Customer Reviews

Mission: Impossible [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Great movie! Full of action and suspense. Loved every minute of it! By far the best Mission: Impossible movie (exept the 4th one)! It's a must buy!

Adapting a popular television series for the big screen is never an easy undertaking. Not only do you have to compete with audience expectations, but, the filmmakers also have to make it their own as well. Considering all of the rumored backstage problems, that were said to have happened while Mission Impossible was being made, it's amazing that the movie got made at all.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the leader of a crack squad of intelligence operatives. When a dangerous mission in Prague goes inexplicably wrong, Hunt finds himself out in the cold. A mole has infiltrated the CIA, and suspicions are that it's Hunt. His only chance to clear his name, is to find and expose who the realmole is, and turn the tables on that person. With potential enemies all around him, it's hard to know whom he can trust. The plan takes Hunt through a series of close calls as he tries to stay one step ahead of his foes.

Anyone who has followed the career of director Brian De Palma will recognize many of his familiar trademarks. The cast is top notch. Ving Rhames as Luther, Henry Czerny as the smarmy Kittridge, Emmanuelle Béart as Claire, are just great support for Cruise. Sadly though, save for Jim Phelps (John Voight), none of the chacacters from the television series are in the film. The only other connective elemements of the show are the "Good Morning Jim...mission briefings and Lalo Schifrin's classic theme song, updated by coposer Danny Elfman. As a fan of the seies, I wish more of a direct homage were paid to what came before. The script, credited to Robert (Chinatown) Towne and David (Panic Room) Koepp, has plenty to keep the viewer guessing. But the major twist is pretty easy to spot and that's disappointing. One final problem--we don't really see The IMF work as a team all that much-- everyone's kind of scattered for too much of the film.

"Friction" between Cruise and De Palma may explain why a special edition DVD hasn't been released yet. Whatever the case may be...Mission Impossible is good enough to deserve an upgrade. As it stands now, the only extra on the current release, is the theatrical trailer. You can watch the film in either the widescreen or fullscreen formats.

Brian De Palma's (Carrie; Scarface; The Untouchables) 1996 action film starring Tom Cruise and Jon Voight is a pretty good action film. Well, once you suspend all belief. But that is what this movie is about. Putting real life on hold and believing in the impossible, the fantastic. Cruise, an excellent dramatic actor, does a great job crossing over into an action star--even with the bad haircut. Lots of cool gadgets and interesting scenarios and that great Mission: Impossible theme. And it is great to see the intimidating Ving Rhames casted as a computer genius/geek. Inspired casting.

Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, Emilio Estevez, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Jean Reno.
Running Time: 110 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.

Based on the popular 1960's television series, this Brian De Palma ("Carrie", "Scarface") production possesses all of the qualities of a fun, top-of-the-line action flick--only to see it slightly crumble due to a storyline that is extremely tough to follow. Tom Cruise stars as the slick covert agent Ethan Hunt, who has been assigned with a crack team of American undercover agents to set up operations in Prague to catch a double agent (Jon Voight) in the act.

There are many scenes that are very exciting, especially the chase scene on the train finale; however, De Palma does not expand on a script that assumes the audience knows all of the technological and spy jargon, leaving us loving the action but lost in the wind. Cruise is only fairly adequate as Hunt, not given the chance to expand his character. Excellent special effects, a riveting, catchy musical score, and some fine supporting roles from Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, and Ving Rhames. A good action movie, but nothing more. Luckily director John Woo stepped in as director the second film, creating a rough-and tough, out of this world sequel that surpasses the original.

a good film when considered as a stand alone. some of the, errr,
let's call them 'changes' (or 'liberties'?) taken with the Gospel
According To TV cause problems with fans of the original show
(some of whom not unreasonably can't get over what was done with
Martin Landau's character)

i would say that the casting of Kittridge ( Henry Czerny ) who
had recently cropped up in Clear And Present Danger, was a smart
move

Mission Impossible really makes you think - that's why I love it so much - there is more to it than just the surface...
I think some people found this movie a bit confusing...so don't be disturbed while watching it. Perhaps that's why the sequal is a bit more...simple?
Tom Cruise, as usual plays his part with ease. It's very impressive.

