"Blue is glue, red is dead" Mission: Impossible 4 POST Release Thread

So if you're pretty much indifferent to the entire series, will you feel the same about this one?

Originally Posted by Chris Myers Not as good as The Incredibles, but good.

Well that's praising with faint damns.

I'm excited for this. Bird can do no wrong in my eyes.

What I liked about the first film was not just that it was a team effort, things didn't always go to plan and even quite wrong many times. Where the second movie went horribly wrong included the fact that it became the Tom Cruise show. Given that I live practically right near where they filmed so much of it, I found it really annoying that the end product was so unsatisfying. Part 3 was a step up but ultimately disposable and still too Tom Cruise centric for my liking. Part of the appeal of Mission Impossible is that it's a team effort

Glad to hear that this sounds like a step up in that department.

On a side note, does anyone have any idea what has happened to Ving Rhames? He seems to have fallen into an ongoing succession of straight to video sequels, zombie movies and other B-grade (or lower) flicks. When (and how) did this happen?

Beats me. He'll be in a DTV with Christian Slater the last i heard.

The really funny part is that going to the M:I-4 screening was a total coincidence.  Cruise had just decided to take a random bus driving job in the middle of a manic episode.

[Over the loudspeaker]

"On our way to the movie theater, please enjoy this video demonstration courtesy of your friends at the Church Of Re-Noggination. There will be no snacks."

NEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!

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Originally Posted by Shan 

What I liked about the first film was not just that it was a team effort, things didn't always go to plan and even quite wrong many times. Where the second movie went horribly wrong included the fact that it became the Tom Cruise show.

Dunno about that. I thought one of the problems with the first movie was that it dispensed with the idea of being a team effort shortly into the first act in its eagerness to become a Tom Cruise vehicle, which was pushed even further in the second movie. Something a bit depressing about the fact it's took until the third if not the fourth movie for the franchise to properly become what it should've been from the start.

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Originally Posted by Bluelouboyle 

Apparently Cruise drove the audience bus to the GHOST PROTOCOL screening at Buttnumbathon in Austin. Pretty cool.

Look at that. Gargantuan ego, possible insanity, and fear of a "trillion-year-old" Darth Vader knock-off be damned, how many other actors put in that kind of effort?

There was a featurette on the Vanilla Sky DVD I really loved.  It was just Cameron Crowe's footage of Cruise going around the world to promote the film.  The man is DEDICATED.  I'm sure it helps that he's also the producer of nearly all of his movies, but still...  Cruise seems to legitimately LOVE the promotional/junket side of the business.  Either that, it's his greatest performance ever.

There's something weirdly likable about Cruise. He seems like a genuinely decent guy (did you know he nearly became a priest?) who's gotten deeply, deeply lost in the Hollywood madhouse.

Yeah, I've my problems with Cruise in the past but that was pretty damn cool.

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Originally Posted by Paul C 

 

Dunno about that. I thought one of the problems with the first movie was that it dispensed with the idea of being a team effort shortly into the first act in its eagerness to become a Tom Cruise vehicle, which was pushed even further in the second movie. Something a bit depressing about the fact it's took until the third if not the fourth movie for the franchise to properly become what it should've been from the start.

 

Well, I guess at least relative to the 2nd and 3rd movies. I saw it as a team effort which went horribly wrong (in contrast to at least most of the show's episodes) and I suppose it was focussed on Cruise for most of the rest of the film but he was at least being shown as not in control of the situation quite often, being either vulnerable or outright beaten up, even that I thought was lost after the first movie.

Here's Devin's short take on the movie after seeing it at BNAT:

Thank God re moles.  I grow so tired of the endless mole hunts in every god damned spy movie (Tinker Tailor excepted.  Man that was awesome).

Why can't we just have bad ass spies with workable support infrastructures?  Don't turn everything into 24, where everyone was a mole.

I loved everything about this aside from the plot and villain. The action was great and varied. It's a true action film in that it involves climbing, fighting, shooting, jumping, driving, running, falling, swimming, wire-sliding and even a little bit of flying.

I found it strange that the team is constantly failing the whole movie. Apart from the prison break and the final disarming, hardly anything works out. At least they are constantly operating as a team all the time.

The plot did seem a little linear (get the bad guy!) and the stuff about Hunts wife was sorta interesting, but mostly inconsequential. And the villain being a loony seemed weird. Why would his flunky Winstrum go along with that plan?

