mi4: ghost protocol

I’m sure many people watched (or will watch) the movie because of the story and it’s the fourth installment in the Mission Impossible series. But I’m sure as well that, like Hubby and me, Dubai residents will watch it for the simple reason of wanting to see how the emirate and all its glory looked in a Hollywood film. I haven’t watched the first three Mission Impossible movies so I can’t compare Ghost Protocol with the others, but I enjoyed every bit of this one because it had just the right blend of action, thriller and suspense, Agent Dunn’s humor, plus cool gadgets...that coming from a person who doesn’t like action films at all!

The part where Ethan Hunt scales the Burj Khalifa was amazing! And the parts where he falls part-way made everyone in the cinema gasp. It’s obvious that no camera tricks or computer technology was used in these scenes (except to edit Cruise’s harness which he definitely had to use), so the shot of the long view down the tallest building in the world to the entire city was very real. And the fact that he did these stunts by himself, for a guy his age, was really impressive.

There were a couple of things in the film that I noticed (to a normal person, they’re actually insignificant, and may be considered even too teenager-y), but I found them interesting because these things have some relevance to me and Hubby:
• Ghost Protocol. The first letters of this mission are the same first letters of Hubby’s nickname and my name
• The plate number of Ethan Hunt’s car in Dubai was 68527 (or was it 86527?). 6 is the number of years we’ve been together as of today, 8 or 2008 was the year we became husband and wife, and 527 is the month and day we became a couple (May 27)
Wala lang. Nakakatuwa lang.

Anyway, watching it yesterday made me remember the time I went to the 124th floor of this iconic structure; and although it doesn’t come close to the actor’s dangling and swinging stunts, I have a pretty good idea how it feels to look down at the city from so high up. There were no dull moments in the two-hour movie (except for some parts where the characters had to sit down and talk so that we could understand the plot more, but just the same, they weren’t dragging), so it was worth every single dirham we paid. Definitely a thrilling film to watch!