Cruise & company have a good action movie going here. It has some some very good actors doing some good acting in it, it has some excellent cinematography, some jam-up stuntwork, some way cool CGI imagery, some really fine soundtrack work, and some snappy direction from a name brand director. As some reviewers below have noted, the tunnel train sequence is truly awesome...one of the best "kiss your b--- goodbye" moments in recent action film history. A stunner.
If Tom Cruise and his production company had called this movie something like...oh...."Deathwatch", or "Blowback", or some such and gone with it as an action-thriller spy movie about a special covert ops unit of the CIA, DIA, or military intelligence thrown into an emergency situation with a traitor in their midst, I, myself, and undoubtedly a lot of others, would have been fine with it. Most likely I'd have given this film a five-star review.
I didn't do that because what Cruise & Company elected to do was to appropriate the rights to the old, dearly-loved "Mission Impossible" spy series---most likely because they thought the jazzy, iconic Lalo Shifrin theme music was "cool as h---" and because the preposterous idea of latex facial makeups that one could peel off in an instant on the run looked too hard to resist
as a fun plot gimmick.
If those elements were all that truly composed Mission Impossible then this new version should have been piece of cake acceptancewise with the public. But it hasn't been, for the same reason some of these other movie adaptations of popular tv shows haven't been....because there is an arrogance in Hollywood that relates to televison vs. "CINEMA". The Hollywood attitude is one of "We know how to do these things better than you do, tv, so stand aside and let us show you how". Recent duds like "The Avengers" and "The Wild Wild West" show us clearly that Hollywood does NOT know how to do it "better' than television. They just know how to do it bigger, flashier, and smarmier. Content-wise, classic tv usually comes out miles ahead.
An earlier reviewer of this film here at Amazon, Barry Chow, hit the nail on the head when he said this Cruise version betrays its heritage. That's exactly what it does. Mission Impossible (and its team) was about stealth and guile; about putting one over on somebody and leaving them none the wiser until it was too late. It was a CAPER concept, closer in intent to "The Sting" than to "True Lies". In fact that is what each of the IM Force's missions WERE..."Stings"....not Detonation Derbys. Cruise & Company seem to have forgotten this...or never understood it in the first place. And the power of the real "MI" was that it was, at heart, an ENSEMBLE show (like "Friends" on t.v., or "E.R."), with the TEAM pulling the scams on their target victims. A "team" is vaguely depicted in this Cruise version, but basically...in music terms...as Ethan Hunt's "side men". The thrust of this story's interaction is actually Ethan Hunt, Secret Agent, vs. the "Mysterious Traitor".

And it is the identity of this sleazy, ruthless,double-dealing scumbucket of a traitor that is at the root of all the "boomer' backlash against this movie. And most justifiably so. They have made him Jim Phelps. And to all Americans everywhere who "grew up with Jim Phelps", this little plot device is utterly outrageous. Beyond the pale. A lot of the

"gen X" and younger crowd truly DON'T understand why this movie ticks so many people off. It's because a popular "hero" figure to a couple of generations of Americans has been turned...for the sake of 'edginess"...into an odious sleazeball. and that doesn't sit well with a lot of people...AT ALL. If you don't understand the annoyance, try this...try waiting ten or fifteen years down the road and then buying your ticket to see the movie version of "Friends", where you'll find that Ross is a serial killer, Rachel is a cannibal, and Joey a Nazi transvestite. And when you get mad because you know full well that this is NOT who these people are and NOT what they're about then maybe you'll start getting a glimmer of why this review only deals Tom Cruise 3 stars instead of 5.

Mission: Impossible is one of the rare-good spy movies out there. In almost every way, it surpasses M:I-2 in terms of story, suspense, and acting. This movie proves a spy movie doesn't need a lot of action to be good.
As the movie starts, agent Ethan Hunt and his team start on a normal mission, when it starts to go terribly wrong. One by one, his team is killed, and he must find out who killed his team and who set him up. My personal favorite scene is when Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) blows up the fish tank.

critics are ass-heads

This is a tightly wound thriller as far as the spy movies go. The dark nights of Prague was an excellent backdrop to the story. And Tom Cruise is immensely watchable, as always.

However, folks I know the original "Mission Impossible" franchise (the TV series) and this ain't no "Mission Impossible." This is a totally diferent, hero (TC) obsessed film, with a totally out of place love dynamic.

The original MI was a TEAM of professionals taking care of business. The pace was light and unpretentious. This new MI is just the opposite. It is much darker and heavier than the original series. That's why I took 2 stars away.

By the way, the scene where TC is lowered like a spider from the ceiling to steal a secret computer list is itself lifted straight from an old Peter Ustinov spy movie, TOPKAPI (1964), that was shot in Istanbul, Turkey. They stole precious methods from the famous Topkapi Palace by the same method, without tripping any invisible alarms.

If you forget you are watching a MI movie, it is good entertainment, complete with the obligatory twist at the end.

Watching Mission: Impossible was one of the better experiences for me. Action, suspense, and mystery: I like.

Tom Cruise portrays the ingenious Ethan Hunt perfectly, and on Voight plays the double-crossing Jim Phelps as if he lived the character.

5 stars for Mission: Impossible.