RocShemp

Yeah, I'm surprised by all the hate for that sequence. It was well choreographed, coherent, and pretty inventive for a final fight sequence. On the other hand, I didn't like Renner's simulataneous fight with the henchman. It felt too long but that's likely because it was bland by comparison.

Traxan

Well I finally got around to renting this. I really liked it. Good action and Cruise is insane for doing his own stunts. The Burj Khalifa scenes were killing me.

The worst CG scene was the overhead tracking shot of Ethan running after Hendricks. I mean, that was clearly, obviously bad, even worse than the sandstorm. Of all the WTF moments, the one on the tarmac with the Gulfstream was it for me. They were alone and disavowed. How did they get that plane and all that gear?

Simon Pegg.... he's really getting stuck with the goofy sidekick roles, isn't he? He went just up to the line of believability with this one.

As for Renner, IMDB says his character was introduced to take over the franchise when Cruise finally steps away. The thing is, Renner is 40 and Cruise is 47. How many more episodes can they get out of Renner?

The choice of Brad Bird kind triggers the conspiracy theorist in me. Given III struggled, was hiring an animation guy the studio's fall guy if it failed? They could pin it on him, say he should stick to animation, etc.

Oh, also, I say Paula Patton and the French girl Lea need to settle their differences in an oil wrestling match. /nod Lea is hot as hell and made me forget Ludvine Sagnier as my French obsession.

RocShemp

Watch the movie again. The jet and all that gear was courtesy of Ethan Hunt's "new friend".

Michael Corvin

It wasn't bad, it just felt more suited to someone like Statham or even Bourne. It just didn't feel like a Cruise/MI thing, which made it feel out of place.

Solid Snake

That's pretty stupid to think. Considering that Cruise has a good level of stake in it. And now w/ Abrams tagging along as a producer. If it MI3 was to blame for anything, I love it, why would they still keep Abrams on? Your theory makes no sense.

Like all the stuff John Woo did after the first film didn't feel out of place?

RocShemp

I'd agree with you if Cruise was doing Hong Kong-style kung fu and/or the camera seemed to have been shot by someone suffering from Parkinson's. Since neither was the case, it felt perfectly at home in the M:I franchise to me.

Solid Snake

Yeah. It felt really right. Especially w/ it being the sequel after III.

DJariya

If you watched the behind the scenes material on the BD, JJ Abrams had very little involvement during production of the movie. They showed he was busy filming Super 8.

RocShemp

There's a rather fascinating spread shot of Léa Seydoux online.

bluetoast

For Renner, none because he can't carry it. Cruise is still the main attraction and he has more movies left.

Strongly disagree about the Brad Bird assessment, like Snake said, Cruise was heavily involved in the process. Plus Bird's eye for story and action probably was what attracted the studio to him.

Dr. DVD

Agree about the story comment, which has always been his strong point. Fortunately, he was able to transition it to live action, unlike his fellow Pixar alum Andrew Stanton.

JesseCuster

Just caught the film on Blu-Ray. I enjoyed it very much. You can say what you want to about Cruise but by God he is a first rate movie star, probably the single best big film star of his generation. The Dubai shite was insane. Can you imagine the insurance policy on him? Loved the subtle bits of Ethan Hunt's befuddlement in the face of technology. Loved the rest of the cast too. Paula Patton is one of the best built women I've ever seen and a good actress. Renner was, well, typically superb Renner and I love that Simon Pegg keeps popping up in big films. It can't do anything but help his opportunities of doing smaller stuff with Nick Frost and that's nothing but a good thing. And keep your eye on Brad Bird. He has a ton of ability. The set pieces he constructed were some of the best of the series.

I would consider this my second favorite after the first and slighty above the third. The second was complete and utter shite.

B.A.

Damn, this was excellent - definitely on par w/ the third.

Brad Bird has yet to disappoint.

My Other Self

Caught this last night and really enjoyed it. I'd love a sequel with the same cast because the chemistry they had was great but I don't want to wait another 5 years for sequel.

fumanstan

It's interesting, I watched this back to back with part 3 this weekend (part 3 for the first time in maybe 2 years or so, and part 4 for the first time again since opening weekend) and I ended up enjoying 3 a lot more then I remember. Despite loving the scene in Dubai, Hoffman just owns part 3 as a villain and the action and everything is more consistent throughout that whole movie.

TheMovieman

I actually prefer Ghost Protocol over MI3 but I agree that Hoffman was a great and formidable villain.

Solid Snake

Yeah. Hoffman makes MI3 slightly have the edge on it for me.

RocShemp

Hoffman made for a truly evil and memorable villain. He felt like a genuine threat.

I enjoyed M:i-GP more overall but M:i-III beats it in overall sense of danger.

Solid Snake

This. I couldn't name it but it was this. I never felt worried or anything w/ GP. In 3, Hoffman made shit scary.

fumanstan

Yeah, that's what it was. Every moment with Hoffman was just so tense, he really made it feel like Hunt's wife could be killed.

wmansir

I just watched this last night. Not bad. Silly at times, but fun enough for it not to matter.

My biggest issue was the weak finale. Honestly, I have to give kudos to the movie for making the 2 hours fly by because I didn't even suspect that would be the final confrontation until it was almost over. After checking the clock, I realized the finale was Ethan Hunt fighting over a briefcase with a pudgy 50 something year old man and mostly failing. Thank god the bad guy took pity on Hunt, or maybe the audience, and decided to kill himself for no reason.

Also, I skipped MI3, was the 400lb black guy with Hunt's wife a character from the previous movie or does she have a HUGE range of taste in men?

RocShemp

I wouldn't say Giantrobo is 400 lbs. That's just mean.