For the record, the original Mission:Impossible was a lame series that got better as it went along. By the time Cinnamon (Barbara Bain) won an Emmy, the president at CBS had slashed the budget on the show (and fired her husband, M:I co-star Martin Landau because he was the highest paid actor in television at the time). The first season was highlighted by the extraordinary opening sequence (which is duplicated in the opening credits of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and the theme music of Lalo Schifren (the strains of which come through in Michael Giacchino’s score).

Consider that the pilot of the TV show was shot by cinematographer legend John Alton (look him up). And the pilot also featured secret agent Wally Cox, a personage best personified by the modern version’s Simon Pegg.

There were laughable moments all throughout the first season such as a car chase in a Latin American country that is so obviously a paved mountain road 30-minutes outside of Los Angeles. What the M:I movie series has done is take the concept and reinvent same for the current day, and the Brian DePalma effort (the 1st) has never been surpassed for casting and action set pieces.

If you see Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at all see it in an IMAX theater. Parts of the movie were shot in IMAX although it’s more like a travelogue with the money shots consisting of (2nd Unit) aerial shots that establish scenes. The fourth installment has one killer sequence that takes your breath away, and the rest of the film is all about Tom Cruise’s hair. And let me say right now that dude has a fine head of hair.

The pivotal sequence in M:I 4 takes on one of the tallest buildings in the world, and the stunts (no matter how they were achieved, digitally erased support wires) are breathtaking. That superb level of motion is followed by a chase in a sandstorm, and as somebody who’s driven through a sandstorm let me tell you it’s not a place you want to dwell.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol moves quickly enough, it’s a professional look all the way through, but I wait for the day when Paramount issues a sequel directed by Oliver Stone.

— Michael Bergeron