It’s about the gadgets. And the stunts. “Mission: Impossible” movies have always been about the gadgets. And the stunts. But “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” the fourth picture in the series, is about nothing but the gadgets. And the stunts.
Gadgets like anti-gravity underwear. Gadgets like an electronic sticky glove that lets Tom Cruise (doing the stunt himself) shinny up the sheer glass sides of an absurdly tall Dubai skyscraper.
The “Mission: Impossible” pictures dearly desire to be thought of in the same class as the James Bond movies, but director Brad Bird (“The Incredibles”) and the team that made “Ghost Protocol” have lost sight of the fact that the Bond epics are about more than the hardware. “Ghost Protocol” is like a James Bond movie re-imagined as “Q Branch and Co.,” where the gizmos and gadgets aren’t deployed to support the story; they are the story. The plot is simply an excuse to show off all that whiz-bang technology.
The only good thing about that is it gives Simon Pegg, who plays the “MI” version of Q, a British technogeek who supplies the gadgets, ample opportunities to lighten things up with clever quips and drolly arched eyebrows. Without him, “Ghost Protocol” would be a grim slog indeed.
That’s because Cruise seems determined to set a new standard for humorlessness in his performance as superspy Ethan Hunt. Yes, I know. People are trying to kill him all the time, but couldn’t he lighten up just a little bit now and then? Watching his Gloomy Gus act for two-plus hours is not much fun.
This time around, Hunt has been framed for blowing up the Kremlin, and he and his team of Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner have been cast into the outer darkness of persona non grata-hood by the U.S. government. They have to somehow avoid getting killed while trying to clear their names and, oh, also trying to head off nuclear war. All in a day’s work.
The plotting is sloppy. The villain, played by Michael Nyqvist in a three-piece ice cream suit that looks like it came from Tom Wolfe’s closet, is a cipher. And the situations are nonsensical (they just waltz into the Kremlin).
Those gadgets are pretty cool, though. ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’
* * *
Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist
Director: Brad Bird
Running time: 2:13
Rated: PG-13; intense action sequences
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