Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) – Rated PG-13

“Super-agent Ethan Hunt dangles from skyscrapers and otherwise takes daring to new heights on another operation from the Impossible Missions Force. Helping Hunt get the job done is droll fellow IMF agent Luther Stickel.” (Netflix’s fairly inaccurate description)

“Now remember – Blue is Glue” – “And red?” – “Dead”

Last night I went to see an early showing of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol at my favorite theater, Carolina Cinemas. The early showings included an ActionFest (the Film Festival with a Body Count) announcement. ActionFest 2012 will be held April 12-15 (Thursday through Sunday). This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go to stuntman Mickey Gilbert, whose career runs from Ben-Hur to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and includes such iconic films as The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Breakheart Pass, The Towering Inferno and The Last of the Mohicans.

Being first in line, I came away with some nice Mission Impossible swag.

I am not a big Tom Cruise fan. Generally he is a movie star and not an actor. He can act but I’ve only seen that in Interview with the Vampire. I also hate that he is so powerful that every movie of his is a Tom Cruise movie in spite of being directed by some of Hollywood’s biggest names (Brian DePalma, J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, John Woo, etc.). That said he is a good bankable star and is certainly engaging here.

Director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) puts together an amazing action film here. It honestly is an action film on steroids. Instead of an action sequence on the side of a building, we have an Imax action sequence on the side of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Foot and car chases have been done to death in every conceivable locale so how about a foot and car chase in an amazing sandstorm. You’ve seen fights in parking garages before but have you seen one in an automated parking garage? Didn’t think so.

The film would be well worth recommending for any one of those three sequences. The film is also incredibly beautiful and very fast-paced. Simon Pegg offers a fair amount of comic relief without being overwhelming. Jeremy Renner shows his action movie chops as does Paula Patton – both hold their own against Cruise.

The drawbacks to the film are a maudlin backstory that you won’t care about, a convoluted plot that didn’t make sense when James Bond did it over and over again, characters you don’t really care about, and the worst sin for an action film – a bland, seldom-seen villain. However the action is so wonderful that you probably won’t notice any of the defects until after you leave the theater.

People Watch: Look for Lost’s Josh Holloway as a secret agent in the beginning of the film.