For those actually counting, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the franchise starring Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt. He leads a black ops team known as the IMF – the Impossible Mission Force (not the International Monetary Fund, though both are equally mysterious to me).

I honestly can’t remember if I saw any or all of the previous MI films. I think I saw one – or maybe it was two. The storylines don’t exactly stick with you nearly as much as the classic theme music. But I’m happy to report that Cruise seems to be aging quite nicely in (what I hope is) his post-crazy period.

The gist of the story is this: The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin and the theft of nuclear launch codes. The President invokes “ghost protocol”, meaning the team is disavowed and devoid of backup as they try to clear their name and prevent World War Three. Hunt’s rogue team includes the dangerously beautiful Jane (Paula Patton), the quirky gadget-meister Benji (Simon Pegg), and the secretive government analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner). Most of the stunts (especially those involving Cruise) are totally absurd yet entertaining – even breathtaking. If you have a fear of heights, you may want to shield your eyes in Dubai.

There’s more to the story of course, including a ruthless female assassin and a diabolical Russian extremist codenamed “Cobalt” who hold the keys to destroying détente’. I’d go on, but this review is rigged to self-destruct in five seconds…

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is rated PG-13 for some intense action and violence, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously or go too dark. The film runs a pretty fast-paced 2 hours, 13 minutes. Here’s a taste:

After I saw the trailer, I was somewhat expecting a guy movie: chase scenes, lots of guns, cussing, etc. But that isn’t what The Town is. It is a character piece, a love story, wrapped in a heist flick. It also has a great cast. Jeremy Renner plays MacRay’s lifelong buddy Coughlin who’s spent time in prison and seems to lack a moral compass entirely. Rebecca Hall is wonderful as Claire, the bank teller with a heart of gold who is at work as the film begins and is taken hostage by MacRay’s crew during their holdup. Blake Lively turns in a surprising performance as well as Coughlin’s sister, a drugged out single mom who has a thing for MacRay. And then there is nearly too handsome Jon Hamm playing FBI agent Frawley who is just dying to put these guys behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Adapted from Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves, The Town is set in Charlestown, Massachusetts which we are told in the opening is the bank robbery capital of America. This Boston blue-collar neighborhood has been a long-time haven to an Irish-American mob, but now gentrification is bringing in a whole new set of people and Claire is one of them. She works in the bank, lives in a nice row house, and drives a Prius. Set free after her abduction, the robbers begin to worry about what she could tell the FBI. They were wearing masks so she cannot identify them but Coughlin thinks she is a loose end. So MacRay steps up to watch her. But watching turns into meeting turns into dating and inevitably it gets messy. Coughlin finds out and so does the FBI. And MacRay begins to see his “lifestyle” as an obstacle to a future with Claire and decides to get out; only it isn’t so easy. The mob boss (Pete Postlethwaite) demands that he do one last job.

Affleck delivers edge-of-your-seat heist scenes as punctuation for a love story heavily weighed down by the secret MacRay holds. The tensions are intensely palpable. Will he and Claire make it? Will the FBI take him out? Will they make that big score? Will one of his “friends” rat him out? All these plot threads are kept masterfully in the air until the end in a wonderfully written script. The actors are all at the top of their game, especially Jeremy Renner who may just get another Oscar nomination for his role. And Ben Affleck does a terrific job of directing himself which I am sure is no easy task. I’d recommend this movie to just about anyone. The guys will like it for the heists and chases and the chicks for the love story and anyone who likes a really well crafted movie will be more than pleased. There were no false notes.

What sets this movie apart from most other “war films” is the silence. Instead of loud testosterone-driven battle scenes, The Hurt Locker is about the quiet, intense moments that are the norm for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit (EOD), a squad charged with finding and defusing all kinds of bombs in Iraq. It is a three-man team and the film begins with one of their own getting blown to bits. This clears the way for SFC William James (Jeremy Renner) to take his place as the bomb-defusing specialist on the team. The two other men on the team (played by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) are there to provide him cover and are counting down the days until they get to go home, doing their best not to get killed. Sgt. James is not the same kind of team player that his predecessor was; he’s a lone wolf adrenaline junkie who collects souvenir scraps from all the bombs that he defuses and does not yearn to return to a quiet life stateside with his wife and kid.

Screenwriter Mark Boal’s experience as an embedded journalist in Baghdad serves him well in writing this story. And Director Kathryn Bigelow delivers some of the most tension filled scenes I’ve ever seen — not only when James is defusing bombs but also when the squad is searching for unexploded ordinance and watching out for insurgent bomb builders in a huge warehouse. There is only one real firefight which takes place in an isolated patch of desert, and it felt more real than most other movie shootouts in that our Army hero sharpshooters do not hit every shot. The three guys do ultimately bond and there is definitely some macho posturing, but it serves to define their individual characters.

As good as the other actors are, this is Jeremy Renner’s movie. It is about his journey and his Sgt. James sneaks up on you. He is more complex that you initially feel and by the end you sort of get him, despite his love of this life and death existence. This is not a movie for the faint of heart. Roosters will be into it for the bombs and buddy stuff. Chicks who enjoy a good character piece and who like edge of your seat well-crafted movies will appreciate it, too. I liked it because it was a story that takes place during a war, but was not about winning or losing. It was about the people who do the work.

Here’s a cool article about a unit in Afghanistan that does this kind of work.