I'm certainly no Tom Cruise fan and although I didn't mind the first one, I hated MI2 so much that wild horses couldn't drag me to watch the third. Louise twisted my arm into going to see Ghost Protocol though... and it turned out to be a mission I didn't mind accepting.
Possibly because I watched it shortly after the shockingly awful Sherock Holmes, and probably because I had very low expectations to begin with, MI4 proved a pleasant surprise. Cruise is as wooden and hard-to-like as always, but he's thoughtfully drafted in Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Simon Pegg to provide all the stuff he can't: the charm, the wit and the sex appeal. (That Simon Pegg, eh? Phwoarr.) Not to mention Lost's Josh Holloway, who, frankly, I would have happily watched doing Cruise's secret agent stuff for the whole film rather than just 5 minutes at the beginning. Maybe one day.
Like Sherlock Holmes, the film also manages to throw away one of the original Dragon Tattoo stars, giving Michael Nyqvist very little to chew on as the baddy - and a Take Over The World plot so ridiculous even Dr. Evil would have thought twice. But what MI4 gets right is the action - notably that already infamous set piece atop the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, breathlessly exciting for two good reasons. Firstly, the vertiginous height. Secondly, who wouldn't want to see Tom Cruise fall 2723 feet and go splat? The whole cinema was on the edge of its seat... but not for the reason Tom imagined.
The MI series seems unlikely to self-destruct any time soon, but there are definitely worse ways to waste your time, money and braincells at the multiplex.
