Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (12A.)
Directed by Brad Bird.
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Michael Nyqvist and Anil Kapoor. 133 mins.
Lalo Schifrin’s Mission Impossible theme is surely the finest TV or movie theme music ever. Even more than the Bond theme, hearing it conjures up expectations of just ridiculous amounts of excitement. No film, let alone an M:I film, could live up to it but fourth attempt Ghost Protocol probably comes closer than any of the previous ones.
It’s been a restless series, each instalment heading off in a radically different direction from what preceded it. The third entry, directed by J.J. Abrams, was actually a cracking action film but hampered by the decision to give Cruise’s Ethan Hunt a domestic life and asking its audience to emotionally invest in its outcome. With some cracks appearing in Cruise’s box office appeal No 4 leaves nothing to chance, it positively screams Let Me Entertain You. It’s remorseless in its efforts to make you feel good.
While the actual Bond films have gone in the direction of copying the down and dirty style of Bourne, the Mission Impossible films have gone back to Roger Moore era 007. If you miss the days when Bond walked into a remote monastery to find it’s an MI5 base staffed by M and Q, then this is the film for you. The baddy has a laptop rather than a cavernous lair and the fisticuffs are rough and tough, but in most other respects this is a modern day The Spy Who Loved Me or Moonraker: a preposterous, light-hearted, gadget packed, globetrotting romp with action sequences in tourist locations and a tissue thin plot about stopping a mad man starting a nuclear war.
After some dazzling animation work (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Simpsons) Brad Bird brings both flair and originality to the action sequences. Like The Dark Knight some sequences have been shot with IMAX cameras and seeing them fill the 20 metre high Southbank screen is quite a sensation, particularly the climb up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Tower.
The movie moves at a relentless clip, hurtling towards an impressive and inventive climax in Dubai. Pity then that the film still has another 40 odd minutes to go after that. In the aftermath of the Dubai sequence the pace sags for a few minutes which shouldn’t be a problem but in a movie like this, where breathless momentum is all, any moment for reflection is a bit of a killer and it never really recovers.
Directed by Brad Bird.
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Michael Nyqvist and Anil Kapoor. 133 mins.
Lalo Schifrin’s Mission Impossible theme is surely the finest TV or movie theme music ever. Even more than the Bond theme, hearing it conjures up expectations of just ridiculous amounts of excitement. No film, let alone an M:I film, could live up to it but fourth attempt Ghost Protocol probably comes closer than any of the previous ones.
It’s been a restless series, each instalment heading off in a radically different direction from what preceded it. The third entry, directed by J.J. Abrams, was actually a cracking action film but hampered by the decision to give Cruise’s Ethan Hunt a domestic life and asking its audience to emotionally invest in its outcome. With some cracks appearing in Cruise’s box office appeal No 4 leaves nothing to chance, it positively screams Let Me Entertain You. It’s remorseless in its efforts to make you feel good.
While the actual Bond films have gone in the direction of copying the down and dirty style of Bourne, the Mission Impossible films have gone back to Roger Moore era 007. If you miss the days when Bond walked into a remote monastery to find it’s an MI5 base staffed by M and Q, then this is the film for you. The baddy has a laptop rather than a cavernous lair and the fisticuffs are rough and tough, but in most other respects this is a modern day The Spy Who Loved Me or Moonraker: a preposterous, light-hearted, gadget packed, globetrotting romp with action sequences in tourist locations and a tissue thin plot about stopping a mad man starting a nuclear war.
After some dazzling animation work (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Simpsons) Brad Bird brings both flair and originality to the action sequences. Like The Dark Knight some sequences have been shot with IMAX cameras and seeing them fill the 20 metre high Southbank screen is quite a sensation, particularly the climb up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Tower.
The movie moves at a relentless clip, hurtling towards an impressive and inventive climax in Dubai. Pity then that the film still has another 40 odd minutes to go after that. In the aftermath of the Dubai sequence the pace sags for a few minutes which shouldn’t be a problem but in a movie like this, where breathless momentum is all, any moment for reflection is a bit of a killer and it never really recovers.
