Movie Review - "Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011) ****1/2

     Wow. One simple word....WOW. Those three little letters crossed my mind many times while watching the newest installment in the Mission:Impossible film franchise. This is a franchise that I have been a big fan of. The original film just missed making my top 100 list, it was one of the last cuts actually. The scene where Tom Cruise and his team of agents infiltrate the CIA headquarters is one of my favorite movie scenes ever. M:I 2 was a bit of a letdown but I enjoyed M:I 3 a lot as well. So I was excited for this newest installment and have been waiting patiently for a couple of months to see it. I've always been a fan of Tom Cruise, the actor. (Tom Cruise the "celebrity" hasn't often been the same case). When he is on his game, and isn't too full of himself, I think he's one of the funnest actors of our generation to watch. His performance as Ethan Hunt in M:I Ghost Protocol only strengthens that argument for me.

     Describing the plot of a M:I film is not the easiest thing to do. I think I may be able to perform brain surgery better. In a nutshell, there is a person of interest with the code name of "Cobalt" who wants to start a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. The movie opens with a team of IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agents breaking Ethan Hunt out of a prison in Moscow, Russia. (Don't ask) On the outside, Hunt receives a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin in order to gain information on "Cobalt". Hunt and his two sidekicks, Jane (Paula Patton) and Benji (Simon Pegg), soon find themselves undercover deep in the heart of the Russian military but the plan goes awry and must be aborted. The Kremlin is blown up and the Russians blame the IMF and the United States, leading to tensions that haven't been this high since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The President of the US activates Ghost Protocol which disavows the entire IMF, and the team finds themselves on the run without any help from the government. They pick up a fourth member along the way, an IMF analyst named Brandt (Jeremy Renner), who we can tell from the get-go has more to him than initially meets the eye. The 4 IMF agents track "Cobalt" to Dubai, where an exchange is scheduled to happen at the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It's here where a lot of the jaw-dropping special effects and action take place, highlighted by Ethan scaling the outside of the building like Spiderman in a vertigo-inducing scene. Wow. Before the movie is over we also visit Mumbai, before arriving back home in the US.

     M:I - Ghost Protocol is a pure adrenaline rush from start to finish. The movie takes a break for five minutes here and there to setup what's coming next, but for the most part is action packed from start to finish. Most of the action defies logic of course, but this is one of those movies you just throw all of that garbage out the window and just go with it. I saw this movie in IMAX and if you get the opportunity to see it that way, I highly recommend it. Only about 30 minutes of the movie was filmed with IMAX technology but those are a tremendous 30 minutes. A lot of it occurs during the Burj Khalifa scene, which will immediately go with that CIA infiltration scene in the original as an instant classic. I'm not sure how the film will look on a regular screen, but I hope it doesn't lose its luster. I may give it a try, just to see the comparison. The film was directed by Brad Bird, a name you probably know but for a completely different type of film. All of Bird's previous directing work has been in animation, including the hits The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, a personal favorite of mine. He would seem like an odd choice for this job, but he has pulled off a miraculous feat. It doesn't matter what kind of movie you make, when you're good, you're good. For a film that is so action packed, the acting is also superb here. We've mentioned Cruise already, but Renner is becoming one of my favorite actors to see on screen. He earned my vote as Best Actor back in 2010 for The Hurt Locker and I also enjoyed his role in The Town. Simon Pegg provides some well-timed comic relief as Benji and Paula Patton does a kick-butt (literally) job as Jane. I highly recommend this film. If you want a 2-hour escape where you can just sit back and say WOW repeatedly, this is your movie. One of my favorites of the year so far.