Review of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) by Halfwelshman — 22 Jan 2012

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is the slickest, most entertaining and clever action flick since The Bourne Ultimatum. An action movie really has no right to be such a rounded and well-developed viewing experience, and Brad Bird completely embraces his newfound freedom as a live-action director, and has created an honest-to-goodness balls-out thrill ride.

The action is superb - the key set-pieces completely eclipsing everything in the series thus-far. They're not just flawlessly executed either - they're completely original. Who'd have thought we'd see Ethan Hunt fighting his way single-handedly out of a rioting Russian prison accompanied by Dean Martin on loudspeaker? Or scaling the outside of the world's tallest building in Dubai with only the use of some high-tech sticky gloves? Or chasing his target through a ferocious sandstorm? Or in a fantastically brutal final brawl in a car factory? You just don't see scenes like this in everyday action films.

It's not all about the action, either. The film has the best cast of the series (Tom Cruise has rarely been better, and both Simon Pegg and franchise newcomer Jeremy Renner impress), and the script is rather good as well (it's nicely self-aware, playfully deconstructing a few of the more ropey trademarks of the series, and pleasingly, writers Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum know just when to play dialogue completely straight and when to inject a bit of humour into the situation).

The most concrete aspect of the film though, is the story. It's rather simple for a Mission: Impossible film, but it's done extremely well. Sometimes less really is more (except where action is concerned, as mentioned above).

Quite simply, it puts the rest of the series to shame.