Cruise: With An Attitude

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2000)

Warning: may contain spoilers
People say that if you can go into Mission Impossible and try to ignore the plot, then the film is fun to watch. And although I can agree that the film is a little laden with what can only be attested to as the banalities of scriptwriting, I have to admit that if you watch this film perhaps for a second or third time, the plot isn't just more clear, it is quite well done. So when the second Mission Impossible was unleashed to us, the makers promised a somewhat diametric film from the first. And that is not always a good thing because I believe this one to be superior to the sequel. Am I going to tell you the exact plot of the film to make it transparently clear for you? No, of course not, I don't think that is possible. I am still confused by some of the film but just suffice to say that where I was once apathetic to the film, I am now in appreciation of it. This is a great action film that has a heavy but interesting story to go with it. If you can listen and decifer what is being said, I think you can have fun with it.
The crux of the story is that Ethan Hunt has to prove to his superiors that he is innocent of extortion, cajolery and all those other terrible sounding international espionge words. It seems that IMF, the network that he works for, thinks that his parents have received an unjust amount of money in their bank account. His father has gone bankrupt and all of a sudden a large sum of money has appeared in his account. Cruise has to clear his name without the help of agency but he can still enlist the help of some rogue agents that are willing to help him. This is where some really great casting comes into play when Jean Reno and Ving Rhames are recruited for the job. That is only part of the story. The rest of the story involves the confusing stuff. Who is the bad guy, who lives, who dies, what is on the disc, who wants the disc, why is the Bible involved and so on and so on. Do I have the answers for all of this? No, of course not. But I can tell you that from the opening sequence in the film it is at least fun and entertaining if not a little confusing.
Mission Impossible is a pastiche of James Bond films, James Cameron films and perhaps even films like French Connection and Bullit. But that does not mean that it doesn't have a style of it's own. One of the most breath-taking and intensely filmed scenes is the one in the agency. We have all seen this one in the commercials and if we remember anything from Mission Impossible, it is this one sequence. This is a tour de force in directing and Brian DePalma should accept many kudos for his work here. I am generally not a huge fan of his but this film is done with Hitchcockian ambiance in some ways. And this one scene is coup de maitre of the film.
Mission Impossible is loaded with great stunts, an admittedly confusing but compelling story and a buffed up Cruise doing what he does best....pleasing the audience. If you toss in Ving Rhames with his one liners and his unmistakably Marcellus Wallace manerisms, Cruise's funny yet serious diatribes like "You have never seen me angry Kitteridge." and enough spy stuff to please any fan of the Bond genre, then what you have is a pretty good movie. At the very least you can say that there is nothing remotely prosaic about the film. This is an action packed story with lots of espionage, double crossing and plenty of missions that seem impossible.
This review will self destruct in 5 seconds......
7 out of 10