CAST: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Paula Patton (Jane Carte), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames, Vladimir Mashkov, Michael Nyqvist, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, Anil Kapoor; DIRECTOR: Brad Bird; SCREENWRITER: J.J. Abrams, Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec; PRODUCER: Tom Cruise; EDITOR: MUSICAL DIRECTOR; GENRE: Mystery & Suspense, Action & Adventure; CINEMATOGRAPHER
DISTRIBUTOR Paramount Pictures; LOCATION: Budapest-Moscow, Dubai, Mumbai-India; RUNNING TIME: 133 minutes
Technical Assessment: 4
Moral Assessment: 3
Cinema Rating: For viewers 18 years old and above
The film begins with a failed courier intercept in Budapest by the International Mission Force (IMF) team of Jane Carter, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway). Then, the team helps Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) break out from a Moscow prison so he could be put back to IMF service to track down a Russian nuclear terrorist. His initial mission is to infiltrate Kremlim, however, it goes terribly wrong and Russian agents are now after Hunt thinking he is responsible for Kremlim bombing. The failed courier intercept and the Kremlim bombing are both related to the ultimate mission: impossible which is to prevent the thermonuclear war between Russia and the US from happening. With the IMF disbanded, the IMF’s chief analyst, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) becomes part of the now three-man team unpredictably, forcing them to black ops, or ghost protocol, meaning “off the grid.”
Among the MI franchise. This time, the film is focused on the series of interrelated impossible missions that make up one big mission: impossible. Unlike the previous installments, MI4 is devoid of so much emotional baggage and distractions making the audience simply glued to the edge of their seats with the death-defying stunts, mind-blowing adventures and superb special effects beyond imagination. Cruise is at his perfect best in this movie and Ethan Hunt’s character is really his. The strong casting and intelligent direction make MI4 an exhilarating viewing experience.
Although a spy-action –adventure genre ala James Bond series, MI4 does away with the usual demands of sex and violence. A scene with sexual insinuations is done in the context of undercover and one’s line of duty. The violence only goes extreme in car crashes, shootings and fighting that are again in the context of preventing a war, thus, preventing the lives of the innocent. However, CINEMA finds the entirety of the film’s theme requires a sense of maturity to be appreciated. In the battle between good and evil, the film somehow shows that certain evils are necessary to fight evil, i.e. lying, deception, killing, and revenge. Whether such concept is acceptable in the context of world peace, a debate may be necessary. Perhaps we should rethink, how far should governments go to protect innocent lives? But amidst the film’s moral dilemma, the message of personal sacrifice, integrity and loyalty remains to be strong in MI4; and although the idea of God is significantly absent or lacking in the movie, the innate goodness of the characters may make up for it.
