Action/Adventure

Last night I had nothing really going on and I didn't want to go out to the bar, (sorry, Ben), so I ended up watching a couple of movies. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was a damn fine movie. It lived up to the renewed prowess that M:I III had while being it's own film. I won't give anything away, but the suspense and action doesn't really let up any more than it needs to in order to let the audience catch its breath. Say what you will about Tom Cruse, (god knows I have), but seeing him as Ethan Hunt again reminded me why he is the star that he is. He can just flat out play the shit out of the character and is a total badass while doing it. Simon Pegg is also great in the movie and it's nice to see him have a more significant role in massive movies because his screen time in Star Trek and M:I III just weren't that substantial. I've been a fan of his since I rented Shaun of the Dead on a whim in 2005/2006 and it's wonderful seeing him in big films that will help broaden his exposure. I just can't wait until he makes another film with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. Speaking of Edgar Wright, I watched The Adventures of Tintin last night as well, (which Wright co-wrote), and I couldn't sum it up any better than Tom Day did when he first told me to watch it. He said that it was essentially Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with motion capture graphics and fewer snakes. Holy shit, the movie was everything an adventure film should be. The film was full of amazing set pieces that took place all over Europe and the scenes were kinetic and absolutely brilliant. There were chase scenes that baffled me in terms of their intricacies and peril that sucked me into the film in a way that totally transported me and I'm having a difficult time of remembering any films in the past 2-3 years that have done that so successfully. Sure, it may or may not be a film geared towards children, but that's not entirely true. One of the characters is a drunk sea captain who starts detoxing at one point and hallucinating which as a health care worker who has seen this happen many times (and can be quite scary often), can't believe they pulled it off. But they did. Please watch this film. It's amazing.