Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Starring: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Michael Nyqist, Vladimir Mashkov, Samuli Edelman, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, and more.
Directed by: Brad Bird Written by: Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec Based on the Mission Impossible TV Series by: Bruce Geller Original Music by: Michael Giacchino
Premise: Ethan Hunt and his team are framed for an explosion at the Kremlin. Without support, the team follows the only clue they have to try to find the real culprit and stop him from carrying out his plans. (PG-13)
Review: This film was a lot of fun! Everything you’d expect and more.
The stunts and CGI were top notch, as were the hand to hand combat scenes. Tom Cruise makes all his jumps, leaps, slides seem smooth and easy as if he’d been born for action work. This smoothness is something which I’d noticed before in his last film “Knight and Day”. Yet there are also plenty of normal people action and mishaps, with consequences for bad aiming or timing. I cringed for them a couple of times.
All the heavy serious mission tension is eased here and there by beautiful comedic moments. Even better were the flares of temper or impatience, making the team members people and not just cinematic machines.
The cinematography was gorgeous. A spanning view from the Dubai hotel to the horizon with a blooming sandstorm was incredible. Each city got wonderful spanning views and added a lot of foreign flavor.
My only complaint was a couple of items either never explained or done so quickly viewers could easily miss them. There are subtle hints but nothing is ever vocalized. This is mostly in relation to faulty equipment and the bad guy seeming to have some of the IMFs technology. But it doesn’t detract too badly from the overall film.
One touch that I loved, and totally humanized some of the members, was some of the agents’s reticence to actually do certain aspects of the job. Normally on these type of films the agents never hesitate to do things common people would be scrambling not to do. It was nice seeing them hesitate or actually having to work themselves up to do them. Very humanizing.
Over all, it was a great film. Definitely worth watching!
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Would Pay Full Price to See It Again!)
