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Tom Cruise is a movie star, but after his public embarrassments in 2005, whether audiences could accept him in any role was questioned. And at this point, he probably can’t create a character who isn’t a variation on Tom Cruise, movie star, which may be why the Mission: Impossible franchise is perfect for him. After four films, what can you say about Ethan Hunt other than he’s an effective problem-solver? Ultimately, when you have a director engaged with the material, you get a good film, otherwise it’s just wheel spinning by craftsmen. Brad Bird had a lot to prove with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and it shows, he delivered a home run. Cruise is supported by Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Paula Patton in his battle to stop a terrorist (Michael Nyqvist). And our review of the Best-Buy exclusive Blu-ray follows after the jump.
Ethan Hunt starts the film in jail, and Bird gives Cruise a star entrance. He’s working with Jane Carter (Patton) and Benji Dunn (Pegg) to break out of jail in a sequence scored to Dean Martin. The film tells you that it’s going to be a fun ride, though the plotting is often nonsense. Jane had been working with Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway, who sans long hair looks kind of like Cruise) to get nuclear codes from Russian terrorists, but Trevor is assassinated by Sabine Moreau (Lea Seydoux) and the codes are in the wild. The team heads to the Kremlin to figure out what this could lead to, but their plan is interrupted by Kurt Hendricks (Nyqvist), who sets them up for sabotage. This sends the team into Ghost Protocol mode, where they are acting without any government backing. They are also joined by William Brandt (Renner), who’s got some secrets.
They head to Dubai to intercept the selling of the codes, and that leads to the film’s biggest and best action sequence where Hunt has to climb outside one of the world’s tallest buildings using only wall walking gloves that don’t work as well as he might hope. This sequence was why the film was worth seeing in Imax, but the film here is presented all the way through in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. And when the deal gets complicated, Hunt has to chase after a suspect in a big sandstorm. The rest of the film is about stopping Hendricks before he can start and all-out nuclear war.
What’s amazing about this film (and pretty much the entire series) is that no one really has much of a character. Everyone are pretty much pawns with either good or bad motivations. But the film works because Brad Bird keeps throwing complications at the situation. Nothing is ever easy, but it’s the fun of seeing the characters – specifically Cruise – deal with climbing a building with one working glove, or trying to get down twelve floors with not enough rope, or escaping the fourth floor of a hospital with nothing but a pair of pants on. And for that the film is very entertaining, and has great comic support in Simon Pegg (who has the best line in the film).
Watching it for a second time, it’s fair to say that though the third act is okay the film peaks in the middle. I think partly because that’s when the stakes are at their highest. When the world is threatened with nuclear war – no matter how lucky and last second the team is in defeating evil – this isn’t the sort of film that’s going to kill the world. And so it’s at its best when the stakes are most palpable – when there is a chance they could fail. It’s probably why people love second films in trilogies so much. Resolutions are less fun than complications at the end of the day.
Brad Bird decided to release the film without switching ratios for the Imax sequence. Some people would prefer the switching in and out, but I tend to find it distracting, and it isn’t even the best representation of Imax footage. But this is merely aesthetic preference.
Paramount has released the film on Blu-ray with a DVD and digital copy. If you buy it at most locations it’s a two disc set, but Best Buy has an exclusive three disc set (which we are reviewing) that puts all the supplements on a second Blu-ray disc. The film is presented in widescreen (2.35:1) and in 7.1 Dolby Digital TrueHD.
Disc two kicks off with the three part documentary “Mission Accepted” (48 min.), which covers the film’s three main shooting locations: Prague, Dubai and Vancouver. It’s a fun piece that shows how much prep went into the big sequences, and how difficult it was to get the windows out of the hotel. “Impossible Missions” (51 min.) offers eleven sections on different aspects of the production, from shooting in Imax, the scoring, and the Russian prison set. This gives a great look behind the scenes of the making of the film, with mostly fly on the wall type pieces. There’s eight wisely deleted scenes (15 min.) that suggest different directions of the narrative, and how Bird himself didn’t know how all the pieces were coming together while filming. This is the only place where Bird offers commentary, and he basically says everything cut was unneeded. The disc also comes with two trailers, and at least four Easter eggs, all of which are pretty goofy.
沪江娱乐快讯：今年第一部引爆全球话题及票房的电影作品无疑是阿汤哥翻身之作《碟中谍4》，片中已届天命之年的汤姆·克鲁斯继续担负着拯救世界的重任，成为美俄核战争爆发前的调解者。这次任务关乎冷战传统的美俄角力层面，不成功便成仁，稍有差池便会令世界陷入末日恐慌和无休止的危机。上映后口碑票房全线飘红，全球横扫6亿美元票房，国内上映亦取得6.5亿票房佳绩，四度创下不可能的纪录。《芝加哥太阳报》评论为“精彩绝伦的动作片，几乎就像是一场动作戏的诗篇。”
此次沉寂已久的阿汤哥不惜重金投入制作，大胆起用皮克斯金牌动画名导布拉德·伯德执导，这个以擅长讲故事著称的动画导演凭借《超人总动员》、《美食总动员》赢得过奥斯卡最佳动画长片，在《碟中谍4》把自嘲式幽默感融入这部冷战时期的动作大片，匪夷所思的特技和平行蒙太奇以及节奏的把握不在话下，真功夫和枪林弹雨之余，加入更多的新科技道具和风趣对白，千钧一发之际又不乏笑位。
除了最具毁灭力的俄国核弹，特工团队的各色高科技武装亦让人目不暇给大开眼界，近距离模拟场景、磁力手套、悬浮磁车……惊险刺激无不惊艳全场，打不死的阿汤哥继上海陆家嘴的中银行大厦后再次挑战自我，向迪拜哈利法塔最顶峰进发，各位有恐高快感的影迷可以通过蓝光家收录的制作花絮，重温这段徒手攀登的戏份。在其他特工电影在挥舞无声手枪和破译黑客系统时，阿汤哥已经疾步穿越风沙暴，在克林姆林宫倒掉瞬间全身而退，延续汤哥不老的神话。
《碟中谍4》剧情：逃狱后的特工伊森亨特在莫斯科执行一个间谍活动，期间一个恐怖分子炸毁克林姆林宫。爆炸事件背后的核威胁令美俄关系迅速紧张，无奈之下美国政府启动了“幽灵协议”。眼看国家面临重大危机，伊森和三名搭档挑下这个无任何政府后援的不可能任务，远赴黄沙翻飞的迪拜，和恐怖分子斗智斗勇。 |
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发表于 2016-8-6 08:34:30