Treated by my sister-in-law and her hubby, I went to see the new Mission: Impossible movie. I'd seen M:I and M:I2, but I never saw the third and had little desire to see this one. Hearing it was directed by Brad Bird of Pixar fame gave me higher hopes, but still I had concerns. You see, I am a big fan of the original Mission:Impossible series from the 60s, and seeing the first two movies handle it the way they did was just not what I wanted: instead of a clever team that was always one step ahead of the bad guys, it was a clever, ever arrogant Tom Cruise performing super human feats with a tiny bit of help from his "team." Oh, and there was one mask "surprise" after another after another.

Ghost Protocol really did it for me. It showed real teamwork, it was frightening. It had surprisingly good humor and even seemed to poke fun at the overused mask plot device: the good guys never use any. The opening even was a modern take on how the original series used to open. The whole movie was a far more true to the source material, while still being modern and showing an extremely athletic (but not overly unrealistic) Tom Cruise. My only gripe was the slower final act, which would have a hard time following what preceded it. It was a surprisingly good and exciting movie, and pleased the true M:I fan inside me.