Mission Impossible Franchise Excels

In spite of my dislike of Tom Cruise, I've seen almost all his movies, including all the previous Mission Impossible ones. I went and saw the fourth film from the MI franchise: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol after watching Cruise interviewed by David Letterman on the latter's late night talk show. Cruise was a lousy interviewee, but he does look very good and fit at 49. But I was most intrigued by the line when he was equipped with the climbing gloves before jumping off the tallest building in Dubai and in the world - "blue is glue, and red is dead"!

Let's face it, the scene from the Dubai building is definitely worth the $20 IMAX ticket price. Plus the sand storm as a backdrop is absolutely amazing. I'm surprised that director Brad Bird has only done four movies - most of which were associated with Disney or animations. But Bird has managed to win rave reviews for each of his three previous movies - The Incredibles, The Iron Giant and Ratatouille which won him an Oscar not too long ago. This one is no exception - in fact, I think it's the best among the four MI movies.

Like the James Bond character, Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt is not particularly credible but he's well known for doing all his stunts himself and you have to respect a baby-boomer mega star for taking such risks. Leading actress Paula Patton is attractive at 36, particularly having just given birth to a son about a year ago. But she just can't act - even Maggie Q was better in a previous MI version. Patton is erstwhile best known as the daughter-in-law of Canadian actor Alan Thicke and the wife of Grammy Award singer Robin Thicke. Dashing Lost star Josh Holloway has a brief appearance in this movie but too short a time to make any impact. And God knows why Cruise has to give Anil Kapoor such an unchallenging role as a Mumbai billionaire!

But the star of the film is Jeremy Renner who always steals the show in all the movies he's in whether he's the lead actor or not. He received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in The Hurt Locker and also as Best Supporting Actor in The Town. Now that he has inherited the Bourne sequel from Matt Damon, his star power is only going to further advance. Rumour has it that he will inherit the MI franchise too when Cruise retires.

If you're looking for pure entertainment without any logic, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol will not disppoint you this Holiday Season.