Anyway, it's probably the best of the series for me, perhaps a tie with the first.

I mostly enjoyed it, but good god is the final scene excruciating. Just when you think they gave some depth to Ethan Hunt and made him a little more human, they go and piss it all away in the end. This is the first Mission Impossible movie where shit seemed hard and not everything was easy (even if the plot is totally ludicrous --- more so than usual). But, for example, in the movies high point (the Dumbai tower sequence) Cruise even sells that he doesn't want to go outside (he's come a long way from hanging on a giant rock just for the fuck of it in MI:2, Vanity Project). 

But then with the end, it reduces whatever depth was left open for the character to ashes; and not only does Hunt come off as a super-spy stalker (totally creepy) but it's implied that he "fixes" the rest of the team, that he's allowed them to get over whatever problems they've had. Each one of them deal with their issues using Hunt as a lens (Paula gets revenge, then finally manages not to screw up in India, Brent gets over his guilt --- he never had any reason to be guilty in the first place, and Benji stops being just a nerdy weenie and kills a guy). This makes Hunt's weird speech about finding each other while peeping on his ex walking around in circles especially creepy. Why can't Hunt just fuck up once? Why can't he have some depth to him there? Why does he have to be Mr. Perfect all the time? The "we all found each other" shit sounds like the worst kind of Scientology spy-movie message and was a huge turn-off.

Still, this is the second best of the series and Bird does a really good job with the spy-gadget sequences, as well as adding some very nice tension (mostly everything in Dubai works, the Kremlin is fun, Mumbai kinda stalls but has a few good laughs). I just wish Cruise would get out of his own way. This series has always been his ultimate vanity project, but must he rub it in our faces so much?

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Originally Posted by Parker 

The "we all found each other" shit sounds like the worst kind of Scientology spy-movie message and was a huge turn-off.

Still, this is the second best of the series and Bird does a really good job with the spy-gadget sequences, as well as adding some very nice tension (mostly everything in Dubai works, the Kremlin is fun, Mumbai kinda stalls but has a few good laughs). I just wish Cruise would get out of his own way. This series has always been his ultimate vanity project, but must he rub it in our faces so much?

This doesn't read at all like you're grafting your own pre-conceived notions on the movie.

No, it's kinda true.  There really is a sense of the movie not wanting to go dark or give Ethan Hunt any shading.  He's just Tom Cruise: REALLY SUPER GUY.  And (SPOILER): Did Ethan send Julia off to Seattle to start a new life as a member of the cast of Grey's Anatomy!? (END SPOILER)

The movie is a bit too long and its finale starts to run on fumes a bit before it gets to the end, but still... THIS WAS SO FUN!

Cruise takes an almost comical amount of punishment in this movie (with never any bruises to show for it, of course).  Dougray Scott should watch this and get a kick out of it, considering the fact that he was obligated to act as Cruise's flip-kicking bag in MI2.  I was wincing and cringing for most of the movie due to all the hits he takes in this.

Bless Brad Bird for making a movie where the set pieces are actually set pieces that each have their own mini-story.  Since the film doesn't really have much of a story as a whole, this was really more like a series of 3 totally satisfying and thrilling 45 minute films.  I said the film was a bit too long, but it was ok since it's paced well.  My impatience may have partially been due to having to go to the bathroom for about half the movie.

And Devin's criticism of MI3 feeling more like a TV show wasn't something I caught when I first saw the Abrams movie, but I did think he had a real point.  Bird's handling of the reigns REALLY CLINCHES that point.  This is a big movie, and not just because of the IMAX footage. 

Gone are the over-done color timing and rapid-cut, shakey-cam aesthetic of the third movie.  Instead, it feels more like a whole film made out of the Vatican sequence of Abrams' film.  Bird brings that sense of fun and teamwork to most of the movie.  It IS sad that Bird's approach feels old-fashioned when it should really be closer to what we see more often.  

Definitely see this in a real IMAX theater.  It deserves to do well so that Bird can finally make 1906!

EDIT:  Following up on one of Parker's points... I LOVED that everyone on the team were hesitant about making the death-defying jumps that have been a staple of this series.  Hahahaha, it was as if everyone suddenly became aware of their immortality.  SO much more human.

I really didn't mind that the villain and the threat were kinda bland in this.  Since the movie is really more about each set-piece, the villain ends up becoming beside the point.  Their constant stream of bad luck was a significant enough of an antagonist!

