Movie Review: Mission Impossible

Ahhh escapism. Nothing takes the bad taste of grumpy holiday shoppers or vacation traffic or family kurfuffles away like bomb blasts, a high speed chase, or a good bludgeoning in slomo. With that in mind, the makers of sequels for both Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible offer their bits of distraction just in time. Next time someone cuts us off, or a family member gets passive aggressive, we can imagine ourselves throwing poison darts, escaping on the roof of a high speed train or by climbing up the tallest building in the world.

There is plenty to enjoy in both films. They are indeed essentially pure, unapologetic escapism. There's little deeper message, nothing we walk away contemplating, no moral conundrum to discuss. Which of these two movies, if pressed, should you choose? They are both such fun distraction, the siren would say make room to see both. Come back to Herndon Patch tomorrow to check out the review of Sherlock Holmes. 

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL

There's a lot to be said for believing Tom Cruise, an actor who has suffered repeated bad press of late, a 15-year-old franchise, and a director known for Pixar animation greats The Incredibles and Ratatouille who has never helmed a live action movie is a recipe for disaster.

And yet, they come together, along with Simon Pegg (back from MI3), and franchise newcomers Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton, to make one of the most exciting action flicks in recent memory. I knew when they repeatedly moved up the opening date, it was a sign we were in for something really great.

Things go wrong from the very start. A member of the IMF is assassinated during an Eastern European mission, dying in the arms of a distraught teammate. Cut to Russia, where Ethan Hunt, in prison, is being rescued by agents Benji Dunn (Pegg, now the computer genius is a new field agent) and Jane Carter, (Patton, she of the aforementioned Eastern European mission). He discovers there's dastardly doings in the Kremlin, which they infiltrate only to get implicated in a bomb attack that destroys it. They are all disavowed, dropped like russian potato vodka, and go rogue to clear their names. As the poster tag line says, "no plan, no back up."

Enter Bond-villainesque super baddie (and, one assumes, evil genius) Hendricks, who is attempting to instigate a humanity reboot,  nuclear apocalypse style. An enigmatic analyst, played by the always wonderful Renner (Oscar nominated for Hurt Locker) gets caught in the crossfire, literally, and is thrust into the action and onto the team. There are launch codes, diamonds, and lots of high tech gadgetry involved, with no central support, leaving them to depend on wit, gritand each other's support to essentially save the world.

They're like the little covert team that could. Simon Pegg's Benji is the comic relief, although he is as fully committed and aware of the stakes he can't help but be pithy or point out the absurdity of their circumstances. As Ethan is begrudgingly about to climb the outside of Dubhai's Burj Khalifa (the world's tallest building) he explains the color coding on the special gloves, which turn out to be less dependable then one over 100 stories up would want, "Remember, blue equals glue. Red... dead." And that's another thing we can connect to as an audience. Not all the super gadgets and computer doodads work like they should. A pesky sandstorm throws everything out of whack. They almost get discovered through a slow computer download. A computer crash almost results in the end of the world. I hate when that happens.

Tom Cruise plays Ethan like he's game for anything, tired of it all, but always just turning towards the way to make things work. He's solving the problem, and making things right, damn it, and no one's going to stop him. He's got no time to be wound tightly, he's too busy just trying not to get killed and stop the next oncoming disaster. The mounting number of bruises and internal injuries don't stop him, but he's no Terminator. He just has a job to do. We may not be super spies, but we can relate to his "Really? what next? go outside and scale the world's tallest building? Ok, If I have to." The Siren is no big fan of Mr. Cruise, but respect has to be paid to him here, especially since he did much of his own stunt work. Good on you, Tom.

Brad Bird's direction is sharp and targeted as one might expect from one of Pixar's secret weapons, who clearly showed his love and appreciation for spies and intrigue with The Incredibles. His experience is with directing animated movies that connect viewers to characters brought to life inside a computer, and without concern for physical limitations. I'd imagine no script would seem too outrageous, no action scene too extreme to attempt, and that "sky's the limit" attitude shows up early in the physics-defying business of the prison breakout and in all in the best action sequences. Also, he made us love a rat in Ratatouille, so he can certainly make us feel for obsessive super spies like Ethan Hunt and his crew.

There's a heart in this MI that's missing in the Brian De Palma, John Woo and JJ Abrams installments. By the end we care about the characters and their personalities enough that we start anticipating MI5, but only with him in charge.