Film review: Mission Impossible 4

Does Tom Cruise have a painting hidden away in an attic in one of his houses depicting a middle-aged decaying former action hero? How else to explain that at nearly 50 he is still prancing around in high-octane films looking barely a day older than in Cocktail?

Debbie Stowe

All the Cruise agility is called upon in the latest lucrative installment of stunt-tastic spy franchise Mission: Impossible, back after a five-year hiatus and impressing critics since opening late last year. We all know what’s needed here. Tom being lowered on a wire into a heavily defended building full of hostiles, some rubber face masks deployed so you think it’s Tom when it’s not or you don’t think it’s him when it is, stunts that are bigger and more ridiculous than last time and a bit of geek humor from the Q in Bond stable. If there are some good lines, charismatic villains and people who you think are dead but aren’t really dead, even better.

The plot? Mad Russian scientist wants to nuke the world, Tom goes rogue to stop him, the usual stuff. It’s not about the story but the stunts, and these are undeniably impressive. Highlights include Tom and geeky Brit Simon Pegg infiltrating the Kremlin and a cheekily preposterous scene where Tom scales the side of a 1km high skyscraper in Dubai with faulty suction pads. It’s all very silly and a lot of fun.

The only slightly wrong note in the narrative is that for added comedy Benji (Pegg) has been promoted to field agent. Admittedly MI flicks require some suspension of disbelief but a hapless techie at the heart of dangerous black ops? Still, Pegg is likeable enough in the role that it doesn’t matter too much.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is from the does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin school of filmmaking. We know what we’re getting. And given the success of MI4, we’ll probably be getting some more of it soon, no doubt presided over by a fresh-faced, twenty-something-esque Tom Cruise, while a portrait grows ever more battered and wrinkled, tucked away in a Californian mega-mansion.

Debbie Stowe