bond ripoff. well not that bad..

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2000)

Before I commence with my actual opinion, I make it clear that I have not seen the original series (but I have seen the MI movie) so I won't refer to it or decide on how "classic" it is. Now, I do say that it didn't seem to catch the element of "teamwork" that pushed my interest in the original MI forward. Ethan Hunt goes on a solo mission blowing up stuff and finds a girl whom he must save. This is, in short, a James Bond ripoff. In fact, while I nearly dozed off during the "plot development" scenes, I almost forgot this was indeed Mission Impossible. No, I'm serious. But that doesn't mean it's bad; I'm a good fan of Bond movies, but I came to see the everyone-work-together-to-save-the-day type of movie, and I got James Bond and two guys whose roles revolve solely around getting their computer to work (and flying helicopters and firing one rocket to blow up a car. once).

The love interest isn't believable at all. Unless you're a romance sap, have a crush on either Tom Cruise or Thandie Newton, or don't pay attention to love elements of a movie...you are going throw back your head, close your eyes halfway, and think about how much movie is being wasted away on this...well...waste. They meet, Cruise plays around with her to show off (like the security alarm scene when she was sitting on top of him. nice camera angle..almost qualifies for an R rating), they do stuff together for like a week (or maybe a month to be generous) and then Hunt becomes obsessive ("I won't lose you NOOOO!!" come on its not even like their 3rd date). To accomplish such a task Woo compromised valuable action time to this element that shouldn't be in Mission Impossible.
Lastly, the chase scenes are cool, the gun scenes are cool, and the fight scenes are cool (cept some moves are faked. like Cruise could do THAT). Action-wise, it was delicious (mmm). The technology was cool too, but what bugged me was the revival of the pull-face-mask turns that are supposed to surprise us into shock or somethin. Well, not to sound boastful, but when I watched the movie with my friend Dave, we predicted every single mask-pull at least a couple minutes in advance (except for the very first one). What I'm trying to say is, if you're not gullible, it won't surprise you. So if you like surprises, don't think too hard. Oh, and if you quit IMF, do you get like proprietary Ethan Hunt masks or somethin? Or maybe each member gets somethin like Insta-face where you can design a facial model on a plaster case with hair in seconds. Don't worry, I'm not ruining the movie for you. You won't know what I'm talking about until the very end. Oh, and when semi-trucks hit cars, why don't they ever stop? They side ram a $100,000 car and it blows up and they keep driving.