Mission: Impenetrable.

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2017)

When the rest of his team are killed during a mission, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tries to find out who is responsible.
Director Brian De Palma has given us some real classics during his illustrious career (Phantom of the Paradise, Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables), but Mission: Impossible isn't one of them, despite a couple of well handled scenes of suspense, a rousing finale, and an impressive cast (Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart) headed by Hollywood megastar Cruise. The main problem with the film is that it is far too convoluted for its own good, the complex story-line twisting and turning so much that it's hard to keep track of who is on Ethan Hunt's side and who isn't. There is also far too much of Hunt as he taps away on a computer keyboard: I don't know about you, but watching someone surf the web or download information onto a disk isn't what I want from my multi-million dollar Summer blockbuster.
Thankfully, the boredom caused by Hunt's excessive computer usage is alleviated somewhat by the film's more outlandish elements: Hunt's rubber disguises that are life-like enough to hold up to close inspection, explosive chewing gum, and lots of high-tech gadgetry that now looks incredibly dated and therefore proves rather amusing. The aforementioned closing action sequence, which sees Hunt clinging to the side of a speeding train in a tunnel while being pursued by a helicopter, is also a whole lot of fun, albeit one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on the big screen. To round things off, Cruise does his patented 'arms and legs flailing while blown through the air by a big explosion' routine.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.