Review: Mission Impossible

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 22 years since the first Mission Impossible was released, or that it was directed by Brian De Palma. But it has been and it was and it’s still pretty good.

The story starts simple enough, spy gets blamed for crime he didn’t commit,has to find the real criminal while avenging his dead teammates. But as the film goes on there’s so many double-crosses and alliances and false alliances and double crossing the double crossers that it gets a little difficult to follow, not impossible by any means but around the reappearance of Phelps onwards you have to think about it, so he trusts him and her, her as well but he’s double-crossing her because he works for her all while working with him who he doesn’t trust. I’m glad that they gave the film a plot that you had to think about as it went on but there’s a thin line between clever and convoluted and it feels like this film is treading that line.

In the acting department everyone did pretty well. Tom Cruise was actually really good as Ethan Hunt, he gave him something likeable so that Hunt could form all these alliances and you wouldn’t know which the true ones are and which he was planning to dick over. Jon Voight’s Phelps had a look of experience about him so when he was revealed to be the bad guy wanting to do more with the job you believed he had seen it all, Phelps was better as the behind the scene villain rather than the cold-blooded bastard he becomes at the end. Emmanuelle Béart played Phelps’ wife Claire and brought a much needed injection of French beauty to an otherwise macho cast, her innocent look made it difficult to know whose side she was on until the end. Ving Rhames brought his Ving Rhamesness to hacker Luther, he was pretty cool but ultimately not written that well. And Jean Reno just looked cool, again an underwritten character that didn’t have as much to do as he should’ve.

On the directing front the film did a lot better, De Palma didn’t jerk the camera around instead he made it flow, gliding around the sets and the characters, it made for a much smoother film. De Palma also makes for some really tense and exciting scenes, the first mission that kills the team has several hold-your-breath moments as you wonder how they will get out only to find out they didn’t, the finale in the tunnel did seem a little silly for this type of film but it ended with a bang and that’s all that was needed. But far and away the best scene was the infiltration to Langley and the stealing of the NOC file. There was absolutely no music throughout the entire scene, you could hear every footstep, every breath, everything the characters heard you heard and it made the scene far tenser that it ever would’ve been with a score.

In conclusion, a pretty good action film with great directing, tense scenes and a good central performance by Cruise. Check it out if you’re interested.

7/10