20131003: Action Review--Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

1. Fundamentals and reception
1. American live action feature length film, released 2011, rated PG-13, 132 minutes, action-adventure, thriller.
2. IMDB: 7.3/10.0 from 238,513 users.  Estimated budget: 145 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes:  93% on the meter; 76% liked it from 462,345 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 4.0/5.0 from 2,512,860 users.
5. Directed by: Brad Bird.  Screenplay by: Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec.
6. Starring: Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Jeremy Renner as William Brandt, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Paula Patton as Jane Carter, Michael Nyquist as Kurt Hendricks, Vladimir Mashkov as Anatoly Sidirov, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Josh Holloway as Trevor Hanaway, Lea Seydoux as Sabine Moreau, Samuli Edelman as Wistrom, Ivan Shvedoff as Leonid Lisenker, Anil Kapoor as Brij Nath.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Budapest.  IMF agent Hanaway is betrayed and killed by Moreau, who takes the intelligence he had intercepted.


2. Moscow.  Jane and Benji break Ethan out of a jail to re-take the lost information.  Ethan changes plans to take along a new ally from the prison. This rather complicates things for a bit.  The Secretary re-tasks Ethan, Benji, and Jane to get vital information (nuclear codes) from inside the Kremlin.  That starts out fairly well, but Cobalt (Hendricks) gets the codes first, and blames them for it.  Ethan is captured, and narrowly escapes.  He learns from the Secretary that the IMF has been disavowed.  The Secretary himself gets killed, but not before telling Ethan what he wants done off the record.  The team is cut off from direct support from American channels.  Cobalt is out to kill him.  The Russian police (Sidirov) are after them on criminal charges.  Brandt joins the team.


3. Dubai.  Cobalt sends Wistrom to buy the launch codes from Moreau.  The team sets up a double meet, so that Leonid and Wistrom meet Jane, and Moreau meets Ethan and William, but they both think they are meeting each other.  What could possibly go wrong?  There were some great stunts in this segment, including the chase in the sandstorm.


4. Mumbai.  Cobalt has the launch codes and the satellite uplink.  So he needs a 'tactical satellite' as the last piece.  That is, a satellite that has Russian military protocols still in it.  One is available in Mumbai.  Jane goes after Brij Nath, the man who has access to the satellite.  Benji and William go after the man's computer security system.  Cobalt again interrupts them.  After Cobalt takes control of the satellite, Ethan and Jane rush to make a last minute stop.  Cobalt gets a Russian missile launched.  Jane, William, and Benji race to re-enable the uplink, while Ethan rushes to acquire the case with the command codes.


5. Seattle.  Nice conclusion.


3. Conclusions
1. This is a big update of my mini-review of 20130525.
2. One sentence summary: A fast, smart, exciting ride, start to finish.
3. Five stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems


3. Acting: 9/10  The leads were all fine, as were Michael Nyquest and Vladimir Mashkov.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Fast paced action coupled with cerebral interludes for planning.  Throw in a dash of humor or twenty, and you've got a very nice script.