Also, Paula Patton?  GORGEOUS.

"I loved everything about this aside from the plot and villain."

:-)

"I found it strange that the team is constantly failing the whole movie. Apart from the prison break and the final disarming, hardly anything works out. At least they are constantly operating as a team all the time."

I guess that's at least a bit of a throwback to the first movie where they really fail horribly at the start of the movie. I think it works better when they're shown to not always get it right in a big way, given the difficulty and stakes of their missions.

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Originally Posted by The Dark Shape 

This doesn't read at all like you're grafting your own pre-conceived notions on the movie.

 

Have you seen it? I would have enjoyed it 100% more if not for the final scene. Watch it and tell me if you think the ending isn't totally bug-nuts stupid and weird.

Cruise scaling that really, really tall building in Dubai is unreal. Haven't had my palms sweat like that at a movie since "Cliffhanger." Or "Basic Instinct 2."

This is definitely the first of the series that made me care about the supporting cast beyond the superficial, "Hey, that guy/girl is in another movie I like."

I did laugh at Hunt's intro, where he's gesturing WILDLY and AGGRESSIVELY at Simon Pegg to open all the prison doors. Felt like Knight And Day. Even though this really is the Tom Cruise Ego Show, he at least has sort of a sense of humor about it.

Ethan Hunt isn't really a character, so how much you enjoy him depends on how much you like Cruise.  I really liked Cruise in this.  His age is starting to show a bit on this and it really worked for this movie.  It's not that young hot-shot thing anymore.  And he's starting to get bulkier.  For some reason, that makes the character more believable and sympathetic.

Seriously, Brad Bird seemed to really be enjoying how much pain he put Ethan Hunt through.  I think the guy crashed into things headfirst at least 4 or 5 times.

So much running.

I suppose my dreams of a Tom Cruise led Prefontaine biopic will be for naught.

Pacing in the film is top notch. Thought the train ID scene was a particularly fun bit of mischief.

Have a feeling that if it wasn't Renner in that role and they weren't thinking spin-off, that character would have been the one to turn in the third act. Halfway through the film I was sure that he had for real killed Hunt's wife. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker 


Have you seen it? I would have enjoyed it 100% more if not for the final scene. Watch it and tell me if you think the ending isn't totally bug-nuts stupid and weird.

It was a little schmaltzy, but I thought it played well with the whole 'we need to be a team to succeed, yo' theme of the movie.  And not to get too spoilery for people wandering into this thread, but I didn't think the back story really gave Ethan any extra depth anyway, so I liked pulling back from killing a character off screen who was the entire impetus of M:I-3.

That ending also had a tone of "it is our destiny to be a team" that some people took issue with in Star Trek.

Dammit, Abrams!!!

Oh man, I hope C3Bro (not mine) was included in that destiny otherwise Stickell got screwed.

While I agree that the final minute of the film left me a little cold (not that I was terribly invested in Ethan's marriage in MI3), the rest of the film was aces.  The action was well-done and genuinely exciting (I like the running gag of all the gadgets misfiring) and the chemistry between the team worked.   I had a hell of a great time with this one.  

The movie kinda makes me sad that (SPOILER) Josh Holloway couldn't have been more involved with the rest of the movie.  The man just makes a damned dashing agent! (END SPOILER)

Fucking LOVED it, and my theater applauded at the end.  One of the most satisfying action films that I've seen in years.

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Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

The movie kinda makes me sad that (SPOILER) Josh Holloway couldn't have been more involved with the rest of the movie.  The man just makes a damned dashing agent! (END SPOILER)

Well, this being the post release, I'm gonna say spoilers be damned: You could tell who the Lost fans were in my theatre, because the film kicks off, and Josh Holloway bursts onto the roof, jumps off of it, shoots the two guys, and lands with appropriate amounts of kickassness, and we're all like, "YAY!" 

And then fifteen seconds later, we're all like "AWWW!"

It's like Bird wanted to tease us. The big meanie!

I loved it. Especially the Dubai Skyscraper sequence.

GOD DAMM is Paula Patton sexy in this one.

Fucking loved this. Best film in the series by a long shot. The Dubai sequence is my favorite action sequence of the year, and the fact that the film goes on for another half hour or so without bringing us too far down off that high is impressive. And call me crazy, i actually did love the last few minutes. Convoluted explanation, but Bird handles the backstory with a sure hand.

