World's shortest man climbs world's tallest building

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2013)

Directed by Brad Bird, "Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol" stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a pint-sized secret agent who struggles to stop a nuclear detonation. Unlike previous films in the franchise, Bird plays things for laughs, his film opening with a funny sequence in which Cruise breaks out of a Serbian prison to the tune of Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick In The Head". Moments later, Cruise is infiltrating the Kremlin using a funny holo-projector and a GIANT MOUSTACHE. Why? Why the hell not.
Incredulously, Cruise is then blamed for blowing up the Kremlin. This, naturally, leads to Cruise journeying to Dubai. Here he climbs the Burj Khalifa (the world's tallest building) and is menaced by both a GIANT SANDSTORM and a MISCHIEVOUS GLOVE. After much commotion, Cruise journeys to India, where he infiltrates a hotel using MAGNETS. Afterwards, he fights the film's chief villain within a futuristic car park comprised of....moving platforms? Yes. Moving platforms.
Brad Bird's directed a number of animated films for Pixar Studios, all of which have traces of screwball. His "Ghost Protocol" is itself part action movie, part screwball comedy, the film filled with gadgets which comically break down, action sequences which resemble vaudeville routines, and funny jabs at both Cruise's age (he's 50), and the absurd situations Cruise's character is called upon to resolve.
Aesthetically, "Protocol" resembles Bird's animation work. The film is slick, well lit, classically shot and framed. And unlike most modern action movies (Nolan, Abrams etc), Bird's tone is playful, his action sequences make spatial sense, are immaculately composed, and his shots tend to flow with a certain classy style resemblant of a Hitchcock, De Palma or Spielberg. The film's tongue-in-cheek tone, combined with its formalism, itself resembles a number of Hitchcock pictures, most notably "To Catch A Thief" and "North by Northwest". On the downside, the hyper-control afforded by CGI means that Bird's live action work here can't quite match the aesthetic highs and kinetic rushes of his animated features.
Thematically, "Ghost Protocol" is fairly anonymous, though the film's nuclear plot strongly recalls the atomic paranoia of Bird's "Iron Giant" (Bird's films all take place within a retro fantasy land). Its climax, featuring moving platforms, also resembles a number of Bird's Pixar action sequences. It's the film's Burj Khalifa sequence, however, which really elevates things. As handsomely directed as De Palma's CIA heist in "Mission Impossible 1", Bird's Burj Khalifa sequence carefully juggles suspense, comedy and clean lines. Remarkably, the scene was shot on location, without stunt doubles and with Cruise really scaling the sides of the Burj Khalifa. Whilst De Palma tops his CIA heist with an audacious EuroTunnel sequence, however, Bird's film struggles to climax. "Ghost Protacal" co-stars Simon Pegg and Paul Patton as a token biracial.
8.5/10 – One of the better action movies in recent years. See "The Next Three Days". Worth multiple viewings.