MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL: worth a watch but nothing more

If you're prepared to not simply suspend your disbelief but also hang draw and quarter it you'll probably get quite a kick out of this fourth installment in the Tom Cruise franchise.

Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, the seemingly indestructible IMF (and, no, that doesn't stand for International Monetary Fund) agent who chooses to accept an assignment to stop Kurt Hendricks, a dangerous and highly sophisticated terrorist, from acquiring the Russian nuclear missile launch codes and starting a war with the United States by firing a missile at San Francisco.
After failing to uncover the true identity of the terrorist by infiltrating the Kremlin (on only 4 hours notice!) Hunt's search takes him and his small team (Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg) on a rollercoaster ride across the world, taking in Dubai and Mumbai and a series of mind-bogglingly exciting but implausible life and death situations.
Not surprisingly this is Cruise's show all the way. The opening titles leave us in no doubt about that, proudly announcing that this is "A Tom Cruise Production" and, consequently, everyone else is there solely to support the Tomster is his efforts to show that at 49 years old he's still got what it takes to be an action hero. This means Renner is rather wasted playing second fiddle as one of Hunt's gang, despite proving with his Oscar nominated turn in 'The Hurt Locker' that he's perfectly capable of carrying a movie. However Renner is a positive camera hog compared to Michael Nyqvist as Hendricks. Nyqvist who was so great as Mikael Blomkvist in the original Swedish versions of 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' is completed wasted in a part that could have been played by absolutely any actor with a slight Russian/Swedish/German/Polish/Eastern European accent.
Paula Patton gets the best break as fellow IMF agent Jane Carter who springs Hunt from a Moscow jail and then willing cedes power to him in return for the right to kick almost as much as ass while never breaking a sweat or mussing her hair. Brit Pegg does all that's required of him as the comic relief and looks suitably grateful throughout for the rare opportunity to share screen time with Cruise.
GHOST PROTOCOL is a welcome return to form for Cruise after the eminently forgettable 'Knight and Day' but there's still little to distinguish it from the slew of other action movies Hollywood has bombarded us with in recent years. At best it offers fleeting gratification, leaving you feeling like you've got your money's worth but without any desire to watch the film ever again.

PAUL: appaulingly dismal entertainment

With each subsequent release it's becoming increasingly obvious that Simon Pegg's smash hit success as writer and star of 'Shaun of the Dead' was a fluke rather than the birth of a new cinematic comedy talent.
The eagerly anticipated follow-up 'Hot Fuzz' was a damp squib, 'Run Fatboy Run' limped along, and now comes PAUL which, uninspiring title aside, is bereft of any real laughs.

Pegg reteams with his 'Shaun' co-star Nick Frost as Graeme and Clive, a pair of comic book geeks who find themselves caught up in a surreal chase across the wilderness of Nevada, Utah and Wyoming in the company of a 4ft tall alien called Paul.
Paul looks like ET and sounds like Seth Rogen, which is probably because he is voiced by Rogen phoning in his performance with the minimum effort. Paul confounds almost every one of Graeme and Clive's long held expectations about how a space alien should behave but none of it's funny. His lines and most of the set-ups are lazy and flabby, relying on the old comedic fall back of "it's funny because we (Pegg and Frost) are in it and we are comedians ergo the scene's funny" instead of writing something that is actually funny.
I'd like to say it's self-indulgent humour of the "you had to be there" variety but I was there watching PAUL and I still didn't laugh. Not simply a misfire, and certainly not a future cult classic, PAUL is just a monumental waste of time.