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 films sequel MI2, second, id like people to know just how superior the original is by far and third im 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 t.v 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 ill be using terms that ill define 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, played by 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 teams 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 members 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’s 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, myself 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 im 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 wont regret it!
Video: How does it look?
Paramount gives us two ways to go, fullscreen or original 2.35:1 widescreen format. I actually viewed the film in both but ill give you the review of the widescreen since both formats were identical in picture quality. Very good, super job by paramount and I know that people will look at my perfect video rating and say “huh?” but I honestly couldn’t find any faults in the picture, no bleeds, cracks, fading, distortion or pixels. Crisp, clean image all the way and the low light scenes lost absolutely no detail. Good job guys!
Audio: How does it sound?
Again two options, standard Dolby surround or 5.1 surround. Again Great job! Awesome sound and if you don’t have a surround sound set up in your living room, this film alone is reason to get one. Your surround sound speakers will be putting in some serious overtime with this puppy! Great sound effects ring true through all channels and while the dialog might have been a touch low (the reason for this one just missing the perfect mark) it aint enough to complain about. And check out the the first chapter (The Mission Impossible theme and fuse lighting) with the volume cranked up……Awesome!!! And once again Paramount lets us rock out in French!
Supplements: What are the extras?
Dum-DE dum-dum, I was afraid of this category. Theatrical trailer that’s looks pretty bad as far as DVD quality goes and that’s it. This is really becoming out of control, people please, write letters to Paramount complaining about the lack of extras, call your congressman, go on hunger strikes do whatever it takes!!!!……….sorry. All we can hope for is a special edition someday. Now usually ill give one full disc rating for having a theatrical trailer but im taking half that away. Why? I think that for a film like Mission Impossible they could have done a much better job on the menus, there just plain boring and dull.
