Nerd Movie Reviews

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Review

Impossible to not enjoy it.

Another Tuesday, another $5 movie.  Thank you Regal.  Yes, as much as I enjoy dumping all over main stream movies, I have to say I quite enjoyed this film.  I think I can sum it up in three words: great chase scenes.  Director Brad Bird (the Iron Giant, the Incredibles, Up, Ratattoule) has revealed a hidden talent for really amazing chase scenes that make most other chase scenes look like three-legged races.  Furthermore, not only are they exciting and fun, but he manages to merge them into the story seamlessly.  They don’t at all feel forced into the screenplay in an attempt to showcase his ego.  Really well done.

Before any of you call to see if I contracted brain fever, yes there were issues with this movie and I will get into them shortly.  Just overall a fun time.

Also, what is up with Tom Cruise?  And for once I mean that question in a good way.  I don’t know if it’s makeup, CGI, Just For Men, healthy living and exercise, or the magic power of the Church of Scientology, but he looks like he hasn’t aged a day in the last ten years.  It’s bizarre.

Anyway, the movie.  Tom Cruise (Minority Report, Top Gun, Jerry McGuire) reprises his role as Ethan Hunt, IMF super spy.  He starts the movie with a really cool prison break scene where he and a disheveled guy bust out of a Russian gulag.  He has been rescued by two other IMF agents, the great Simon Pegg (Paul, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead.  Shaun image courtesy of the Zombie T Shirts catagory) and the hot Paula Patton (Precious, Deja Vu).  Their mission is to break into the Kremlin and gather intel on some guy who literally wants to blow up the world (more on that later).  Really cool high technology spy stuff happens.  They get betrayed and the President has to enable the Ghost Protocol and disavow them entirely.  The team is joined by disgraced agent Brandt (Jeremy Renner – the Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later) and have to save the world.

Literally.  The bad guy (Michael Nyqvist – the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Abduction) wants to start a nuclear war.  I don’t want to get too far into the story, as it is good and I expect you all to see it.  Spy hijinks ensue.  Stuff gets blown up, people get chased, cars get wrecked, there is a pretty cool cat fight (Paula Patton versus Lea Seydoux – Inglorious Bastards, Robin Hood, Midnight in Paris), and none of the action or technology suspended my disbelief so high that it hurt my brain.  There is a serious vertigo scene, so if that affects you maybe go to the restroom at that moment.  It won’t catch you by surprise.

The stars.  Great chase scenes.  One star.  Overall good story, with a level of complexity normally missing from mainstream movies. They also managed to avoid the burning need to explain everything to the audience, which I appreciate.  You could follow the story but you had to pay attention.  Two stars.  Simon Pegg.  One star.  The two women were hot.  One star.  Although it galls me like a hot poker you-know-where, Tom Cruise was pretty good.  One star.  Overall the action was really good, and they didn’t resort to the quick-cut fighting that bugs me.  One star for hiring a fight choreographer.  The movie delivered the rarest gift a jaded movie critic can receive: actual excitement.  There were a few scenes where I was literally gripping my armrests.  The vertigo scene in particular.  Two stars.  A PG-13 rating that felt appropriate and didn’t need to go up or down.  One star.  Pacing was awesome.  It was 133 minutes that felt like an hour in a good way.  One star.  Two bonus stars for overall great movie experience.  Total: thirteen stars.

The black holes.  The most obvious, glaringly stupid one has to be the motivation for the villain.  He plans to start a nuclear war because he thinks it would be fun or something.  That’s it?  There is no political or monetary motivation you could add in to make him more believable?  Two black holes.  This next one is kind of petty, but one of the things I have always enjoyed from the entire Mission Impossible franchise is the theme music.  From the TV show I think it really brought the whole thing home, and added a lot of excitement to any of the shows or movies.  In Ghost Protocol there is about a 20 second clip of a modified version of it and that’s it.  It’s like they were under contract to use it and did so grudgingly.  One black hole.  There were a number of tangential plot devices that I felt could have either been expanded upon or dropped entirely.  One black hole.  In particular there was a seduction scene involving an Indian billionaire that I felt was completely worthless.  One black hole for that.  Total: five black holes.

In the irksome but not black hole worthy category, I have one.  Before 9/11 whenever something catastrophically bad had to happen to an American city it was always New York.  After 9/11 New York became sacrosanct and now whenever something has to suck on an apocalyptic scale it always seems to be San Francisco, the city I live 20 minutes from.  San Francisco is about as far from the mainstream politics of America as a major city can get.  Have movie makers never heard of Chicago, Detroit, Miami, or Los Angeles?  Not that I wish ill on any of those cities, but when you really look at it’s value as a military or terror target San Francisco is kind of stupid.  I guess it has a distinctive skyline and that’s what Hollywood is looking for.

Final total of eight stars, a great score.  If you like fun and excitement see this movie.  Do it in a theater as I honestly believe there are a few scenes that would lose significant impact if watched at home.  Kind of weak as a date movie in my opinion, as Tom Cruise is still considered hot and a lot of women have been fantasizing about him for years.  If you do take a date to see this be sure to talk about how crazy Tom Cruise is.

Thanks for reading.  I am starting to work my my end of the year movie awards, and coming up with funny titles and categories like “The Who Brought This Guy Award” for the most unnecessary sequel of the year.  Please offer suggestions and comments.  I am always looking for input.  Follow me on Twitter @NerdKungFu.  Thanks again, and have a great Holiday.

Dave