Dir.: Brad Bird
With: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom-Tom is back on form! Despite all the rumours, the haters, the gossip, the occasional raised eye-brow, the proud winner of the toothiest smile of the decade award is back with the funnest, most entertaining action film I have seen in a while. It puts to shame many recent attempts at thrilling the audiences ('Quantum of Solace' included) and Agent Ethan Hunt walks proudly again, after a 6-year hiatus.
Tom is 49, he is fit, ripped and focussed (he probably dyes his hair though) and he does a hell of a lot of running, banging and smashing around in this movie. The film has a mediocre plot but it really does not matter all that much because it manages to catch that rare bird and actually wow the viewer. It made me think of the first ever film made by the Lumiere brothers of a train arriving at a platform and how the audiences ran in horror from it. The whole Dubai sequence, especially the gravity-defying Burj Khalifa shots made me gasp and clench my hands together in absolute awe. I don't remember the last time I rooted so much for a character from an action film. It must have been Indy (not counting the fourth film).
The support cast was great too - Simon Pegg is absolutely hilarious as Benji, the computer man, often providing comic relief at tense moments. Paula Patton or Agent Carter is beautiful, intelligent and deadly and Jeremy Renner is his usual fine self. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the movie, globe-trotting as it is, made the most of local talents - you have Anil Kapoor (from 'Slumdog Millionaire'), Michael Nyqvist (from the Swedish 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo') and Vladimir Mashkov. What? You don't know Vladimir Mashkov? Well, let me tell you about Vladimir Mashkov. He is a Russian sex-symbol (one of the two haha), no really, he is super famous there and always plays extremely virile macho men of dubious moral standing with so much charisma that women fall head over heels in love with him. So it was nice to see him here. Check him out on Imdb. He is hot. Speaking of Russia, the Moscow sequence was pretty good too and Tom Cruise spoke such perfect Russian that I really wanted to give a big bear hug to the little man.
The gadgets were deliciously outrageous and fun as were the cars and the beautiful settings. My only real criticism is that there were too many moments when the characters explained the plot in mid-conversation after a new idea had been introduced. Filmmakers - attention - DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR AUDIENCES! We are not as dumb as we might appear and can follow a basic plot perfectly well, thank you. But you know what, once I hear the first notes of the famous theme tune, I just forget everything and go 'Mission accepted'.
And for desert - a clip of Tom Cruise doing some runnin'. Lotsa runnin'.
With: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom-Tom is back on form! Despite all the rumours, the haters, the gossip, the occasional raised eye-brow, the proud winner of the toothiest smile of the decade award is back with the funnest, most entertaining action film I have seen in a while. It puts to shame many recent attempts at thrilling the audiences ('Quantum of Solace' included) and Agent Ethan Hunt walks proudly again, after a 6-year hiatus.
Tom is 49, he is fit, ripped and focussed (he probably dyes his hair though) and he does a hell of a lot of running, banging and smashing around in this movie. The film has a mediocre plot but it really does not matter all that much because it manages to catch that rare bird and actually wow the viewer. It made me think of the first ever film made by the Lumiere brothers of a train arriving at a platform and how the audiences ran in horror from it. The whole Dubai sequence, especially the gravity-defying Burj Khalifa shots made me gasp and clench my hands together in absolute awe. I don't remember the last time I rooted so much for a character from an action film. It must have been Indy (not counting the fourth film).
The support cast was great too - Simon Pegg is absolutely hilarious as Benji, the computer man, often providing comic relief at tense moments. Paula Patton or Agent Carter is beautiful, intelligent and deadly and Jeremy Renner is his usual fine self. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the movie, globe-trotting as it is, made the most of local talents - you have Anil Kapoor (from 'Slumdog Millionaire'), Michael Nyqvist (from the Swedish 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo') and Vladimir Mashkov. What? You don't know Vladimir Mashkov? Well, let me tell you about Vladimir Mashkov. He is a Russian sex-symbol (one of the two haha), no really, he is super famous there and always plays extremely virile macho men of dubious moral standing with so much charisma that women fall head over heels in love with him. So it was nice to see him here. Check him out on Imdb. He is hot. Speaking of Russia, the Moscow sequence was pretty good too and Tom Cruise spoke such perfect Russian that I really wanted to give a big bear hug to the little man.
The gadgets were deliciously outrageous and fun as were the cars and the beautiful settings. My only real criticism is that there were too many moments when the characters explained the plot in mid-conversation after a new idea had been introduced. Filmmakers - attention - DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR AUDIENCES! We are not as dumb as we might appear and can follow a basic plot perfectly well, thank you. But you know what, once I hear the first notes of the famous theme tune, I just forget everything and go 'Mission accepted'.
And for desert - a clip of Tom Cruise doing some runnin'. Lotsa runnin'.
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