“…This Review Will Abseil Up Its Own Arse In Five Seconds…Sizzle…Sizzle…”
Bought this today - just finished watching it - and already
have a bad feeling that I should have saved my money and waited for the rental.
"MI:4" has all the usual hair-brained stunts - a
convoluted plotline about some Russian loony Hell bent on setting off nuclear
Armageddon (aren't they always) - leggy molls with silencer guns, cleavage and
perfect teeth (in that order) - very fast and very garish cars - even faster
sandstorms - a blown-up wing of the Kremlin - a flash Hotel in Mumbai - Sawyer
from "Lost" having an all-too-brief lifespan in Budapest (really
should have used more of Josh Holloway) - the Cruiser crawling around the
outside of the tallest building in the world (in Delhi) with magnetic gloves
that only half work - etc etc...
Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton do their stony-faced best as
new members of the IMF team - but neither ever gets properly comfortable in all
that wall-abseiling, gadget operating, sub-Bond silliness. But Simon Pegg is a
revelation. His deadpan and very, very funny contribution to "Ghost
Protocol" is just what's needed a lot of the time (man did they get lucky
casting him) - and some would say he practically ‘makes’ the movie.
But I have to say that I found "MI:4" strangely
lacklustre. Admittedly the false-screen visual in the vaults of the Kremlin is
so clever - and the Hotel stunt is stupendous - but you've already seen the
guts of it in trailers that typically give away too much. Cruise as Ethan Hunt
still looks good if not a little too old to be doing this juvenile dreck - and
that stench of making money for Scientology by doing ever more ludicrous stunts
- hangs over everything. Perhaps we've just seen this sort of 'popcorn fun' one
too many times - in fact to a point where it isn't 'fun' anymore.
Amazingly too (for a brand new release in 2012) - I found the
BLU RAY picture quality to be decidedly weak in definition - and at times felt
like an ok-only DVD. It's also defaulted to 2.35:1 aspect so you've got bars
top and bottom of the screen - which I can't stand. You can of course extend it
- but that compromises the quality and subtitles.
"Ghost Protocol" is fun in places - it is - but it
feels formulaic to the extreme and like they're all doing a job rather than
having fun in the job. Perhaps enough is enough for the ‘disavow all knowledge’
team - because on the strength of “Ghost Protocol” - there's very definitely a
whiff of diminishing returns in the "Mission Impossible" franchise.
Resist that theme song folks - I'd advise a rental on this
one rather than a purchase...
