FILM REVIEW: 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL'
Tom Cruise's Latest M:I Installment Brings An Ever-Entertaining Romp of Fistfights
(Paramount Pictures) Let’s be honest – it’s been a banner year for mindless action movies.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol makes three corrections to its underwhelming predecessor that makes it worth a viewing:
It abandons M:I 3’s heavy video game aesthetic in favor of more traditional action escapism. In M:I 3, the villains were walking faceless targets who made Star Wars’ storm troopers look like well-developed characters and hardy battlefield strategists. At least storm troopers know to duck behind a tree at the sound of gunfire. While no one would accuse M:I 4 of realism, at least it returns the feeling of intimate scale and real danger. Cruise’s heart-pounding climb up the side of a towering Arab skyscraper is a model of tight, simple action.
Shows action rather than implies. The action centerpiece of M:I 3: Tom Cruise enters a building. We wait looking at the building. He burst through a window out the other side of the building. We never actually see what happened inside the building. But man, was there some flying glass! The action centerpiece in Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a long fantastic foot-chase/car-chase through a desert sandstorm in Dubai. It involves us. We’re along for every step and gear grind.
It doesn’t bother with story. True, this isn’t a direction that we generally encourage action films to take, but it beats watching Cruise mosey his trademark phony romantic stutter in Michelle Monaghan’s general direction three times.
Brad Bird, the heralded Pixar animation director, is an interesting choice. The influence appears quickly, staging a prison rhubarb in a Russian gulag to a Dean Martin recording. It has a smart-aleck feel -- almost a living cartoon, but in a smart way. I think Bird does a very good job keeping his tongue in cheek without ruining the moment.
Of course, very few action flicks are perfect. Detractors of chaos cinema will find plenty to complain about. Too often the fight scenes are choppy, leaving you thinking star-double-star-double-star-double with each edit. By the end, your head will wobble from trying to keep the plot straight. Still, the film meets payday after payday, and you have to respect a steady payer. If you enjoyed the pumped-up surprise of Fast Five this summer, check out the redesigned Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.
For Fans Of: Fast 5, Mission Impossible, The Bourne Trilogy
Why We Like It: Jeremy Renner, Non-Stop Action, Stunt Work
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