Review by Josh Drake
I wasn't a big fan of two previous movies, but I was a fan of the first. However, I haven't seen the first in over 10 years and, since I've been writing for this site, I've found any opinion I held before 1999 to be HIGHLY questionable. But we're not here to talk about the original, we're here to talk about Ghost Protocol.
Cruise starts the movie in a Russian jail, after being deemed a rogue agent. For reasons unknown to the other operatives, IMF wants Cruise out and back on the job. Upon breaking him out, the IMF puts Cruise on a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin and get some nuclear codes that were recently stolen by an assassin. Or something like that. I didn't pay that much attention, just understood the gist.
Let's try this recap again: Cruise, as agent Hunt, must keep his team together as they go "ghost protocol" to stop a guy named Kobalt, a game theory mastermind who has determined that the best end to the game of Life is nuclear war. This being a Mission: Impossible movie, the plot execution is way more complicated than that.
Great production and directing work with lots of neat shots and attention to little detail. Globe-trotting movies are always fun. Overall, Ghost Protocol is a pretty good movie, BUT.....
Are the opening credits a commercial for the rest of the movie? Is this a TV show?
There are multiple bits of the plot that never get explained. Who were all the dudes shooting up the secretary's car? They seemed to be Russian police, not Kobalt. But why would the Russian police indiscriminately shoot that car? Why is Kobalt wearing a mask of his crony when going to pick up the codes? It serves no purpose. And the movie never explains how Kobalt knows exactly when Cruise's IMF team is going to infiltrate the Kremlin.
It may be that I missed a small detail explaining some of these things. I say that because there are many awesome little details they did include. One really standout scene comes after the Kremlin explosion, when Cruise is in a hospital chained to the bed. He's in a room in the background while in the foreground some Russian intelligence are talking. An orderly bumps one of Russians, causing him to move into the center of the screen. A second later he looks into the room to find Cruise gone. If you're watching at home, you can rewind and watch again to see the shadow of Cruise getting out of the bed at the exact moment the Russian guy is bumped by an orderly.
Another big point in the movie's favor is the use of Jeremy Renner. This being a MI movie, I figured there was a 75% chance he was a double agent. Fortunately, they didn't go there. One of the smartest moves for an action movie in the last decade.
The dude from Slumdog! The dude from Dragon Tattoo (foreign)!
First Viewing: 3+2+3+2+3 = 13