Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

It's coming towards the end of of 2011, and after sitting through a year that's been filled with underwhelming sequels, it appears one of the best has been saved for last. Director Brad Bird makes the leap from animated movies (Bird directed Incredibles and Ratatouille) to live-action feature films with the biggest, most eye popping, action film of the year.

Ar first glance, choosing Bird to helm this fourth Mission: Impossible film seemed a bizarre and risky choice. However, Tom Cruise knew what he was doing when he handed over the reins to one of the biggest money-making movie franchises around.  Bird's successfully figured out how to bring his energetic visual style from animated movies to an action film without making the end result seem cartoony. The fourth outing feels as fresh as the first, and has possibly, the standout action scene of 2011.

After an incursion in the Kremlin goes explosively wrong, secret spy force IMF is shut down and its agents disavowed. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his small band of allies have mere days to prevent terrorist (Michael Nyqvist) from unleashing nuclear winter on American soil.

The main attraction in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, is a dizzyingly brilliant action sequence set high above Dubai, in and around the 130th floor of the Burj Khalifa. It was inevitable, that Tom Cruise would take on the world's tallest building. Bird slows things down and lets us feel the height. Then he just lets it go, throwing in hazard after hazard, throwing his star (and producer) like a doll and generally whipping up the tension. It's up there with the very best scenes you'll have seen this year - and by the far the movie's standout.

Bird puts his animator sense of timing to good use. An opening jail break scored to Dean Martin's "Ain't that a kick in the head" is Pixar -worthy clockwork punctuated with 12A headbutts and kicks to the shins. The fourth instalment definitely is more on the comedy side. Unfortunately Ghost Protocol is far from perfect, with the its biggest weakness being the plot. I've no doubt it can be quite tricky coming up with new story lines, but the latest bad guy is as stale and bland as they come. A crazed terrorist (Michael Nyqvist) is set on starting World War 3, but it's unclear on what he hopes to achieve. Nyqvist is a great actor but his villain is no patch on Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Owen Davian from M:I3. The film also hits a bit of a low point in the final stretch, when we are introduced to Anil Kapoor's horny millionaire and a final set piece in a computerised car park.

Even with these flaws the film is still great fun to watch from start to finish. This is mainly due to an increased look on team play, with Cruise more then happy to let new recruit Jeremy Renner have a go at a few action scenes. Even Simon Pegg has one or two action scenes to shout about.

Ghost Protocol proves that Cruise's Mission Impossible is still behind the likes of Bourne and Bond. But it's a fun film and proves that Tom Cruise still has what he takes in the action department.