review - MI 4

Confession: Tom Cruise in asli zindagi, I don’t like too much. Not that Cruise Bhai & I are bum chums or anything! It’s just what you read & see, like him leaping up & down a sofa, on Oprah, like a lunatic, or all that buzz about his obsession for scientology ...

But Tom Cruise on the big screen, superstar & smoking hot! Yeah, he looks kinda oddly whitewashed & botoxed too, but still has what it takes!
There’s been so much gup-shup about the movie – some not good, about it lacking the typical Mission Impossible edginess, that I went into the theatre with zero expectations, but came out in a Tom Cruise state of mind, dreamy and happy!
I had to watch the original ‘Mission Impossible’, a couple of times, before I could figure out what the hell was going on! MI 4 takes care of slow-witted folks like me, with a simple, crystal clear, no-brainer plot! It’s a happy jugalbandi, of Bond meets MI!
The regular Hollywood drama locales – Budapest & the Kremlin, which have become to these Hollywood, spy action flicks, what Switzerland is for Yash Chopra films! Defusing nuclear warheads & saving the world from annihilation, with his band of merry-men & women, all in a day’s work for apna Ethan Hunt!
Dubai meri jaan, looks spectacular & I almost got up to join my young bros in the theatre, when they gave the first glimpse of the lush, shiny desert, a standing ovation! And then the Burj Khalifa! So majestic & with Tom Cruise scaling its heights & performing breathtaking stunts, Subhan Allah!
Simon Peg, has always gone under the radar as a comic talent, but he is just right as one of the Tom’s Trio!
Paula Patton, khuda jaaney who she is & she is not even the romantic lead, but still looks fit & fabulous! Equally at ease, whether kicking a blonde assassin of the 126th floor of the Burj Khalifa, or attempting to seduce the Indian millionaire!
It’s India which gets a raw deal – the garish, gaudily dressed extras & outlandish sets, look like something out of Bollywood, in the 70’s! Anil Kapoor – could have portrayed a suave Indian playboy & businessman, but messes up his 'if you blink you’ll miss' appearance, by acting like a buffoon – was it the demands of the script, or Mr. Kapoor’s interpretation, don’t know, but certainly not ‘jhakaas!’
Like the taut action was not enough, the closing act will have you grabbing your handkerchiefs & bawling your mushy hearts out – an ‘aakhon hi aankhon mein ishara ho gaya’ moment between Tom Cruise & his wife, from whom he is separated, for the sake of her safety ….
Tom Cruise in MI 4,
Critics called it a bore,
But I say, gimme more!