.  Disciple of JJ Abrams, without the lens flare
• There were a good number of quiet moments mixed in with big, bombastic actions scenes
• Sawyer from Lost is in it
• The Dark Knight Rises trailer played before the movie

Cons/Nits

• Long running time
• Could easily have been mistaken for a James Bond movie
• While it didn't make me want to go out and buy a BMW, all of the BMW and Canon branding was somewhat in your face.  Not as blatant as The Island or Transformers 2 but still there.

Summary

Out of all of the Mission Impossible movies, this is the best but that's not really saying much.  The first one (directed by Brian DePalma) tripped over its own plot twists but had some memorable action scenes.  The second one (directed by John Woo) didn't really have any great action scenes and didn't have much of a plot. I felt for John Woo (Hollywood version) who was trying his best to imitate John Woo (Hong Kong version) and failing miserably.  The third one (directed by JJ Abrams) was good since it focused more on the team players instead of just on Tom Cruise.  Oh ... and there were several good action scenes.  The fourth one works on the strengths of the third one and raises it up a notch.  Not all the way up to eleven but more like 9.  All of the action scenes involving the Burj Khalifa (the worlds tallest building in the world) in IMAX were vertigo-inducing cool.  If anything, it serves as a reminder as to why people pay an extra $3 to watch a movie in IMAX.  

Did You Notice

A number of iPhones were used by IMF personnel and would self destruct after a mission is assigned.  Does that reflect the quality of the product?  Of course, Brad Bird used to work for PIXAR who has close ties with Apple so you wonder if there was a little bit of product placement nepotism involved.  Having said that, there is one scene, right after Kremlin scene, where Ethan steals someone's phone to call IMF.  Right after using it, he throws it into the gutter.  Note that it wasn't an iPhone :-).

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton

Written By:  Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec

Directed By:  Brad Bird

Genre:  Action/Thriller

Rated:  PG-13