Rating: 
Summary: Only if You Love Tom Cruise
Review: And unfortunately so many people do. Blatant vanity project, the movie's saved only when director Brian DePalma kicks in with his brand of blazing comic book action - which is great, yes, but not enough this time around. Complicated plot? Phooey. Annoying is more like it.
Rating: 
Summary: THE CASE OF THE RED AND BLUE CHEWING GUM
Review: When I first heard that Brian dePalma had to direct a movie produced by Tom Cruise, I was a little bit astonished and when it appeared that the project was MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, I really expected the worse. How a personality like dePalma would cope with those virtual chains ? As always with dePalma movies, the critics were divided; the scale was zero to ten. I think that we should see this movie by always having in mind that the director didn't have the liberty he used to have in his precedent movies. So, let's search Brian in this blockbuster. Tom Cruise receives, in the first minutes of the movie, a few red and blue chewing gums whose function is to help him to open rebellious key-holes. Cruise uses those tablets twice in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. To open doors ? Not at all, he uses them to destroy glasses, mirrors. How curious isn't it ? And you begin to realize there is very much glass in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE : screens of TV's, PC's, glasses with incorporated cameras, etc... O.K. Brian, we've understood you're here, behind the mirror, behind the masks, one of the other recurrent theme of this movie. Then you can recognize SCARFACE and the hero of RAISING CAIN in Jim Phelps, a man whose thirst of power reveals a multiple personality. And there is this wonderful scene when Jim Phelps tells Cruise what's happened in Kiev unknowing that his agent visualizes the same scene, with an other point of view of course, during his explanation. Isn't it a subtile version of the split-screen process, a dePalma gimmick by essence ? No doubt about it, this movie is one of the three best american movies of 1996. A DVD which is already a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing is impossible!
Review: Nothing is impossible! But the movie was great and I kinda enjoy some part of the movie and I hope that they will make part 2 of mission impossible.
Rating:
Summary: So much fun!
Review: The only reason this movie doesn't get 5 stars is that it is a little hard to keep up with. The complicated plot takes so many twists I had to see it twice to follow them all. Otherwise smart, excellent fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Sound was lackluster - video is low resolution
Review: I was not impressed by Paramounts lousy effort at transferring this movie to DVD. They were late in the game to bring out DVDs, and now they have added insult to injury by doing a crummy job of it.When I saw that the disc was dual layered, I thought, here is someone who is going for quality (not willing to sacrifice in compression) - WRONG. They put both the standard and widescreen formats on the same side. The disc is not anamorphic - so if you have a projector, you will be diappointed. What will be noticed by everyone is the poor sound. The laserdisc BLOWS AWAY the sound on the DVD (the helicopter train scene was much more dramatic on laserdisc). Needless to say, I was disappointed - not just by this disc, but by the fact that Paramount doesn't seem to be taking this medium seriously. - Jonathan
Rating:
Summary: Mission Declassified
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Mission EXCELLENT
Review: I've viewed this classic over and over, and it continues to amaze me that Ethan Hunt never kill one person in this version, nor did he ever fire a gun. Excellent scenery in the always BEAUTIFUL Europe. Excellent story, excellent excitement, excellent entertainment. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Too Bad It Didn't Self-Destruct In Five Seconds
Review: If you're a younger viewer you might be entertained by the gadgets and explosions. However, if you grew up watching the original T.V. series, as I did, you would walk away from this movie shouting, as did the late Greg Morris (who played Barney, the technical wiz, in the original series), "What an abomination!"
The series was about a highly skilled and disciplined group of elite intelligence agents who combine their unique talents and skills to accomplish missions deemed impossible in the ordinary wing of the C.I.A. Their success was made possible, partly, by their working as a single integrated team. Each had his or her specific task to perform as part of the overall plan. Mr. Phelps, the I.M.F. team leader, assembled his team and they developed the mission plan and procedures the way NASA, Grumman and North American Rockwell engineers did in accomplishing the moon missions. No one stood out or tried to dominate.
The movie completely wrecks this premise. Yes, it has the gadgets and high-tech stuff (like the laytex masks) and there seems to be a team of sorts, but that's all that the movie takes from the series. They purport to operate as a team, but that turns out to be an illusion. The entire team, except the one played by Tom Cruise, are double agents. Phelps (played by John Voight) turns out to be a traitor and enemy agent. They are all out to kill Tom Cruise, who has to save the world and kill Phelps and the entire I.M.F team as well -- all by himself, of course.
Cruise's ego demanded that no one else share the spotlight with him. He just appropriated the title, music and trademark gadgets of the Mission Impossible series to produce a one-man hero shoot-em-up and blow-em-up flick that has nothing to do with the original series. None of the original cast were offered roles in the movie. Offering Peter Graves (the original Phelps) a cameo part would have been the class thing to do. But neither the movie, nor Cruise, have any class. Teens would find it entertaining, but if you are an adult who remembers the original series, don't see this movie. You will be disappointed.
Paramount should release the entire T.V. series -- all seasons -- on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: A fun spy espionage film
Review: Brian De Palma and Tome Cruise is a pretty good formula for a successful film. If you throw in the fact that it's a clasic TV show with Oscar caliber writers then you have a sure fire hit. Mission Impossible is that and is one of the better spy movies to have come out in recent years.
Ethan Hunt(Cruise) is an IMF agent. He's good at what he does and likes it. He's on a mission in Prague led by his mentor and friend Jim Phelps(Voight). The mission goes all wrong and the whole team is murdered except for Ethan. He escapes death and goes to the CIA for help in Kittridge(Czerny).
Kittridge quickly informs Ethan on how the misson was a whole set up to see who the mole in IMF was. Ethan takes the blame and is disenbowed. He is now on the run trying to find out who framed him and to see if he can stop them in time.
Tom Cruise is a perfect fit for Ethan Hunt. I've seen a little bit of the classic spy show and Cruise is the man. I can't picture anybody else playing the character. This is a fun character for Cruise in what I feel is one of his more fun movies. He gets caught up in dramas and people really forget what kind of action star this guy is. You have to love a leading man that does his own stunts and Cruise work is incredible. The bullet trains sequence is awesome. The instant classic though is what he does in the vault supended from the rope on the pulley system. He had a lot of faith in this movie and the character and even helped produce the movie. Very few people in Hollywood get involved with a movie like Cruise and he is all over this one.
This is a fun movie. This is what I wish "License to Kill" would have been like. It's fun and pretty unpredictable, though they do give you some none obvious clues to who the killer might really be. I knew all along but still enjoyed it. If you love Cruise you have to pick this one up. If you like spy movies you'll also get a kick out of it. This is a fun movie the whole family can enjoy, and you really won't want to miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Letterbox
Review: I hardily agree with the majority of reviews that rate this move as 4 or 5 stars. It is action packed and suspensful, and all the actors do an excellent job. My only comment refers to the DVD edition and the letterbox treatment. It is just awful. It's a travisty that this film has to be seen on such a small scale. The black bars take up half the screen. This movie definately needs some special edition treatment. I'll be waiting...
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