Not great

Rating: 6/10 (17 July 2005)

There's no Bond in Mission: Impossible. Instead, the lead character is Ethan Hunt, the point man for Jim Phelps' IMF (Impossible Missions Force). Phelps (played by Jon Voight, not Peter Graves) receives assignment messages from his boss, Kittridge (Henry Czerny), via video transmissions rather than old-fashioned tapes. His group's latest job is to prevent something called a "NOC list" from falling into the hands of an international arms dealer (Vanessa Redgrave). If placed on the open market, the NOC list would put every United States deep cover agent in danger of exposure. However, when they embark on this mission, the IMF runs straight into an ambush where everyone is killed except Hunt and Phelps' wife, Claire (Emmanuelle Beart). Because he survives the carefully-orchestrated massacre, Hunt is suspected of turning traitor.
Fans of the TV series expecting a faithful translation may be disappointed. Except for a few nods to its small-screen predecessor, this Mission: Impossible is a vastly different, autonomous entity. Nine years ago, director Brian DePalma used a similar approach for a superior version of The Untouchables, but lightning hasn't struck twice. Teetering on an uncertain edge between action flick and thriller, Mission: Impossible doesn't succeed well as either. There are some high-energy moments, but none offers more than a moment's edge-of-the-seat excitement. Too much of what happens in Mission: Impossible comes across as fait accompli.
The predictable plot generates little interest. It's pathetically easy to guess the mole's identity despite the screenwriters' attempts to obscure the issue. The overall storyline contains a legion of gaping holes -- the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Weak character identification allows Twister to seem like a masterpiece by comparison. In fact, taken as a whole, Twister is a significantly more involving spectacle.