Mission: Impossible: Review By slysnide

This was one of the first two spy films I ever saw. Probably the first. The other being "GoldenEye" (1995). Back then the genre was brand new to me. It wasn't yet overtaken by major action pieces and was more focused on story and the whole spy aspect rather than being just another forgetful action film. But adding a twist, rather than an assigned mission, this was a rogue one. An irony my friend pointed out has happened thrice in the four films of the franchise. Overused much?

Based on the hit television series (1966-1973), this film was considered a miss by the stars of the series, but they just couldn't handle being replaced and devalued, so who cares what they think right? Well, not always. Typically when you hear a filmed adaptation is very different from the source material, and that those associated with the latter walked out midway through the screening, then that's a sure sign to run away with them. But this has got to be one of the only instances where that's not the case. Like completely not the case. The film doesn't try and be bigger than the television series just because it's 'The Movie.' It came out of the story. There's after all only one over the top action scene, and that's not even the most memorable one which came to be called 'the scene' which is now a trademark of all the films in the franchise. That's what's really impressive here. Director Brian De Palma didn't overhaul the story and script from David Koepp, Steve Zaillian, and Robert Towne, he embraced it. Granted it's full of all the cliches you expect out of such a film, it wasn't really seen as a cliche at the time cause all the cheap imitations hadn't come down the river yet. Sure there'd been secret agent films before, but not with this much suspense and intrigue from start to finish. The ripoffs try and make up for this with lots of over the top action scenes which is why the films of this series still work. They're able to blend the two genres and still get a pretty suspenseful story out of it. And that's really what made this a home run.

The impossible mission in question involves IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) having to round up a group of fellow agents who've all been disavowed by the agency after a plan to expose a mole in their ranks went awry. The two agents who really shine alongside Ethan are the 'let's be cool' computer expert Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)--who's practically a staple of the franchise himself--and the somewhat zany pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno)--not exactly Leon the Professional, but he gets the job done. Ethan on the other hand is one of Tom Cruise's best roles. I found him far more believable and less action hero like in this one than all the sequels. Mostly cause he came off as a young rookie who was in way over his head who's gotten stuck 'playing espionage' rather than being an agent if you catch my drift. He seemed that new. Apart from that, Ethan rarely has everything under the control, and is frequently exhausted and half panicked when trying to improvise. Nicely different from the mostly confident James Bond, and overly sarcastic 'here we go again' if not entirely plastic hero of the action genre. And Ethan Hunt is a memorable character; more so here than in the sequels. And it seems there's more than just Cruise's acting to thank for that...

For interestingly enough, this film was spearheaded by Tom Cruise himself under his production company "Cruise/Wagner" cause Cruise figured it would make a great film having been a longtime fan of the series. Budget restraints helped influence the style of the film remaining believable and not too huge. And believe it or not, Prague was yet to become Hollywood's stomping grounds making this one of the first films to advertise Prague's appeal which has since opened the floodgates to that market. Toss in a little industrial light and magic and you've got a pretty decent espionage thriller.

Overall, this is among the best in the series for what it was: A down to earth espionage story focused more on espionage than on seemingly impossible action sequences like its sequels. Sure it's got some issues with dialogue and cliches, but it still works. It solidified a new name in pop culture, reinvented the genre, and began a whole era of cheap imitations. But I think we can all agree that the best thing it did was reintroduce that epic theme music.