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The star of four "Mission: Impossible" films (and countless variations on the hotshot scenario in "Top Gun") is a captive of the new reality that Hollywood makes most of its money overseas. As a producer of the "M:I" franchise, he's heavily invested in an international currency: action movies. Character development slows the money machine.
In "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol," the actor's loss is the producer's gain. It's an export-quality vehicle with American muscle under the hood.
The world-class mechanic is Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning director of the animated "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles," who applies the pacing and spatial freedom of a 'toon to a live-action thriller.
The race through emerging media markets begins in Moscow, where Yankee secret agent Ethan Hunt is in prison for settling a very personal score. He's sprung by two new members of the Impossible Missions Force — honeytrap Jane (Paula Patton) and comic-relief Benji (Simon Pegg) — to infiltrate the Kremlin and stop a mad scientist (Michael Nyqvist) from stealing a nuclear detonator.
But after a deadly snafu, the entire IMF is disavowed by the feds. Hunt's team, joined by shadowy tag-along Brandt (Jeremy Renner), has to go rogue to buy the launch codes in Dubai and deactivate a killer satellite in Mumbai.
Those are scenic locales, and Bird makes the most of them. The high-wire deception in Dubai is enacted at the Burj Khalifa hotel, the world's tallest building, and includes a car chase through a sandstorm. The mission in Mumbai involves Jane seducing a media mogul (Anil Kapoor) and Hunt battling a bad guy on the multilevel merry-go-round of a mechanized parking garage.
Cruise, as usual, is unscathed in the middle of some spectacular stunts. He only stumbles near the finish line, when he tries to tell the team "You complete me." As an actor, he's out of practice, but as a bulletproof action hero, he's impressive on cruise control.
The star of four "Mission: Impossible" films (and countless variations on the hotshot scenario in "Top Gun") is a captive of the new reality that Hollywood makes most of its money overseas. As a producer of the "M:I" franchise, he's heavily invested in an international currency: action movies. Character development slows the money machine.
In "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol," the actor's loss is the producer's gain. It's an export-quality vehicle with American muscle under the hood.
The world-class mechanic is Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning director of the animated "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles," who applies the pacing and spatial freedom of a 'toon to a live-action thriller.
The race through emerging media markets begins in Moscow, where Yankee secret agent Ethan Hunt is in prison for settling a very personal score. He's sprung by two new members of the Impossible Missions Force — honeytrap Jane (Paula Patton) and comic-relief Benji (Simon Pegg) — to infiltrate the Kremlin and stop a mad scientist (Michael Nyqvist) from stealing a nuclear detonator.
But after a deadly snafu, the entire IMF is disavowed by the feds. Hunt's team, joined by shadowy tag-along Brandt (Jeremy Renner), has to go rogue to buy the launch codes in Dubai and deactivate a killer satellite in Mumbai.
Those are scenic locales, and Bird makes the most of them. The high-wire deception in Dubai is enacted at the Burj Khalifa hotel, the world's tallest building, and includes a car chase through a sandstorm. The mission in Mumbai involves Jane seducing a media mogul (Anil Kapoor) and Hunt battling a bad guy on the multilevel merry-go-round of a mechanized parking garage.
Cruise, as usual, is unscathed in the middle of some spectacular stunts. He only stumbles near the finish line, when he tries to tell the team "You complete me." As an actor, he's out of practice, but as a bulletproof action hero, he's impressive on cruise control.
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