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ANN HORNADAY<\/strong> <\/p>\n WASHINGTON POST<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n HAND IT to Tom Cruise: Even on the cusp of the creaky age of 50, he still manages to do his own stunts, look studly in a suit and maintain perfect hair sweepage. <\/p>\n All those talents come into play in Mission: Impossible \u2013 Ghost Protocol<\/em>, the fourth installment of Cruise\u2019s behemoth of a franchise, in which his IMF agent Ethan Hunt bears more similarity to a steroid-popping James Bond than the urbane super-spies of the long-lost television series. <\/p>\n Having banished forever the reel-to-reel tapes and latex masks that distinguished that cozy old ritual, Cruise has turned the series over to concussive action and eye-popping set pieces designed to show himself off in the very best, most masculine light. <\/p>\n Narcissism is nothing new in Hollywood, of course, and it doesn\u2019t necessarily militate against entertainment value. Ghost Protocol, which marks the live-action debut of Pixar director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille<\/em>), possesses the requisite number of expertly choreographed how\u2019d-they-do-that scenes, as well as fine support performances from Mission: Impossible <\/em>veterans and newcomers. <\/p>\n \n <\/span><\/p>\n Simon Pegg, returning from his M:I<\/em> debut in the last film, provides a hugely welcome dose of lightness and comic relief as Benji, a meek British computer nerd who in this installment has finally managed to score a gig in the field. <\/p>\n Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner, as new additions to Ethan\u2019s team, hit their marks with professionalism and physical competence, with Renner in particular proving that he\u2019s ready to assume the central role in the M:I<\/em> franchise if and when Mr Cruise finally hangs up his carabiners. <\/p>\n For now, though, the audience is instructed to sit back and admire Cruise\u2019s physical prowess, which is on display in a spectacular stunt-centrepiece. <\/p>\n This comes when Ethan must climb the outside windows of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai (the world\u2019s tallest building), smash in a window, replace a dingus in a computer server, then swing back into his room \u2013 all with one hand tied behind his back, at least figuratively, when he loses one of his gecko-esque suction-cup gloves. (In traditional M:I <\/em>fashion, this scene is set to one of several of the film\u2019s ticking clocks.) <\/p>\n Running, jumping, scaling glass walls, driving random BMWs \u2013 Ethan can do it all, and by extension so can Cruise, a case of self-flattery-by-proxy that, as both the series and its lead actor ages, has begun to take on the whiff of compensatory overkill. (From the looks of a quick Durer-esque sketch he pens on his palm, Ethan is even an accomplished artist.) <\/p>\n Rather than strain so mightily to remind viewers of his still-rock-hard abs and blue-steel stare, Cruise is more than entitled to remind us that he can actually act. <\/p>\n If the Burj Khalifa sequence is the showiest bauble in Ghost Protocol\u2019s <\/em>bag of tricks, a far craftier and satisfying episode precedes it, when Cruise convincingly plays Ethan convincingly playing a Russian general, and then engages a Kremlin guard in some absurdly clever misdirection by way of a portable screen and rear projection. <\/p>\n That piece of visual legerdemain, as well as Ethan\u2019s quarry \u2013 Russian nuclear launch codes \u2013 are about as retro as it gets in a movie that never hesitates to fall back on a digital cheat or gimmick. <\/p>\n Indeed, at the outset of Ghost Protocol<\/em>, Bird announces his intentions to flout credulity by having a character jump from a tall building into a giant mattress that he has just inflated from a thingamajig he conveniently (and barely perceptibly) tossed a moment before. <\/p>\n Bond\u2019s own gadget-master Q has nothing on the technology available to Ethan and his team, who, even when they\u2019re forced to go rogue \u2013 after their infiltration of the Kremlin goes wonky \u2013 seem to be able to access unlimited funds, cool stuff and even a private jet. For a group travelling under the radar, they are truly over the radar. <\/p>\n Then again, how better to schlep from Dubai to Mumbai? There, Bird once again orchestrates a complicated piece of stagecraft, this time a brutalising showdown set in a moving, multi-level parking garage. <\/p>\n By now the frenetic action, gargantuan scale and furious scurryings to save the world will have begun to take their toll \u2013 on the audience if not the protagonists. <\/p>\n There is a place in the movies for wish fulfillment, no doubt, including the wish for it all to be over. <\/p>\n ANN HORNADAY<\/strong> <\/p>\n WASHINGTON POST<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA ANN HORNADAY WASHINGTON POST HAND IT to Tom Cruise: Even on the cusp of the creaky age of 50, he still manages to do his own stunts, look studly in a suit and maintain perfect hair sweepage. All those talents come into play in Mission: Impossible \u2013 Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of Cruise\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-6323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NM](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/54a93_3382327506.jpg\")
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