And yeah, my theater had the quiet wave of squeeing over Josh Holloway as a super-spy too. Followed by profound sadness.

Also, I have no idea who Robin Thicke is out in the world, but, kids or no, he must be eliminated for the greater good. That is to say, mine.

I thought that French female assassin was a little weak though. I just didn't buy her as a badass.

Renner surprised me the way he played the new guy. A little nebbish and less confident than Ethan.

So is this movie only available in IMAX theaters? I noticed its not playing at any of my usual theaters, its only at the one that has IMAX. I want to see this but don't know if I want to see it enough to pay IMAX prices.

It goes to wider release in regular theaters on Wednesday, I believe.  For now, it's IMAX only.

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Originally Posted by Anorexic Starlet 

So is this movie only available in IMAX theaters? I noticed its not playing at any of my usual theaters, its only at the one that has IMAX. I want to see this but don't know if I want to see it enough to pay IMAX prices.

You're gonna wish you saw that building jump in IMAX. And I HATE IMAX.
 

I really enjoyed this too. Bird seems to really have fun with the gadgets and the set-pieces, and the action was clear and inventive. It lacked the emotional intensity of the Bournes, modern Bonds, or even MI3, but it was kind of fresh for that; a fast-paced caper.

Random thoughts (and spoilers)

- I like the new Paramount logo

- The opening credits by Kyle Cooper were kind of interesting. I can't remember another title sequence that previews the coming events of the movie...can anyone else? It had a TV-episode kind of feel.

- Seeing Ving Rhames made me miss the fella. How come he's not on the team proper? I imagine the pairing of him and Pegg would be pretty funny.

- I liked the handful of moments where action movie cliches were poked fun of, like Renner asking Cruise how he knew his 'Floating Wilkinson' distraction would work, or when Rhames mocks Cruise for his 'Mission Accomplished!' line.

- I liked how Cruise was just using an iPhone and iPad. I'm tired of action films where the hero uses some kind of pimped-out future phone or laptop that make stupid-ass chirping 'computer noises' when used. All you had here was the tapping of fingernails as Cruise swiped through some photos. My fingernails make that noise too. I pray this is the turning point in the banishment of movie computer noises.

Another acceptable entry in the world's most un-exceptional action franchise. The skyscraper sequence in Dubai was pretty great, especially in IMAX, the but sandstorm chase that followed was prolonged and not the greatest idea on a visual level. This movie was fine to watch but will be exiting my brain before Christmas rolls around.

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Originally Posted by Rockley 

- The opening credits by Kyle Cooper were kind of interesting. I can't remember another title sequence that previews the coming events of the movie...can anyone else? It had a TV-episode kind of feel.

 

Wasn't this a trope of the original series?  I vaguely recall them doing that.  

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Originally Posted by Rockley 

 

- The opening credits by Kyle Cooper were kind of interesting. I can't remember another title sequence that previews the coming events of the movie...can anyone else? It had a TV-episode kind of feel.

 

- I liked the handful of moments where action movie cliches were poked fun of, like Renner asking Cruise how he knew his 'Floating Wilkinson' distraction would work, or when Rhames mocks Cruise for his 'Mission Accomplished!' line.

The opening credits for the DePalma film was a rapidly cut montage of shots from all over the film.  Now, I've never seen the original show, but I'm under the impression that it did this tooOOOOooOOo?

EDIT: Dammit, Ratty!

I felt that Cruise was basically mimicking that scene from Hot Fuzz. 

I was having Hot Fuzz flashbacks at several points, not the least of which when Benji finally pops his super agent cherry and saves the day--Pegg's face and posture was pretty "Nicholas Angel" through and through.

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Originally Posted by Rockley 

- Seeing Ving Rhames made me miss the fella. How come he's not on the team proper? I imagine the pairing of him and Pegg would be pretty funny.

Seriously. I was wondering this almost from the start. That said, I feel like this is the first time since the first 20 minutes of MI 1 where I feel like we have an IMF worth a damn. Rhames and, potentially, Fishburne coming back would pretty much guarantee my ass in a seat every time Cruise decides to get one of these off the ground.

Holy crap!! That shit wasn't greenscreened, Tom Cruise was actually hanging off that friggin' building!  http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/movies-1/how-tom-cruise-shot-the-skyscr.html

The guy may be crazy and worship alien ghosts, but damn he's dedicated.