The Countdown isn't helping....

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2011)

Ethan Hunt and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks, who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States.
An attempt by the team to stop him at the Kremlin ends in a disaster, with an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF being implicated in the bombing.
This incident forces the President to invoke Ghost Protocol, under which the IMF is disavowed, and will be offered no help or backup in any form.
Undaunted, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks to Dubai, and from there to Mumbai, they might still be too late to stop a disaster....
No matter what people think about Tom Cruise, he is still one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, and the majority of the time, when he releases a movie, it's often something special.
And this movie is just that, a big slice of special. Taking all the difficult elements from the first three movies (Chimera, the rabbits foot etc) This has no macguffin, just a psycho who believes that nuclear war will bring peace on earth.
So we are threw straight into the action, and the majority of characters in this film have something to do, or are bought in a lot later to help Hunt.
The narrative is lean and easy to digest, and Renner could really do a good job as Cruises replacement, if that ever happens.
Pegg fills in the gap for some very amusing moments, which release the tension a little from the set pieces.
And what set pieces they are! From the prison break, to the sandstorm car chase, to the fight in some strange robotic car park, they excite and make the film what it is.
But nothing prepares you for the scene where Hunt has to access the server in Dubai. It's intense and something that has to be seen on the big screen. What Cruise did in the second movie on that mountain was special, but this is something more, showing a dedication to a franchise like no one else.
It's easily one of the more fun entries in the series, and easier to understand, but most of all it delivers thrills and delivers them in droves.
It has nice nods to the film series and two great cameos at the end.
Well worth watching.