My Problem With Star Vehicles

Rating: 5/10 (6 August 2001)

Mission: Impossible is not as terrible a film as everyone would have you believe.
Brian De Palma is a masterful director. Watch for extended scenes without cuts, watch for gorgeous shot compositions.
M:I also teams a score of brilliant actors, albeit briefly.
My problems with Mission: Impossible are purely based on an actor's egomania.
Mission: Impossible was a pet project of Tom Cruise for a long time. The film was doctored by Robert Towne. The character pieces involved were brilliant. But they were too few and too brief. Tom Cruise has attempted to define himself akin to Sean Connery in his role as James Bond. Unfortunately, there is no Ian Fleming here.
If Tom Cruise had let go a little bit... but he didn't. And so the film is what it is.
Sadly, it is not Mission: Impossible.
Brilliant performances by Vanessa Redgrave and other supporting characters. Tom Cruise would be an excellent Superman. But his Ethan Hunt is no replacement for the patronly Jim Phelps we have all spent so long growing with and growing to love.
You do not take the fanbase from Star Trek, pack them into a theatre, and then show James Kirk killing his crew slowly and meticulously and then destroying the Federation from within. With Luke Skywalker you could pull it off, but not with James Kirk. Not with Jim Phelps.
And the computer graphics show so many tells that it distracts from the film.
This could have been a great film. Unfortunately Paramount wanted a summer blockbuster and Tom Cruise was more than willing to supply.

YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT THIS YOUNG, RECKLESS PUNK THE SAME WAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE FOR THE GROUP OF SUAVE PROFESSIONALS YOU HAVE GROWN TO EXPECT FROM MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.
Vanessa Redgrave has delivered an Oscar-worthy performance, once again. But one comes to expect that.
But this film is not what it could have been.
Still good.
A success, undeniably, for Brian De Palma.
A failure for Tom Cruise.