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” has been through just about every format possible in the ten years since its release. And I’ve owned it on every home video format available. This was one of the first VHS releases to get a widescreen release, I then owned it on LaserDisc, then the first non-anamorphic DVD then the new DVD with anamorphic transfer and now we’ve got it on HD DVD. Truly, I don’t think there’s anywhere for this to go in the next few years but stranger things have happened. This new HD DVD transfer is certainly the cream of the crop when we’re talking about how this looks on a home video format. Colors are rich and lush with the detail level being bumpbed up a few notches. I noticed little things, like the pattern in Jim Phelps’ suit or the handwriting on a piece of paper or the print on the computer screens. The image is a bit crisper than the DVD release, but it’s not so much of a night and day difference that it’ll blow you away. There are a few blips on the transfer from time to time and no doubt, a result of the print used. And edge enhancement isn’t an issue, as is the case with all HD DVD’s. Is it an improvement over the most recent DVD? Yes. But there are better transfers out there, for sure.
Audio: How does it sound?
Just like the video, we’ve seen this go from a Dolby Pro-Logic mix to a Dolby Digital 5.1 and now we’ve got a Dolby Digital Plus mix that takes the audio to a new level. One of the better action scenes in film is the ending helicopter chase through a tunnel. It delivers what it promises and the sound is off the meter. The surrounds kick in so much that it literally creates a dizzying effect and so much stuff happens on the audio front in this movie that it really does enhance the viewing experience. Dialogue is without fault and though the Dolby Digital Plus mix is an improvement over the 5.1 track, any way you go here the movie will sound just fine.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Paramount saved all of their goodies for the MI: III HD DVD, so all we get here is a rehash of what was available on the previous Special Edition DVD. Surprisingly there’s no commentary, but given Brian de Palma’s experience with the movie maybe it’s not so surprising. We start off with six “MISSION’s” which range from how they created scenes, to how they blew stuff up and we culminate with a tour of the International Spy Museum. These give a bit of insight on the backstory of the movie with interviews with Cruise, Paula Wagner and Brian de Palma. There are two montages of Cruise’s films from the British Academey of Film and MTV, both are essentially the same – just set to different music. There are some dossiers of the cast (in character) as well as a photo gallery, some trailers and TV spots. Just as promised, if you own the Special Edition DVD you’ll be quite familar with the supplements here.
