Film series usually start to show their age after about three movies. The plots get too thick, the action too flashy and the leads too wrinkly. Threequelitis sadly afflicted the “Spider-Man” series and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, causing them to abort all hopes of continuity and issuing the orders to “reboot.” Some series, such as the poor “Shrek” movies, started showing symptoms in their corny sequels.

Maybe it’s because the charm of a good action flick will never die, or because the movies have always seemed to be in safe directorial hands, or maybe Tom Cruise’s sound (but creepy) belief in Scientology holds the secrets to anti-aging and great hair, but the “Mission: Impossible” series has yet to suffer from threequelitis. In fact, five years after the critically-acclaimed third outing and a whopping 11 years after the original, Cruise’s explosive spy saga returns with “Ghost Protocol,” a flashy, tense and fast-paced cornball thrill ride that basically defines “awesome popcorn action flick.”

The series revolves around the ass-kicking, bad-guy-outsmarting, building-leaping, fatal-injury-defying Ethan Hunt, the best of the best for the IMF, a secret government organization that’s basically like the CIA.  This outing finds the brooding Hunt tucked away in a Hungarian prison until he’s broken out – to the tune of Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?”- by his trusty teammates, the nerdy-adorable Benji (Simon Pegg) and sexy-woman-scorned Jane (Paula Patton). Their main mission ultimately becomes a race to stop an evil Russian guy (Michael Nyqvist, who did the whole “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” thing in Sweden before Daniel Craig) from starting a nuclear war. Buildings are demolished, fingers (and guns) are pointed, roundhouse kicks are swung and trust is tested.

Both governments – American and Russian – put the blame of a mission gone awry on Hunt and his team, forcing them to go even more undercover than usual with a “ghost protocol.” They also gain a new tagalong in the form of agent-turned-analyst Brant (Jeremy Renner), who’s like a more hesitant, rational apprentice to Cruise’s Hunt.

“Ghost Protocol” is a bit like a Michael Bay movie, in the sense that what audiences are seeing on screen is probably more interesting than what they’re hearing coming out of the pretty peoples’ mouths. However, that’s not to insult the flick’s intelligence. It’s not a head-scratcher by any means, but the dialogue is bearably cheesy and many, many action shots are tense, clean and conversely tweaked with a sense of goofy fun, thanks to director Brad Bird’s history with making fantastic animation (Just try to watch the whole thing without thinking, “That looks like a shot out of ‘The Incredibles.’”). The characters move almost exaggeratedly, but it’s not annoying, and it’s certainly better than the herky-jerky camerawork that adorns Jason Statham flicks.

Lack of a knee-deep mythology lets “Mission: Impossible” dispose of tertiary characters as it sees fit. Fortunately, Pegg returned to play the staple comic relief. His one-liners aren’t stuff of legend, but he keeps the chemistry going between the team. Without him, the group would feel awkward. Patton got stuck with the chick role, but she does it with a set jaw and a hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-sexy-spy-scorned attitude. She stereotypically gets the “seduce the man” missions, but she plays Agent Carter with a Zoe Saldana-like air, making her more of an “Alias” girl than a Bond bimbo. Renner has the face and gestures of an actor meant for tough-guy-punk roles, so it’s weird to see him as a semi-scaredy-cat. He meshes well with the rest of the cast, though, butting heads with stony leader Hunt and exchanging friendly banter with the other two. He’s the least jaded of the group, and he almost has better lines than designated funny guy Pegg.

The heart of “Ghost Protocol,” however, is Cruise. For all of his off-screen weirdness (the couch jumping, the Scientology, the conscious decision to make “Knight and Day,” the couch jumping), you can’t deny that the guy gives it 110% on-screen. Boyfriend commits to every pair of oddly tight white pants, every flip of those bouncy luscious locks and every leap off of the Burj, a.k.a. the tallest building in the world. Cruise does all his own stunts and seems to have stopped aging at about 40. Will his cold, almost bland turn as Hunt win him an Oscar? Nope. But his unparalleled dedication to the Art of Playing a Freakin’ Awesome Spy keeps “Mission: Impossible” in that happy medium between the suave Bond saga and the almost-embarrassing “Get Smart” or “Johnny English” series.

“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” works because, for all its glitzy party scenes in Mumbai and explosive highway car chases and prison breakout fights, it doesn’t try too hard and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Action movies are placed at different ends of the This is Ridiculous spectrum – there’s the gritty, often military-based shoot-‘em-up and the pompous, gag-inducing flair of something such as “Transformers.” Unlike the former, “Ghost Protocol” stays light-hearted but manages to keep its badassery in check. And unlike the latter, audiences won’t feel like they need to gauge out their eyeballs and/or shower multiple times to achieve cleanliness after viewing.

In an era where anything after a threequel is considered a reboot, desperate or DOA, “Ghost Protocol” breaks the mold by staying true to the franchise without boring anyone or scaring them away with hideous acting.

And, seriously – can we just take a moment to admire that hair?

—

Rating: A

“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence

Starring Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg