Mission Impossible by Brian De Palma on Blu-ray
My rating: 7 out of 10 stars
Based on the hit T.V. series. Jim Phelps was sent to Prague for a mission to prevent the theft of classified material. His wife Claire and his trusted partner Ethan Hunt were members of Phelps’ team. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong and the mission failed, leaving Ethan Hunt the lone survivor. After he reported the failed mission, Kettridge the head of the agency suspects Ethan of being the culprit for the failed mission. Now, Ethan uses unorthodox methods (Which includes the aid of an arms dealer going by the name “Max”) to try to find who set him up and to clear his name.
When I first saw this movie I did not like it at all. My main gripe with the movie was (and is) that it did not feel like a Mission Impossible movie.
Spoilers ahead! In the original series the team always succeeded, at least in the episodes I watched. However, the movie starts off with a big failure. Then to make matters worse we learn that Mr. Phelps, one of the original lead characters, is actually a traitor. I was so disappointed!
Now when I watched it for the second time with my son I actually liked it a lot more. I still think it is sad that the script writers felt they had to introduce all these chock elements but trying to look past those this is a pretty good movie. I still do not think it is truly a Mission Impossible movie in the good old style of the series though.
It is a very good action/thriller movie though. Tom Cruise is really not bad in the role of Ethan Hunt and so are the rest of the actors. He is performing quite a few spectacular stunts and there are a decent amount of high tech stuff in the movie. Sure, some of the stunts and action scenes are perhaps a bit convoluted but it provides for some good cinemagic and it is fiction after all.
If this movie would not have been labelled Mission Impossible I would probably have given it another star but I cannot bring myself to completely overlook how far from the original inspiration it has strayed.
PG's Ramblings 