Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg
Director: Brad Bird

This is the fourth installment of the Tom Cruise action series all though you won't find a number 4 anywhere on the posters or descriptions. The Mission: Impossibles took a nice turn in 2006, with Mission: Impossible 3. What made that movie so great, was an awesome villain, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and a great action/drama director JJ Abrams. At that time most people who knew of JJ, only knew of his from his television series Alias. Unfortunetly, Abrams did not return to his directing position but did stick around as an producer. This time the directing job went to Pixar Animation's Brad Bird. Most people don't realize that this director is the director of The Incredibles. But what he added to this film was fine. This movie was mostly missing a good villan. Isn't that what these type movies are... a hero vs. a villain. You would think someone from Disney/Pixar would know this. So MI4 takes place with a forgettable villain but with a giant (too large) evil plan. He wants to launch a nuclear missile and start a nuclear war. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) along with a new group of agents, Simon Pegg who bring the humour, and Pauly Patton who brings the yummy. Oh yeah, and a third of the way in the introduce Jeremy Renner, who is an agent with a "history". They need to try to stop the bad guy before it's too late. You know how it goes. Oh, and the IMF (The Impossible Missions Force) is shut down, so they'll have to go rogue. It's a very typically story line. There is however a lot of cool effects, stunts, and shots. There is an overly dramatic (overly CG'ed) scene in the movie that didn't have to be there. But for the most part though, Tom Cruis kicks ass, Renner is a great actor, Pegg is funny, and Patton is sexy as hell. I now realize something else that is missing from this film, and that's the heart, which surprisingly made the third film so good. The third film had a feeling of coming back and comradery, plus a very sweet unbreakable love between Ethan and his wife. This film missed that, in the fact Tom Cruise comes back to a group that doesn't really know him. And the romantic warm sub-plot is a bit strange, uncalled for, and out of place. There is an especially odd moment towards the end that tries to explain this mysterious sub-plot. It was a great movie to watch things exploid and there is some ass kicking. It wasn't a great film as far as characters go and story. The subtitle of the movie "Ghost Protocol" is a huge cop out and has very little to do with the movie. I wonder why the studio or Tom Cruise decided to use that instead of the number 4.