Plot: What’s it about?
I decided to review this title for a few reasons; first of all there is still a lot of hype surrounding the sequel: Mission: Impossible 2, second, I’d like people to know just how superior the original is by far and third I’m a huge fan of the original television series that inspired the film. Mission Impossible is the first film from Tom Cruise’s new production company, Cruise/Wagner productions and what a way to start off, a great film based on a great old television series. This is a story of spies, gizmos and gadgets, deep cover, and explosive chewing gum, so ill try to give as hefty a review as I can without giving too much away. Throughout the review I’ll be using terms that are defined now: IMF: Impossible Missions Force, NOC:Non-offical cover, Disavowed: A retired IMF agent.
The story starts out with long time IMF operations leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), receiving orders for his next assignment, should he choose to except it, sorry. So Jim assembles his most trusted and experienced team for the task. Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise, is the teams point man or captain if you will. Jim’s wife Claire played by Emmanuelle Beart covers transport. Jack Harmon played by Emilio Estevez (although he’s not listed in the credits) is the team’s computer hacker and equipment specialist. And there’s a few more that are not to important. The teams mission, wait for a certain IMF member, who is also a trader, to steal the second half of the NOC list, document him doing it, trail him and apprehend him. Now the first half of the NOC list has already been stolen, this half is a list of all IMF members’ code names, the list that will be stolen tonight is the second half that will match the member’s code names to their true names. There’s only one problem, this whole mission is actually a mole hunt (an operation to find a corrupt agent on the inside) and it cost Jim and his team their lives to find out that the culprit was not any of them, yep they all pretty much get axed (some literally) except for our story’s hero Ethan. Ethan soon realizes what’s going on and oh boy does he want answers. And there are a lot of questions and answers in this film that’s the beauty of a spy movie.
And if you have not seen this one already (most of you have) this one will keep you guessing until the very end. So Ethan and Claire (who somehow managed to survive) set out to find out just what is going on and they will need help of course, so Ethan jumps on his trusty lap top and does some recruiting of his own. He digs up some disavowed agents including Luther played by Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, MI2) who is a high end computer hacker and specialist and Krieger played by Jean Reno (The Professional) who is pretty much an all purpose agent.
Now most of you who are fans of the films have seen both, me included, and I can honestly say I was very disappointed with the story’s sequel. I’ll explain why as it pertains to my review of the original. Brian De Palma, the original films director does a spectacular job of directing a film that could have easily been just O.K, and makes it awesome. This truly is a great movie, there’s suspense, action, drama, chills, spills and everything that makes for a great spy movie. The films sequel which was directed by Hong Kong legend John Woo (of who I am a huge fan as well) brings his own style of directing to the script and where it works great in action movies starring Chow Yun Fat, it simply does not work for this type of film. The sequel is loaded with romance, kung-fu, car and motorcycle chase scenes and these things alone do not make a good sequel to a film that was jam packed with ingredients that made it great. I’ll give you a few examples, the original film had a total of about 10-12 IMF agents, the sequel had 4, the original had all kinds of spy gadgets and high-tech equipment, the sequel had hardly any, and most importantly the sequel was missing the traditional fuse lighting at the films start up!
Now I’m not saying that the sequel was a horrible movie but compared to the original, it was! The first film was a good example of how you can make a great film based on a cool television show, the sequel was a good example of how you can throw in a famous directors name to bring in the bucks for a film that might have otherwise not done as well, (many of you will disagree and im sure my mailbox will blow up over that statement). But if you want to see a great movie with great writing, producing, directing and acting, this is it! When I originally saw this one in the theater I was glued to my seat and seeing it on dvd was just as good of an experience. This is one to own, even if you’ve never seen it before, save time and buy it you won’t regret it!
Video: How does it look?
“Mission: Impossible” was among Paramount’s first DVD releases way back in 1998. Paramount was very odd with their format, releasing the first wave in anamorphic widescreen and the rest in a standard letterbox edition. “Mission: Impossible” was among those that didn’t benefit from a new transfer. Well, a mere seven years later that has been fixed in this new Special Edition. The 2.35:1 image looks better than ever, though I noticed a few artifacts crop up from time to time. I was most impressed by the action scenes later in the movie, I can recall in the first edition that there was some pixilation but that’s been resolved here. Flesh tones look natural and though the black levels are a bit inconsistent, I wouldn’t worry too much. Suffice it to say that this new transfer is about the only reason to upgrade to version 2.0. But it’s a compelling argument, for sure.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the exact same as the previous disc and it still sounds pretty good. The movie, now 10 years old (man…has it been that long already), sounded great in the theater, on the laserdisc that I owned and, of course, on DVD. All five channels are used to great extent and the ending train scene is one of the better examples of how sound is used in home theater. Dialogue is clean and natural and I noticed a LOT of LFE during the course of this movie. Suffice it to say that if you’re looking for a great soundtrack – this is it.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? The only reason that Paramount is releasing this new Special Edition is to promote the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3. This might as well be called a “tribute to Tom Cruise” with the featurettes and the tributes to him and his movies. There are six featurettes that show the making of the movie, yet most lack any substance. There are also a few trailers as well as a teaser for, you guessed it, Mission: Impossible 3. About the only reason I’d give to upgrade to this new version is the improved transfer (and that’s a pretty compelling reason, actually) but if you’re happy with the previous version – it should suffice.
