Your mission this weekend, should you choose to accept it, is to go watch this movie!

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2011)

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Your mission this weekend, should you choose to accept it, is to go watch MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL because it is downright awesome! What a great way to end 2011. It's non stop adrenaline rush from start to end. The IMAX sequences are exhilarating. The best Mission: Impossible movie yet. Tom Cruise is even crazier than I thought. Say what you want but he's still the man! Director Brad Bird's first live action movie is a success, he is after all the director of one of the most creative and elaborate action films of the last decade, The Incredibles. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL is the reason why you and I love going to the movies
I wasn't a big fan of the first two Mission: Impossible movies because the first one had a twist that was irritating and the second one relied too heavily on John Woo's love for slo-mo and doves. Both films didn't have solid stories that I could hold on to and their action scenes only went so far. The previous installment, Mission Impossible III, directed by J.J. Abrams, was a step in the right direction. It was more or less like a movie version of Alias, because it carried much of the spy series' concept, but with Tom Cruise as the star. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL is an upgrade and it's got 'fun' written all over it.
All of the characters in this film have complications of their own, keep in mind that these movies are essentially about teamwork. Even the old series that this franchise is based on was about teamwork. Which is another thing why the first two movies didn't impress me but the third and this one did. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt may be the leader but Mission: Impossible should not just be about him, he's not James Bond.
To me, Hunt is a daredevil, he's the kind of guy who wouldn't think twice about throwing himself in front of a speeding bus if it means defeating a terrorist's plan. Cruise control is back! Cruise almost always runs or sprints in his movies and boy does he run in this one or what! That scene atop the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, will blow your mind. Any audience who's afraid of heights would grab their seat's armrests even tighter. You'll have newfound respect for Cruise after watching him do his Spidey/Cirque du Soleil stunt. I think it's a brilliant move to have some of the sequences shot in IMAX because I personally think it's a more immersive experience than any post-convert 3D could ever offer.
Simon Pegg returns as the computer and tech geek Benji who is now also a field agent, so Pegg's comic relief job is not tied to his desk anymore, it's more about him being nervous and excited, trying to look cool and badass like Ethan. Should he wear masks? Could he shoot? He's like a kid who wants to try everything. There are two new agents introduced in this installment, the beautiful Paula Patton plays an agent who's dealing with her own thirst for revenge. There's a certain girl fight in this film that's pretty hardcore. Jeremy Renner is a chief analyst with certain skills and secrets of his own. We get to see how all these four individuals eventually come to trust each other.
I love the opening credit and the ending and how they make 'ghost protocol' and Ethan Hunt look ghostly, as if they could disappear into thin air. It speaks about the life of a secret agent. The actions drive the story, what's interesting about this movie is that every mission the team takes on, whether it's in Kremlin or Mumbai or Dubai, something always happens that doesn't make the plan go smoothly so that intensifies the thrill. It takes you to new levels of danger and threat that are ever present and imminent, you wonder how it would all work out, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL is an absolute blast!
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