Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (12A)
HHH
Dir: Brad Bird
With: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner
Running time: 133 minutes
JUST in time for a Dickens of an austerity Christmas comes Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible 4, a slick, exhilarating, blow the budget spectacular with the fatal flaw that it doesn't know when to quit while it is ahead.
I saw the film at the opening this week of the new Imax screen at Cineworld in Edinburgh. Between Tom Cruise hurling himself off the tallest building in the world, biblical dust storms and denture-rattling explosions, Imax is the way to go with this one if you can. And no, the giant screen doesn't make the Tomster look any taller. Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) is a double Oscar winner, not a performer of miracles.
Like every other Mission: Impossible, the story is a riot of nonsense with lots of boys' toys and stunts to distract the viewer from the more obvious absurdities. In short, the perfect popcorn movie over Christmas. This time, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his crew of Jeremy Renner's enigmatic analyst, Simon Pegg's dorky tech and Paula Patton's kick-ass agent (who also looks rather nice in a dress), are fighting to keep the world safe from yet another megalomaniac.
Enough of all that. What you want to see are the stunts. The Cruise missile still has it when it comes to the action scenes, with Bird proving himself to have a great eye for the big moment. The scenes at the Burj Khalifa are doozies.
Just a pity, then, that that no-one involved called a halt to proceedings earlier. On and on and on it goes, like a marathon runner hitting the wall. Mission: Impossible becomes Mission: Impossible to Sit Through Without Meal and Toilet Breaks. Still, that jump...
Showing now in Imax cinemas, on general release Boxing Day.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article