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Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Dane Jackson

The latest installment in Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series of movies, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, feels a little out of place coming out around Christmastime. Why? Because, from start to finish, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and team offer up one of the best summer blockbuster action thrillers I’ve seen all year.

Directed by Brad Bird (mostly known for his work on several Pixar movies), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens up with a bang as IMF agent Hanaway (Sawyer from television’s Lost) is being chased on the rooftops of Budapest trying to escape his would be assassins with a briefcase. Things don’t go as planned, and the briefcase ends up in the wrong hands – a contract killer by the name of Sabine Moreau (Inglourious Basterds’ Lea Seydoux). From there, the movie jumps to a Moscow prison where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is imprisoned. His escape, and subsequent mission, triggers a chain of events that ultimately results in the Kremlin getting bombed and the United States President disavowing the entire IMF organization. Now, it’s up Ethan and his team (the returning Simon Pegg, and newcomers Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner) to stop a plot that could result in global nuclear war.

The scope of this movie is absolutely breathtaking. All the set pieces and Bird’s use of the IMAX camera flowed well with the action and pace of the film. My one complaint about the IMAX sequences is that there were some sequences I would have loved to have seen filmed in IMAX. For the most part though, Bird chose his usage of the medium well.

To put it bluntly, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of the movie and the cast really took me through several highs and lows during the 133 minutes running time. Sure, some of the stunts were far-fetched and ridiculous, but they were all fun and ultimately pretty clever. Two of my favorite sequences included a chase during a sandstorm in Dubai and a fight between Ethan and the main bad guy (Michael Nyqvist from the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo flicks) in a parking garage in Mumbai. Seeing Tom Cruise ascend, and descend, the largest building in the world was pretty cool as well.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. © 2011 – Paramount Pictures.

Some people may not like my next statement, but as the series progresses, I really think Cruise is propelling the Ethan Hunt character and Mission: Impossible movies into James Bond-like status. These movies have it all – gadgets, cool cars, women, bad guys bent on world domination, and plenty of insane stunt sequences. You may not want to admit it, but Ethan Hunt is almost on the same level as James Bond…almost.

When it comes to movies in this genre, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is nearly flawless. My hat is off to the entire cast and crew for making the best action film of 2011. Also, do yourself a favor, and see it in IMAX. The scope and epic scale of this series lends itself well to the IMAX treatment and it doesn’t disappoint.

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Dane Jackson

Dane Jackson has been writing about movies since high school when he had a monthly column in the school paper about cult movies. His cinematic tastes have matured (slightly) since then.
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