Early on in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Jeremy Renner's character questions what Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt was thinking when he lit a flare under water, put it under a dead body, and floated the body off to distract the shooters. In what should have been a throwaway line but became a two minute conversation, Renner wonders why Cruise would ever think something like that would work. Why would anyone ever light a flare underwater when they were trying to get away from multiple gunmen spraying the river with bullets? What did ol' Ethan Hunt think that the shooters were thinking? Hunt's response was something to the effect of "I didn't assume they were thinking."

That explanation pretty much sums up what the people involved in making this movie pretty much thought about the audience as well. Now don't get me wrong, the movie was fun, wisely stayed away from having too many character building talky scenes that (in most action movies) grind the proceedings to a halt, and it had two really great action sequences. But make no mistake, this movie is stupid. Nothing really makes sense. When things go wrong, the MI team just goes and does something that makes even less sense to squeak out of it. The villains are paper thin. We're told the bad guy is crazy and, well, that's it.

Part of me wondered why this film got so much love whereas a similarly ridiculous film like Fast Five was poo-pooed by the critics for being so dumb. I think the main reason is that the situations in MI:4 were improbable and somewhat silly whereas the action scenes in Fast Five were quite simply physically impossible. Still, I have to say that I enjoyed Fast Five more than MI:4 (although, to be fair, my expectations were FAR higher for Ghost Protocol because of the reviews and the word of mouth.)

In the end, Mission Impossible got points because it was a passable action flick floating in a sea of below average movies. If it wasn't for my high expectations, it probably would be battling for my #2 action movie in 2011, behind X-Men: First Class and alongside similarly average "Captain America", the upstart that I hope more people discover on DVD "Attack the Block", and "Fast Five".

And while I feel like this movie is a rental, I have to say that the best parts of the movie just won't be the same if you don't see them in IMAX. Especially if you get unnerved by heights, the Dubai scene is pretty stellar. But, in the end, don't expect more than what would amount to a less campy but equally silly Roger Moore era Bond flick.