Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:42 pm
Many folks have a holiday tradition of taking the family out to a movie for Christmas. If you have teens, kids or family members who act like kids; then judging by the box office numbers, you've probably already seen this movie.
If you're planning on seeing it, by choice or by being dragged by your ankles; then fear not- you won't have to entirely pretend you liked it, there are a few things about MI4 to enjoy.
One nice surprise is Tom Cruise's acting; it's nice that he does very little of it, in this film. Mostly his range consists of intense glowering as he gets shot at, tossed around and blown up, etc. with occasional touches of grimaces of pain to round out his character. I, for one, am glad he's finally dropped the slack jawed 'stunned' look that he's used in everything since 'Risky Business'. The idea is that Ethan Hunt has matured, grown wiser and more confidant, so now, he can shut his mouth and frown, as opposed to the gaping and frowning like he's done so much of in the past three MI's.
It's up to the other actors to carry across any real emotion and/or character development, but casting made some good choices in Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and big treat: Simon Pegg. Through a well written script with plenty of plot twists that get fairly resolved in the end with minimal use of coincidence; the supporting cast manage to bring some much needed humanity to the world of super-powered espionage. Cruise is the brawn, while Renner and Patton provide the brains and beauty...
The real stars of the show are of course; the gadgets. The difference this time around is the reason for the presence of professional quirk, Pegg. He's brought on as the 'field engineer' entrusted to keeping all the gizmos working properly, and it's quite refreshing and entertaining to watch him [intelligently]fumble, as the hardware fails in creative ways. Adding Geek to the team, makes sense and will probably please a large portion of the high-tech audience.
Just as much appreciated is Cruise/Hunt using lo-tek equipment to save the day, in surprising ways, as well. For that you can forgive all the product placement, done throughout. No one toy is overused, there's plenty of problem solving variety.
As for the rest of the cast, another nice surprise is even the antagonists are fully fleshed out human beings, not two-dimensional, stereotypical bad guys; neither being too 'evil' nor too 'greedy'; they'll hold some new and interesting motivations for international crime that maybe you hadn't thought of before. So, while there are plenty of chase scenes for the kids, there is an element of crime drama for the grown-ups, that doesn't go too far in to the fantastic.
At a little over two hours, it's timed just right; as the bright lights and explosions stop distracting the kids as to how long this movie is getting, it quickly wraps itself up ...and sets up for the obvious sequels.
Who knows, maybe along the way Cruise will learn some acting? but this formula of bringing in interesting teammates to generate/further plot without overshadowing his greatness of course, worked well.
If you're planning on seeing it, by choice or by being dragged by your ankles; then fear not- you won't have to entirely pretend you liked it, there are a few things about MI4 to enjoy.
One nice surprise is Tom Cruise's acting; it's nice that he does very little of it, in this film. Mostly his range consists of intense glowering as he gets shot at, tossed around and blown up, etc. with occasional touches of grimaces of pain to round out his character. I, for one, am glad he's finally dropped the slack jawed 'stunned' look that he's used in everything since 'Risky Business'. The idea is that Ethan Hunt has matured, grown wiser and more confidant, so now, he can shut his mouth and frown, as opposed to the gaping and frowning like he's done so much of in the past three MI's.
It's up to the other actors to carry across any real emotion and/or character development, but casting made some good choices in Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and big treat: Simon Pegg. Through a well written script with plenty of plot twists that get fairly resolved in the end with minimal use of coincidence; the supporting cast manage to bring some much needed humanity to the world of super-powered espionage. Cruise is the brawn, while Renner and Patton provide the brains and beauty...
The real stars of the show are of course; the gadgets. The difference this time around is the reason for the presence of professional quirk, Pegg. He's brought on as the 'field engineer' entrusted to keeping all the gizmos working properly, and it's quite refreshing and entertaining to watch him [intelligently]fumble, as the hardware fails in creative ways. Adding Geek to the team, makes sense and will probably please a large portion of the high-tech audience.
Just as much appreciated is Cruise/Hunt using lo-tek equipment to save the day, in surprising ways, as well. For that you can forgive all the product placement, done throughout. No one toy is overused, there's plenty of problem solving variety.
As for the rest of the cast, another nice surprise is even the antagonists are fully fleshed out human beings, not two-dimensional, stereotypical bad guys; neither being too 'evil' nor too 'greedy'; they'll hold some new and interesting motivations for international crime that maybe you hadn't thought of before. So, while there are plenty of chase scenes for the kids, there is an element of crime drama for the grown-ups, that doesn't go too far in to the fantastic.
At a little over two hours, it's timed just right; as the bright lights and explosions stop distracting the kids as to how long this movie is getting, it quickly wraps itself up ...and sets up for the obvious sequels.
Who knows, maybe along the way Cruise will learn some acting? but this formula of bringing in interesting teammates to generate/further plot without overshadowing his greatness of course, worked well.