I'm not going to lie to you, I had no interest in seeing this film, and I'm still not entirely sure why I did, especially considering that I saw it in IMAX. Allow me to explain. The more and more weird things I heard about Tom Cruise (not to start controversy, or let someone's beliefs have any impact on a film review, but Scientology is a little odd), the harder I found it to watch him in things.
Putting a film with him on instantly conjured up images of him jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch proclaiming his love for his new missus/detainee Katie Holmes, or banging on about "thetans" or "Xenu", it was as off putting as watching Mel Gibson in a film after you listen to his deranged answer machine messages.
And it's not just Cruise I have issue with. Co-star Simon Pegg really gets on my nerves now. Once at legend status in my eyes thanks to the likes of Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, but now thanks to Twitter (a real pain for shooting down your lofty opinions of the famous, just ask fans of John Cusack) I just find him a really grating character.
So these two things put the new Mission Impossible film pretty low down on my to watch list. But for reasons passing understanding, I ended up going, paying the extra £4 to see it in IMAX, and God help me, thoroughly enjoying it.
It's not that I didn't enjoy the other films in the series either, the first film was great, and the third one was a right laugh too. The less said about the woeful John Woo helmed second film, the better, though. But this 4th installment (even though it's one of those sequels that opts to drop the number) was surprisingly entertaining. Utterly ridiculous, but entertaining.
After a bodged mission in Russia that causes the Kremlin to blow up (told you it was dumb), Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) are disavowed but are helpfully tipped off by the IMF Secretary (an uncredited Tom Wilkinson), and with the help of 'analyst' William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the team go rogue to find the people behind it, and to clear their name, before an even worse atrocity occurs.
Cue the most over the top action set pieces you've seen in ages. And I don't mean that in a negative way, most of them are absolutely thrilling. Impossible (no pun intended) in real life, but on a great big IMAX screen they just look amazing. Not to give too many away, but highlights for me included the Dubai skyscraper sequence, and the sandstorm chase that followed, and the frankly mental automated car park face off between Hunt and the man behind the bomb, Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, more on him momentarily.)
The cast are all likable, even the little guy. The first time in several years I could watch a performance of his without my mind wandering to his personal life (admittedly, this is probably because he hasn't done anything weird lately.) Pegg also doesn't grate on my nerves, and some of the films funniest moments come from him, in particular a great one liner after the aforementioned skyscraper sequence.
Patton is fine as the teams female member, and it's actually nice that no romantic subplot with her and Cruise is forced upon us. Jeremy Renner is particularly good, and most amusing as the quite grounded Brandt. He even gets to mention how ridiculous and implausible one of the many action scenes were. An interesting fact is that his character has been introduced to the series to replace Cruise when he decides he's done enough of the films.
There's also a couple of smaller appearances from Josh Holloway (Sawyer to the Lost fans out there) as the IMF agent whose death got the whole incident started (calm down spoiler whiners, it happens in the first scene of the film), and Anil Kapoor as the spectacularly sleazy Brij Naath.
One cast member that doesn't quite work is Nyqvist as Hendricks. It's a really poorly written bad guy, and I mean that almost literally, he barely has any dialogue at all, and the guy is a great actor. Very brief appearances, and a really undefined character when so much better could have been done. Anyone who has seen the original 'Girl With...' films knows how much Nyqvist can bring to the table, and he is utterly wasted here.
The director this time round (replacing J.J. Abrams, who still hangs round in a producer capacity) is Brad Bird, best known for his work in animation, starting with The Simpsons in its glory years then going onto The Iron Giant, before heading to Pixar to direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille. This is his first live action film, in fact and it really does not show. Everything is shot spectacularly, and when you look at it, the film pretty much is a live action cartoon, so may not have been that much of a stretch.
Ghost Protocol won't change your world, or make your favourite (or least favourite) film list, but it will entertain you for a couple of hours, but just remember to leave your brain at the door.
***
An entertaining two hours of action. Probably one of the stupider films to come out recently that doesn't include CG robots, but just switch your brain off and enjoy some stunning action sequences, and a little bit of plot if you want. Just a shame that the bad guy role was seemingly forgotten this time. True popcorn fare, for better or worse.
