Action movie aficionados should not miss Mission Impossible if possible
December 31st, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Brad Bird, the director known for helming incredible animated films like “Ratatouille,” accepted the mission of making his live-action film directorial debut with “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.” Despite the ambitious move, Bird lives up to his reputations of being one of the smartest operators in Hollywood by making the switch look easy as he constructs a sequel better than any of the previous installments, all of which were directed by more experienced auteurs.
In the “Mission” movie currently in theaters, the film’s hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) leads his team of super spies on a race against time to hunt an evil genius who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States.
On paper, the plot sounds like something out of a tired James Bond movie, but “Ghost Protocol” manages to cook up intrigue that begins during the opening scene and rarely lets up until the final credits.
Along with Bird’s lofty film craft, some credit has to go to Cruise, who reportedly performed without assistance from a stuntman one of the film’s signature exploits, a dizzying feat that plays out on film at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest man-made structure. Cruise also shows he still has the charm to play one of the arrogant, yet lovably flawed characters for which he has specialized since 1982’s “Risky Business.”
The action is as taut and fast-paced as past “Missions,” but Bird gets bonus points for avoiding the give-me-a-break moments that has flawed the finale of past installments. (Anyone remember the aerial motorcycle show down of MI2?)
Bird also wisely glosses over the villain’s background, focusing more on the diabolical plot that involves destroying the world for the sake of launching the next phase of Earth’s evolution. Having the bad guy remain an enigma makes the film feel more real somehow, and helps to avoid one of the overwrought show downs — not to say there isn’t a nifty mano-a-mano grapple for a nuclear missile launching device between Hunt and the movie’s madman (Michael Nyqvist) that takes place in a high tech mechanical parking garage.
Despite the absence of an over-the-top villain and climax, the new “Mission” has the other chestnuts of the series including a message that self-destructs, opening credits with a lit-fuse motif, one incredibly unbelievable mask, a variation of the fluty theme song and the line “Your mission … should you choose to accept it.”
The writing team of Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec also should be credited here for adding just the right touch of comedy to the picture, banking on the appeal of Simon Pegg, the IMF team’s answer to character Q from the Bond franchise, which most likely influenced the popular TV show on which the “Mission” film series is based.
The writers also give its protagonists an added challenge: After they are framed for a bombing at the Kremlin, the IMF —the series’ fictional branch of the CIA — is disavowed as part of the government’s ghost protocol, so our heroes don’t have behind-the-scenes agents nor the aid of satellites and other gizmos.
Pegg and Cruise have great chemistry, especially during two nearly impossible missions, breaking Cruise out of a Russian prison at the start of the film and a scene where the two use what is possibly the coolest gadget ever to hide in plain sight from a Soviet guard at the Kremlin.
Like Bird, Applebaum and Nemec are out of their element here since the scribes’ past scripts have all been for television shows, including “Alias.” However, from the result of their first film, it is clear that all three are quick learners.
Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”) also does good work as Brandt, an enigmatic IMF analyst turned agent who keeps the audience guessing about his endgame throughout the film.
Incidentally, the name of the movie continues the decade-old trend of using colons in film titles.
The double-dotted punctuation mark is in three of the four films currently playing at the local theater which is also showing “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.”
If there is a fifth mission, I hope the trend of having a different director for each outing of the series comes to an end.
Forget Brian De Palma, John Woo and J.J. Abrams — Brad Bird is clearly the man for the mission.
