Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 16, 2011
Ghost Protocol brims with scenes that are exciting and amazing at the same time; they're brought off with such casual aplomb that they're funny, too. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 15, 2011
The most exciting action flick of the year, by a huge margin. Read full review
91
HitfixDrew McWeenyAug 2, 2015
I think Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is the most consistently entertaining, most laser-focused entry in the series so far, and while I would argue that it is very much a sequel to the third film and not just a disconnected piece of a flexible franchise, it is also a great rollicking self-contained spy movie adventure on a grand scale, and it's preposterous fun. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 16, 2011
A very good thrill ride and Cruise is better than he's been in a long time. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsDec 14, 2011
As Cruise clings to the side of the building using malfunctioning equipment, and a sandstorm looms in the distance, the question shifts from whether Bird can direct an action film to whether there's anyone out there who can top him. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 16, 2011
It's implausible as hell, but no less fun for that. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 15, 2011
Oscar-winning animator Brad Bird seems to have accomplished the impossible with the fourth Mission: Impossible installment by injecting the 15-year-old series with newfound, breathtaking energy. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 14, 2011
A terrific thriller with action sequences that function as a kind of action poetry. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 14, 2011
The wait for a great action movie is finally over. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is pure popcorn of the highest, most flavorful order, and it's good for you, too. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithAug 2, 2015
A few damp squibs aside, Bird’s sensibilities make for the most animated Mission to date. Don’t see in IMAX if you’re a vertigo sufferer, though. Read full review
80
Film.comWilliam GossAug 2, 2015
The first live-action endeavor from director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is filled with the verve and clarity of his animated action sequences while lending just enough gravity and remote plausibility to the stunts and gadgetry to keep it from becoming a glorified cartoon in and of itself. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 2, 2015
The Dubai section in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, in which Cruise spiders his way up the face of the Burj Khalifa, then sprints down it as if trying to break the vertical 800m record, proves everything Cruise wanted it to, above all that he’s picked the right director to make these set pieces fly. It’s better still in Imax. Read full review
80
SlateDan KoisDec 15, 2011
Should you see Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol? By all means, and in the big, big, biggest theater you can find. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 14, 2011
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is big, it's loud and so relentless in its action that it reminds me of an old joke. Why do you hit yourself in the head with a hammer? Because it feels so good when you stop. In this case, the headache is worth it. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiDec 7, 2011
Mission: Impossible 4 is so well-made and smooth you may need to see it more than once to truly appreciate its brains and nerves and blood. Read full review
75
The PlaylistTodd GilchristAug 2, 2015
Ghost Protocol is a fun but mostly empty adventure story that operates with the rote predictability of a middling ‘90s James Bond movie rather than a benchmark-setting actioner or even seasonal “event movie.” Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 2, 2015
Ghost Protocol is the most action-packed, most jokey and self-aware, most James Bond-ish of all the Cruise Mission films. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 16, 2011
The world-class mechanic is Brad Bird, who applies the pacing and spatial freedom of a 'toon to a live-action thriller. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickDec 16, 2011
The film also wastes the coiled intensity of Jeremy Renner, as the newest member of the IMF team with a none-too-compelling past. Bird does keep audiences guessing whether Renner is the only leading actor in Hollywood who's even shorter than Cruise. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 16, 2011
Ghost Protocol is big and brassy, doing many of the things its predecessors did but, in the words of Nigel Tufnel, turning them up to "11." Read full review
75
NPRIan BuckwalterDec 16, 2011
This film exists purely to dazzle and thrill, and by that measure, it delivers expertly, never lagging despite a lengthy 133-minute running time. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 15, 2011
If you widen your eyes and turn off your brain, it all adds up to cracking good fun. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 15, 2011
Has a certain cartoonish vibe. That's OK, because Brad Bird's brand of toonage (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille) owes much to the rigors and traditions of live action, not only in the way he references other films, but also in his visual approach - sweeping, swooping camera pans, wide vistas, jolting perspective. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 15, 2011
Bird also really punches up the ensemble playing. I imagine one of the upsides of being the director of nonhuman beings is that you're trained to respond to characters as much as stars. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 27, 2011
The movie is wonderful, nonsensical fun. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyDec 27, 2011
The movie is sheer hurtling mechanism - the entire world in motion - and it's great silly fun. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonDec 20, 2011
If the M:I films are immune to the tarnish on the Cruise brand, it's precisely because their spectacle requires us to be impressed by Ethan Hunt, not to like him. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 19, 2011
As usual with the series, the movie combines a plot line a toddler could understand with gadgets that would baffle an engineering Ph.D. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 15, 2011
Gets back to action basics with globe-trotting, nifty gadgets, high-flying stunts and less loquacious villainy. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 15, 2011
Bird has done a stylish and involving job here, turning in an entertaining production that's got considerable visual flair, especially in its action-heavy Imax sections. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 15, 2011
It's not the generic plot that's so memorable, even though its convolutions are clever enough, or the cast of mostly interesting characters, but the surreal swirl of form and color that frequently fills the enormous screen. Read full review
70
MovielineJen YamatoDec 15, 2011
A well-heeled French assassin chick who murders in exchange for diamonds? So '90s-era rejected Bond script, guys. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 8, 2011
The impact of spectacular action on striking international locales is moderated somewhat by the repetitive nature of the challenges faced by this rebooted team of American agents. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangDec 7, 2011
Pixar wizard Brad Bird's live-action debut serves up sights and setpieces of often jaw-dropping ingenuity and visual flair, but it's a movie of dazzling individual parts that don't come together to fully satisfying effect in the final stretch. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 15, 2011
Left me with the feeling I've seen much of this before. It's not that I'd like something better, it's just that I'd like something new. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 15, 2011
The movie rolls on, with more clever but increasingly repetitive action sequences that entertain, but drain the film of any credible sense of jeopardy. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 15, 2011
There's a place in the movies for wish fulfillment, no doubt, including the wish for it all to be over. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 15, 2011
Bird has serious promise outside the animation realm; in "Ghost Protocol" he errs, I think, by shoving the camera too close to the bodies in the frame, so that the momentum and spatial relationships become awfully hard to parse. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 2, 2015
Ghost Protocol plays it strictly by the book: the characters are bland, the plot is over-familiar and the action sequences are resolutely old school. But animator Bird relishes the chance to play with real people. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 2, 2015
It's solid entertainment. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissDec 19, 2011
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is no "Fast Five." Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenDec 16, 2011
Still not an essential series like Bourne or Bond, but this entry has a refreshingly light touch and some of the best action of 2011. See it at an IMAX for optimal vertigo-inducing effect. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 15, 2011
The only thing that's missing, in fact, is a soul. On the other hand, there's a good chance you'll get so caught up in what they're doing, you won't even notice how stiff and inhuman the actors appear. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichDec 13, 2011
Well, Ghost Protocol ultimately ends up as an eye-rollingly towering totem to L. Ron's favorite son, complete with treacly music cues and longing glances - bromantic and otherwise - that will send you screaming into the thetan-stealing clutches of Lord Xenu. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 19, 2011
The strategy deserves to self-destruct in five seconds. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDec 14, 2011
The Mission: Impossible franchise seems almost crudely mercenary in its formula for success. Read full review
40
CineVueJoe WalshAug 2, 2015
Ghost Protocol is action fluff, and on that level alone it works well enough. Read full review
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