Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
I really really did not want to enjoy this movie. I fought hard to despise it. I even used outside influences to make me more unhappy (and for someone named Mr. Unhappy that is saying something) by using the young couple kissing at 5 minute intervals, as though to not have contact with the other person was physically painful to them as motivation to hate the new Tom Cruise vehicle. I wanted this movie to be so shameful that Tom Cruise would need to take a 15 year sabbatical inside of the Church of Scientology asking his god why this movie failed so miserably. I am not a fan of Mr. Cruise but damn him and his cocky Maverick smile. While Ethan Hunt may be one of his more dour characters, he is still just as charming with Simon Pegg as Goose in this occasion, as he was those years ago in Top Gun.
So despite all my unhappiness, this movie left me smiling. From the first thought during the previews “Just when I thought it was safe to enter a theater and not hear that damn Celine Dion song from Titanic they rerelease Titanic in 3D” to the last moment when well…if I told you it would ruin it for you. I guess my consolation prize was that this movie did indeed seem to take great pleasure in inflicting pain on Mr. Cruise as though Ethan Hunt and Harry Dresden (wow a Dresden Files reference) were distant cousins in getting the hell beaten out of them. Blown up by a bomb, crashing cars, leaping from a car in a sandstorm, zip lining down a telephone cord onto a movie van and then crashing off the roof of the car to the ground below, driving a car off a 6 story parking garage into the ground where the airbag probably gave him a bloody nose…that really smarts. Yes, this movie is all about breaking Tom Cruise in half for me.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol brings together a new IMF team with Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner (as an analyst who seems to be a bit too badass for that position) and Paula Patton (who I do not know but would love to know in a more groiny way) seemingly cut off and disavowed but still trying to stop the villain (Swedish Version of The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Nyqvist) from starting a global Nuclear war. By now you’ve probably already seen the Dubai hotel which gave this unhappy reviewer a glimpse of Tom Cruise nearly plummeting 100 stories to his death but alas the bastard hung on. Still watching that made me queasy and I needed to look away. It works at a break neck pace that brings all the aspects of a good action movie. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. To the last second of the movie, you are not sure if everything will work out. Can the IMF team succeed or will they finally be a second too late?
This movie is made for fans of action movies that have intelligence. While some of the technology seems far fetched, the action is intelligent (impractical and insane too) and the actors are all game to play surprising three dimensional characters in action movies. The story is tight, driven and constantly fast paced. We travel the world and yet barely have time to take in the scenery (except in that Dubai Hotel where we see just a bit to much of the scenery 100 stories in the air). Brad Bird, in his live action debut (he previously directed The Incredibles) shows real ability to direct actual human beings and pace action. Not many directors can film in a sandstorm and keep you from having to squint…too much. You enjoy the characters and hope they all survive the ordeal but are never fully convinced they will. The world feels very much on the line and all of this is a credit to the filmmakers. They may wait a while between Mission Impossible movies but they do them well. Overall, I liked this movie. Yes it has Tom Cruise…but it suffers little because of it and damn it all, it works because of it too.
Mr. Unhappy Sez: I hate me some Tom Cruise but I loved me this film…I still can’t believe he got Katie Holmes with his oddly old man lower on my chest nipples n stuff.
See what I mean? Or is this normal?
No comments:
Post a Comment