Monday, June 18, 2012

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4 GHOST PROTOCOL: DYNAMITE ACTION FLICK!


There are plenty of films turned into franchises in this world whose end results offer lackluster movies that don't make you want to revisit the characters and events unfolding on screen. And then there are movies like this one that make you wish they'd just get on with it and start filming the next one so you could enjoy it just as much.

The film opens with Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt in a prison in Russia. His team breaks him out along with a contact he made in prison only to drop him off and then find out what they're next assignment is. Of course it's a near impossible job for them to pull off but that's what they do. A terrorist has the means to launch a full scale nuclear attack on the world if he gets the launch codes. These codes are locked up in the Kremlin and Hunt and his team, should they decided to accept their mission, is to get hold of the launch codes first.

Of course they accept the mission. Would there be a film any other way? Using disguises and some nifty new tech toys, Hunt and compatriot Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) make their way into the Kremlin only to discover the codes have already been lifted. Not only that, Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) the terrorist, has set a bomb inside the Kremlin that explodes just as Ethan and Benji attempt to escape.

Ethan is knocked out by the bomb and wakes to find himself captive of the police who blame him for the attack. He escapes custody and finds himself picked up by the IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) and his assistant William Brandt (Jeremy Renner). The Secretary tells him he will have to turn him over to the authorities. That is unless he suddenly escapes and heads for a secret train equipped with the tools he'll need to find the real culprits. Of course this mission is off the books and unauthorized which is where the term ghost protocol comes up. Before he can finish, the Secretary is killed in the car and Hunt and Brandt escape to head to the train car where they meet up with Benji and Jane Carter (Paula Patton).

Hunt explains the situation to them and offers them the mission. Yes, they accept and things begin to move forward as the team heads to Dubai where they know Hendricks is about to purchase the last of the equipment he needs to launch his attack. In the famous sky reaching hotel located there the assassin who killed the agent with the original codes (and Carter's boyfriend) is about to make her exchange with Hendricks. But the team has a plan to make con both parties and retrieve the information. Of course things don't go as planned and suddenly we get the chance to see Ethan scaling a glass windowed building in an attempt to over ride the hotel elevators.

So you get the idea here? To give all the rest away would be to spoil what happens and the thrills and spills that the makers of this film obviously worked long and hard to bring together. The details offered so far are nothing more than the set up that makes the action sequences that follow all that more spectacular. They ruin nothing so don't fear that a spoiler alert was needed. Much of that information could have been gleaned from the trailer.

With all the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films the thing is to get into it, to enjoy it, to toss out any concepts of reality and believability and just have a good time. This film offers a fun time at the movies in spades and will make you tear up at the right times, clench your fists when the bad guys seem to get away with things and make your palms sweat as you watch the team almost blow the whole mission on more than one occasion. On top of that you have two underlying stories fomenting beneath the obvious one that wrap themselves into the main plot and then find themselves resolved before the end.

One of the best things is that the film ends without a clue as to another film being made or even considered but left open enough that should they decide to do one they can. As a fan of all four films this is once when I hope a franchise does continue. The films have all offered great entertainment value and enough mystery to keep you guessing until the end of each. GHOST PROTOCOL falls right in line with the earlier offerings.

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