Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

So, I looked it up and the original Mission: Impossible came out in 1996. Seriously? I can't believe it has been that long. Anyway, as I believe I said before, this series is a lot like the Bourne series for me. I absolutely love them and they are very interesting - but for some reason I don't really tend to watch them on repeated viewings, and I am not sure why.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol reunites us with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who has been locked up in a Moscow prison for apparently going nuts and killing Serbians for the death of his wife.

Tevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway), an IMF agent, is killed by Sabine Moreau (Lea Seydoux), who works for a man code-named 'Cobalt'. Cobalt is a Russian agent searching for nuclear bomb detonation codes. Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) break hunt out of prison and Hunt is given them as his new team and presented with the task of finding Cobalt before he retrieves any of the codes.

While in the Kremlin, the group goes undercover to find the codes before Cobalt, but get there too late. Hunt discovers that a bomb is set and rushes out before it explodes - but he gets injured and discovered in the hospital bu the police. So, the team is thought to be responsible for the explosion and during a meet up, IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) tells Hunt that the president has introduced Ghost Protocol, or a blackout operation that leaves the IMF team all alone in tracking down Cobalt and stopping any nuclear attack, but they do end up getting the Secretary's aide, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) to help them out.

That is just a quick little synopsis of the film leading up to the actual tracking of Cobalt. The crew still has a bit of the high-tech gear that they use in all of the other films, but it is cool that they have to do most of it on their own without the help of the agency.

This was an extremely fun film to watch. As I said, I love these films. The stunts were great and I love all of the high-tech gear they use throughout. And, with Pegg back, the humor is once again ramped up.

I was surprised, and this isn't really ruining anything because it happens right away, that Holloway was given such a small role. I guess it was an important role, but for someone who is a pretty well-known actor from Lost and could have played a much larger role, it was surprising to me.

But, if you haven't seen this I highly recommend it. Of course, it sort of helps to have seen the original films for some of the things that come up in this one - but it does stand alone somewhat. Either way, check out the whole series, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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48/50: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I knew this movie was a bit of a mind bending film. Something that you would need to pay close attention to, however, I still decided to watch it pretty late. It was pretty much the only time I could watch it.

That being said, it was still a very interesting film.

It just goes to prove (like I said in my review of Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler) that some of these comedic performers can actually act.

So, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which was said in a perfect way during the film, a quote from Alexander Pope) stars Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, a pretty dull person that seems pretty dull to the world.

As the movie opens you see Barish eyeing a certain young lady, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) who is waiting for a train. She is the total opposite of Barish's introvert as her extrovert personality is the perfect ying to Barish's yang.

They have a pretty amazing time together as we see, over a few day or weeks (I am not sure of the time table that is shown), but the next thing you see is Barish in his car crying his eyes out. But, what happened?

Well, we find out that they have broken up, and Barish is having a difficult time getting over her. He runs into Kruczynski at her job at a library and tries to speak to her - but something is different, she appears to have no idea who he is.

Staying with his friends, Carrie (Jane Adams) and Rob (David Cross), Barish finds a card that simply reads (paraphrasing here) that Clementine has had Joel Barish erased from her memory and to not mention him in front of her.

Well, Barish decides to see what is up and has a meeting setup with the doctor that did the procedure, Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). Wilkinson explains the procedure and Barish, although pissed that Clementine did it, decides to erase her as well.

This is sort of fun in a way. A new way of showing a back story, as Stan (Mark Ruffalo) comes into Barish's house to erase Clementine from his memory during his sleep. We go through a ton of Barish's memories of his time with Clementine - not really in order, but enough that we see their true feelings for each other and some of the reasons for their breakup.

During this time, Barish is re-living these memories as well. And midway through realizes he doesn't want to let go of Clementine - but what can he do about it now?

At first I was very confused - which may have been because I watched it so late and was tired - but as the movie went on I really started to enjoy it more. And things started to become more and more clear to me as it rolled on.

Some great performances in this film from some great actors. Carrey was amazing out of his normal comedic roles. Ruffalo, though a small role, continues to impress. Kirsten Dunst plays Mary a receptionist in the doctors office, who plays an important role that I will not identify here.

Finally, we have Elijah Wood, who plays Patrick. A leech who also works in the doctors office and I despised in this role - who also plays an important role that I cannot reveal here for those who have not seen it.

It started off a little odd for me, but like I said, I really came around. It looked amazing and the acting was spectacular in all roles.

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