I headed off to the cinema last night, originally hoping for a convenient screening of "Puss in Boots" in 3D, but ended up choosing to see "Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol", the fourth in Tom Cruise's revitalisation/reimagining of the 60s TV show (and 80s remake).
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had quite liked the first one (1996), but I hated that they recast the Peter Graves role, even though there was an interesting, bizarre twist with the Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) character. The second film (2000) seemed more like a series of tedious car chases, but my main reason for seeing it was to recognise Sydney, Australia, doubling for various world locales. It was filming here for months and months; every Thursday night I'd stumble across the support vehicles or notice temporary new hoardings over our iconic buildings. I didn't bother with #3 (2006), although I did buy the DVD, still on my "To View, One Day" pile.
This new "M:I" movie, subtitled "Ghost Protocol", was excellent! Simon Pegg is hilarious, as always; the main team is very likable; the story had some great red herrings; and the action sequences didn't bore me to tears. Well worth it. "Mission accomplished". Very accomplished!
A highlight of this outing, though, was the exciting array of pre-film trailers:
* "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", of course, which I had already seen previewed on Facebook, but was even more enticing on the big screen
* A young Jim Kirk (ie. Chris Pine of JJ's "Star Trek" film) vs the young Jean-Luc Picard clone, Shinzon (Tom Hardy of "Nemesis") as rival spies, vying for the affections of Reese Witherspoon, in "This Means War"
* and a seemingly funny Aussie-set comedy film, "A Few Best Men", which has some very funny sequences with Olivia Newton-John.
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