Flick Flak: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Director: Brad Bird
With: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner
12A, 133mins
Interesting people have always directed the Mission: Impossible films: Brian De Palma, John Woo, JJ Abrams and now Brad Bird. Bird has worked entirely in the animated sector, having made The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. And now the equally cartoon-ish M:I 4.
This sounds like an insult, but it isn't. M:I 4 is the silliest, most entertaining action film since Fast Five, with a constant stream of set pieces that are both daft and brilliant. Considering the plot follows an impending nuclear war the film is always light and played for laughs, except occasional fight sequences.
The film begins with a new IMF team breaking Ethan Hunt (Cruise) out of a Russian prison in a scene which introduces Hunt as the reckless, suave agent, Benji (Pegg) as the beleaguered tech agent trying to keep him alive, and Carter (Paula Patton), your typical ass-kicking and gorgeous female agent. As a scene it's brutal, exciting, funny, and has gadgets and explosions - much like the film as a whole.
After the team infiltrate the Kremlin in a bid to track down nuclear terrorist 'Cobalt' (and get double-crossed), the US President initiates Ghost Protocol and disavows the entire IMF, leaving Hunt and his team without support as they try to prevent nuclear war. The plot is fairly absurd but doesn't really matter; it serves the purpose, which is a stream of action scenes in various glamorous locations (a James Bond film basically).
Though this is Tom Cruise's franchise, and it introduces his long-term replacement in Jeremy Renner, the star of M:I 4 is actually Simon Pegg. He is in practically every scene and brings a very welcome comedy element to the film, lightening the whole thing and preventing it from being boring: if it were serious the absurdity would be irritating, but thanks to the humour you're having too much fun to worry.
The rest of the IMF team are played perfectly well - Cruise, despite being perhaps not the most likeable individual on the planet, plays Hunt fairly appealingly. I could watch Jeremy Renner in anything, and, though he doesn't reach such heights as his performance in The Town, is still fine. Michael Nyqvist, best known as Mikael, the reporter in the Swedish Millennium trilogy, is underused as the villain of the piece - he doesn't even get to do the typical 'evil monologue' bit. Which is a shame because I'm sure he's capable of some good menace.
The highlight of the film is absolutely the action. There are some really good, imaginative sequences, balancing humour, violence, suspense and action. The gadgets in the film took me back to being young and watching Bond films, being wowed at the imagination involved in inventing things that clearly can't exist... or can they? The scenes in Dubai, involving the Burj Khalifa building (the tallest in the world) are vertigo-inducing and bum-clenchingly tense, particularly when Cruise (not just his character, but the actor himself) is larking about on the outside of the building.
Mission: Impossible 4 is the most fun I've had at the cinema for a while. You'll be having too much fun to care how silly it all is, and about the fact that things are happening which, if you think about it, are utterly pointless. The writing is very clever at times, but more often seems to be distracting you from plot-holes by throwing smart little points at you.
But, mainly, it's fun. It's everything you want from it, and if you liked the look of the trailer, you won't be disappointed.
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