A “date night” and a movie night! What are the odds?
We’ve been rather busy with all the family activities that we haven’t had much “couple” time for ourselves. This Friday and Saturday, the kids went on their monthly pilgrimage to the nearby “Friday Nite Out” program, and the missus and I went out on the town. We hit a local bar/restaurant for early drinks (whaaaaa?), walked across the street to a Latin grill for dinner, then we relaxed at home to watch the latest episode of Fringe. Fast-forward to Saturday night after the kids went to bed, and we stayed up to watch Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) rented over Vudu. In hindsight, I wish I had rented the physical Blu-ray from Netflix, because I later read a review about the disc, and learned I could have taken advantage of the movie in 1080p/AVC, mixed in English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. Ah well.
So, Mission: Impossible? This is the fourth in the Tom Cruise series. I was a big fan of the original Mission: Impossible television show with Martin Graves, Leonard Nimoy, Greg Morris, Lesley Ann Warren, and the rest. The first film wasn’t bad, but a little confusing. The 2nd film (the John Woo one) was over-the-top and nuts, and the 3rd film directed by J. J. Abrams wasn’t bad at all. MI 4 got lots of good reviews when it came out last December, but I couldn’t find anyone to go watch it with me in the theaters.
Interestingly enough, Brad Bird directed this film where Tom Cruise’s IMF team is disavowed after a mission in Moscow goes belly-up. After that, the rest of the folks with the Tom Cruise / Ethan Hunt character are on their own to stop the villain. The rest of the team is rounded out with Jeremy Renner Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton (whom I don’t know.) The villain was played somebody, and I didn’t think very much of the villain in this story. He was there, but you see very little of him. There wasn’t much development of what this villain wanted, except near-extermination of the human race. Did I give away the plot? Did it really matter?
Overall, I thought the film was worth seeing. Not for the villain per se, but the action is good, the story is decent enough, and the characters are interesting enough. It’s a fun little way to enjoy some action and adventure, intrigue, yada yada.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)