Rating of
3.5/4
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
trophywife - wrote on 01/05/12
I have a confession: Tom Cruise is my own personal enigma. Time and time again, I cannot explain how I manage to find this man to be mindblowingly arrogant and quite frankly, a general weirdo, and yet I have LOVED just about every movie I have ever seen him in. It’s like a twisted form of admiration that even I don’t quite understand, because I am serious when I say this: I REALLY don’t like him. And yet true to form, by the end of MI-4, I was under that spell again.
THE GOOD: Blamed for the recent bombing of the Kremlin, the IMF is shut down and all members are disavowed, which leaves Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his fellow agents on their own to clear the agency’s name and prevent another attack—this one designed to be on a more frightening scale. Joined by agents Benji, the tech nerd (Simon Pegg), the beautiful Jane(Paula Patton), and desk jockey analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Ethan is in a race to stop Hendricks (played by Michael Nyqvist), a lone terrorist who has managed to steal Russian nuclear codes. As in every previous Mission film, there is no shortage of action and intrigue, but this one seemed to have exceeded them all, thanks in no small part to the much advertised scene of Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai—the world’s tallest skyscraper. There’s been a lot of talk about the fact that a stunt man was NOT used in this scene, implying obviously that Tom did it all on his own. I haven’t been able to independently dispute or confirm this, but may I just say that if it IS true, I have gained an entirely new level of admiration for this man. I still don’t like him, but you have to have some healthy respect for someone who is willing to do a stunt like that. I think it also cements the fact that there’s something not quite right in his head too, but there’s no need to get into that here.
Besides the infamous Dubai scene, there are plenty of moments to keep you jumping, covering your mouth, cringing, peeking through your fingers and sometimes even laughing, as all of it is carried out with such casualness at times that you almost forget there’s the threat of a nuclear war at stake. Let me put it another way: let’s say—hypothetically--- that a person was to sit down in this movie and realize 5 minutes in that she—or he--- needed to pee. Let’s also say for argument’s sake that this fictional person also had a large diet Coke in their possession and , throwing caution to the wind, drank the entire thing and STILL never left the movie once to use the restroom because it was just THAT GOOD. I’m not saying it happened. I’m just saying it’s entirely feasible.
As a side note, due to my aforementioned love/hate relationship with Mr. Cruise, I HAVE to add in this section the added bonus of seeing him smack his head on a few really large hard objects a couple times. It’s the little things that sometimes bring the most pleasure.
THE BAD: If I could point to anything in this movie being truly unappealing, it would have to be a toss- up between the Pompadour hairdo of the Indian Prince that Jane is enlisted to seduce, and the skyscraper scene---because as impressive as it was, I have some serious fear of height issues. Some of the camera angles, designed to show just how far up Cruise was (and no doubt impress you even further that there seemed to be no nets or safety devices of any kind---did I mention earlier that someone’s marbles are missing?) had me covering my eyes and feeling a tad green. So when I say that it was a “bad” part of the movie, I don’t mean it shouldn’t have been included, as I usually am implying in this section…only that if you happen to be height sensitive like I am, you should be advised to apply that Dramamine patch before sitting down.
THE UGLY: As disturbing as seeing a man being shot through the head while riding in a car might be, as nightmarish as it is seeing a woman fall to her death from 1000 ft in the sky, there was really only one thing in this movie that could truly be described as scary, and that would be Tom Cruise’s feet. Sweet Saint Peter…the feet. I feel that I am at liberty to judge other people’s hooves, because I personally have troll feet. At least that’s what my husband tells me. Apparently I am fortunate that he is not a ‘foot man’ or I would still be single. So when I say that Tom Cruise has ugly feet---noted in a scene where he is barefoot and standing on the ledge of a building---it is only because I know a pair of hideous flippers when I see them.
If you are a fan of the MI franchise, then it’s a no brainer that you will love this one as well. All the right elements are there to make it a total gut wrenching thrill ride from start to finish….just make sure to hit the restroom before it gets started. I’m just saying.
The Trophy Wife gives the movie 4 trophies.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol has a running time of 133 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action. (No F words uttered
