Impossible? I think not- MI 4: Ghost Protocol

Mission accomplished?
Movie: Mission Impossible - 4 Ghost Protocol
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg

PLOT:
After breaking Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)-the infamous IMF operative out of prison-the team discovers there is some guy a.k.a COBALT trying to get his hands on Russian Nuke launch codes. Ethan and his team then try to break in and steal information on him at the KREMLIN, one the the most secure buildings in Russia. But it doesn't go well and they come back empty handed and the building is bombed. The blame lands squarely on Ethan's team. The IMF is disavowed. With no friends and no IMF back up the rouge team must get their hands on COBALT and the codes before its too late. That takes them from Russia to Dubai to Mumbai, where it all ends. Suicide mission or Mission possible?

Good news first:
The movie has us hooked from the very first scene. The long winding fuse that leads into the opening titles just give you a sense of what you can expect with flashes of scenes to come.

Cruise and his aging body have you wishing you could rewind the clock and go back to MI-2, but the action makes up for that disappointment in spades.

Special agent Jane (Paula Patton) and Benji (Simon Pegg), the comical British technician from the previous installment hack into the Russian Prison security and with Dean Martin music playing in the background, Ethan all but saunters out of that Prison. pffft ..it's like stealing candy from a baby.

Well it's much like watching a Rajinikanth movie really. Cruise gets bonked on the head, has several mild concussions and still manages to walk out without spilling a drop. So get this. If your one of those indi movie freaks. This ain't for you.

After the third installment you think... well we've seen him jump from one building to another, what more can he show us? Director Brad Bird, whose earlier stints in animated hits like Ratatouille and the incredibles could not have possibly prepared him for the adrenaline pumping blockbuster franchise, but somehow finds a way to step it up. And how!

How about Cruise climbing from the 123 rd floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai with nothing more than Spidey gloves? It will literally take your breath away.

You're in for a doozy! They break into the KREMLIN, with of course fake ID's and Russian accent.DA it's true, the masks always work. One thing that strikes you here is that the team is not perfect, they make mistakes. Lot's of them. And you'd think equipment failure doesn't happen in high budget secret ops. Oh but it does! And inconveniently when you are over a 100 stories above the ground.

The KREMLIN is blown up and Ethan lands at the hospital, but manages to get out of handcuff the old fashioned way- a paper clip. Ah simplicity, it's refreshing.

But throughout the movie Cruise goes about wrecking beautiful BMW's. It's painful to watch them get smashed.

The car chase scene in the middle of a sand storm, a routine happening in Dubai all but restores your faith in action movies.

While the plot itself was uninspired, the actors, the surprising bursts of humour and the thrilling action sequences make this a flat out popcorn entertainer. So buy a tub and settle down.

Brant (Jeremy Renner) of hurt locker fame really took the cake in terms of performance. So believable and likable. What a trouper.

The bad and the ugly:
Anil Kapoor was for me the biggest disappointment. Having proved his potential in 24, the hugely popular TV series in America, he played a billionaire bimbo, that quite frankly belied his true abilities.

And what's with showing all Telegu sign boards, when your are supposed to be in Mumbai? Bird, I know Americans really don't care. But really, research please. Or you could've just asked Anil Kapoor!And MH comes in front of a bloody license plate.

Oh the details do matter! But I did get a kick out of watching them set the nuke from the Sun Tv office. Symbolic really :) But the Chennai audience did get a kick out of watching Ktv and Sun Tv up on the big screen for just a min.

The climax was shoddy in it's execution and ruined the otherwise perfect build up. The frantic pace toward the end was really its undoing.

But you gotta admit its a visual feast and I only wish I had an IMAX theater here to do it justice.

Bottomline: There's a tub of popcorn with your name on it. Go get it.

Mega MIND BLOWING!

MOVIE REVIEW - MEGAMIND

CAST:TIM FAREEL, TINA FEY, BRAD PITT

Finally a comedy that can bring out a sincere laugh. Not the non-committal witty giggle that girls often tend to do (me included) to brighten an otherwise dull movie or to steal attention (and it's usually the latter.) I'm gonna take a detour from my usual style of writing, so bear with me while I experiment.

What's this movie about? u know the P-L-O-T!

Initially when they do the whole, superman thing -you know the boy being sent from a mysteriously cool planet to earth to fulfill his 'destiny', you think oh-boy this is goona be another crappy movie. But hold your horses cuz this movie is anything but that. It's like having a annoyingly weird friend (you know what i'm talking abt...its ok to admit .. all of us have one).. you have to let it grow on you.

So Megamind (Will Farell) after a painful childhood realises his true calling to be a super villain. He sets out to take over METROCITY and everyone knows, where there is a super villain there is always a drop dead gorgeous super hero (Brad pitt- METROMAN), with muscles rippling everywhere ( and I mean EVERYWHERE **wink wink**)

But his attempts to vanqish the hero always end in disaster, and his numerous stints in jail just fuel his desire to best Metroman. But as fate would have it, one of his "master plans" to get rid of Metroman actually works; he kidnaps Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), a lois lane wannabe and the hero rushes to her rescue only to be defeated by COPPER his one weakness!! But when megamind goes "copper is your weakness , SERIOUSLY?" it's just LOL...it's the modern day kryptonite my friend...wake up!. But i feel it's jus impossible for a hero to be that built, he has got to be doped up on steroids to look like that!!

But soon Megamind reaslises that getting rid of a hero makes life that much more boring, so he decides to spice it up by creating a super hero himself. But there is a twist here, ah-ha! he falls for the lois lane wannabe and all hell breaks loose. So the insanely jealous new and improved super hero (who is in love with lois lane as well) turns into a villan. Now Megamind has no choice but to rise to the occasion, question is can he take on the new guy and live to tell the tale? Well no spoilers here, watch and find out.

the good the bad and the ugly?

Well Megamind's abnormally large head was ugly...but so was Brad pitt's less than stellar performance. I guess expectation is the mother of all disappointments.

TINA FEY- I bow to u..u r the queen of comedy. I was drawn to u like a woman is to a buck naked Jake gyllenhall (click for his pic..)

WILL FARELL- you are a comic genius! The whole man-child effect was just irresistible! you large headed blue freak of nature! wacko! your 'atrocity'es were awesum!(you'll get this wen u see the movie) The perverse reactions and spectacular super villain costumes slayed me!

DAVID CROSS- as minion, was absolutely brilliant in his understated performance

JONAH HILL - the hero turned villian TITAN was really awful. His voice was flat and boring. Simply forgettable! FYI u suck!

The cast really saved this movie from a being a flat out disaster, no doubt. This movie made fun of pretty much every super hero movie cliche. Spidy(jumping from buildings all the time!), superman (back story, beefy super hero...you know the works), batman(invisible super car)...no one was left behind. Hell there was even a lil bit of transformers in there, with the tiny bots bopping about. Once you realise what the movie is trying to do, u'll just keep on laughing. It's impossible not to like this movie. Sure it could've been better. But what was on offer wasn half bad. The animation was good, better than despicable me, the last animation movie I really enjoyed. The direction by Tom McGrath the same guy who did MADAGASKAR (yeah I still like to MOVE IT) was exceptional!

Bottomline : Megamind you deserve the key to the city!