Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
Brian De Palma
Cast:
Tom Cruise………Ethan Hunt
Jon Voight……….Jim Phelps
Emmanuelle Béart……….Claire Phelps
Henry Czerny……….Eugene Kittridge
Jean Reno……….Franz Krieger
Ving Rhames……….Luther Stickell
Kristin Scott Thomas……….Sarah Davies
Vanessa Redgrave……….Max
The Movie
Tom Cruise was already a big star before 1996. He had been nominated for an Oscar in Born on the Fourth of July, received critical acclaim for work in A Few Good Men and Rain Man and had established himself as one of the best actors working. And while a year later he would lose in a very crowded field with 1997’s Jerry Maguire, 1996 was the year in which Cruise went from being just a good, popular actor into becoming one of the biggest movie stars of all time. The impetus: Mission: Impossible.
Based loosely off the 1960s television show, Cruise crafted his only recurring character with Ethan Hunt. Hunt is the leader of an IMF (Impossible Missions Force) team, charged with trying to ferret out a mole in their midst. When the job his team was assigned to goes awry, leading to the deaths of his team members, Hunt is blamed. Forced to rely on two people of questionable content, hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and black marketer Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), Hunt has to find out who the mole is while working with the arms dealer (Vanessa Redgrave) the real mole was working with.
It’s interesting to see the development of Cruise as an action star since this film. He’s still a little hesitant on how to handle the action scenes, which he did himself giving the film credibility not found with some action stars that use them. While he’s still the same great actor, bringing a good amount of range to the role, some of the action sequences aren’t nearly as good as they would have been 5 years later. He lacks presence early on, as Cruise seems to be unsure of how Tom Cruise the action star is supposed to be.
Cruise is helped by having a top flight cast, a good director and a tightly written script. While it does fall into the usual action thriller pratfalls, De Palma is on his game keeping the film moving at a crisp pace. There is a lot of intrigue to be found and De Palma keeps us guessing as to how it could end and who the mole is. De Palma knows exactly the sort of tone and seriousness he wants out of the film, injecting his signature style shots and melding the action sequences around a script he knows well.
Having Ving Rhames, Jean Reno and Jon Voight around helps Cruise out immensely. Voight gets to play the role of elder statesman and Reno & Rhames are good character actors who provide Cruise people to play off of. Cruise knows the character well, allowing his natural charisma to come out in scenes with his co-stars.
Score : 7 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format, the film looks a shade better in this release than it did in its prior release. The colors are a bit clearer and sharper, but the first was a great picture so it’s hard to get significantly better.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital surround sound, this version of Mission: Impossible has a slight audio upgrade from the first version but it’s nothing that is much better than the first version.
The Extras
Mission: Remarkable- 40 Years of Creating the Impossible is a retrospective piece on all three Mission: Impossible movies, focusing briefly on each. Running almost 12 minutes, it’s a brief focus on how it went from being a television show that Tom Cruise loved to the big screen with him as its star. It’s interesting to hear Paula Wagner (one of the producers) and Cruise talk about how they view each of the films as a stand alone piece rather than as part of a series, allowing them to bring in alternating directors (De Palma was replaced by Hong Kong action legend John Woo in the sequel, who has since given way to J.J Abrams for the third film) to give different views and styles.
Mission: Explosive Exploits is a featurette that focuses on the stunt work of the film. Greg Powell, the film’s stunt coordinator, comes in to discuss the precision of the work as well as having a star (Cruise) who did his own stunts for the film. Wagner, Cruise and De Palma talk about the film’s stunts and how tough it was to do the stunts. Running a shade over five minutes, it’s a brief yet interesting look at Cruise’s first foray into stunt-work.
Mission: International Spy Museum is a guided tour by Peter Earnest, director of the Washington, D.C, International Spy Museum, at the tools of the trade for a real life spy. Running around six minutes, it’s a glimpse at the real world of espionage.
Mission: Spies Among Us is a featurette Dr. Derrin Smith, Carl Donelson, Greg Treverton, Robert Barron, Chase Brandon and Earnest (former CIA, special forces and intelligence personnel) talking about the nature of special operations, intelligence and espionage. Running around eight minutes, it’s a fascinating look at the realities of being a spy.
Mission: Catching the Train is a feature focusing the biggest action sequence the film, the helicopter chase through the Chunnel. Running around three minutes, nothing of note is really said.
Agent Dossiers are assembled pieces of information about the characters, giving an idea of what someone in their position would’ve been able to and background.
Excellence in Film: Cruise is a montage of the film’s star over the years, covering every film he’s been in. Covering many of his more famous moments like “you complete me” from Jerry Maguire and the showdown with Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men as well as big moments from Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July and Rain Man.
Acceptance Speech for BAFTA/LA’s Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film is Cruise’s speech form the event, which had the Excellence in Film montage.
Generation: Cruise is a montage from the 2005 MTV Movie Awards show. Focusing more on his action films than his dramatic roles, it’s a stylized version of the Excellence in Film montage.
Acceptance Speech for MTV’s Generation Award is Cruise’s speech from the same show.
Theatrical Trailers for all three films of the series, as well as TV Spots and a Photo Gallery for the first, are included.
Score : 6 / 10
