Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (2011)

It’s been fifteen years spent since Brain De Palma made Mission: Impossible in 1996. That dumb action film was good only for the sheer spectacle. Then John Woo made Mission: Impossible II in 1998, a movie that a lot of people really hate, but I actually consider it better than the first, due to the fact that it has a plotline. The third one was even better, directed by JJ Abrams, who is awesome. So in 2006, ten years since the first one, we all pronounced the series dead, and considered Mission: Impossible III the last call. And then there were four. Directed by the director of The Incredibles, Brad Bird, Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol keeps on the theory that every one of these films is better than the former. The first movie of this series that actually plays out more like a movie than a Tom Cruise movie, this film brings back Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Simon Pegg as Benji, along with newcomers Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner to assemble the impossible mission force, who, during a mission trying to steal classified files from the Kremlin, are the prime suspects when a bomb blows up the Russian building. These four are disavowed by the government, and are on course to be sent to Washington when they are nearly assassinated by spies. Over the course of the next few days, the team has to clear their name, find out the actual bomber, and survive a lot of different amazing set pieces. Because, honestly, this movie is so simple-it is a simple stupid film that is just set piece after set piece. And that was my problem with the first and second films in this series, much more the former than the latter. The third film still had this as a glaring fault. But watching this movie on the IMAX screen is a true blessing. It is a simple stupid film, but it has so much fun with it that it is impossible to not have the time of your life watching it. This is a film that for some reason is as good or better than some of the dramas of this year. There is one amazing scene in here, where Cruise is chasing a guy in the middle of a sandstorm. You see so little in the scene, but see just enough to have a wonderful action-packed scene, one that was so recognizable in Brad Bird directing. I’m currently in a slump in writing my reviews, they haven’t been very good for the past few ones, and I’m trying to get some cranked out before 2012, so I apologize for the poor quality of this. But still, with Brad Bird’s wonderful direction, the whole team feel of the film, and the wonderful set pieces, including a scene where Cruise is climbing a 100-story building, this movie is a wonderful experience, one that needs to be seen on the big screen, and one that just needs to be seen. This movie is really much better than it should be.
9/10