Product: Mission: Impossible (1996)
Rating: 4.0
An entertaining "look at me I'm Tom Cruise" film
Mission Impossible is the type of movie that can entertain you even if it doesn't make much sense. It bugs me that they made it a total "look at me I'm Tom Cruise" movie though. I mean the tv series was about agents working together and the movies turnt Jim who was the main guy in the series into a bad guy. With the whole team getting wiped out like not even 20 minutes into the movie. Hell I'm not even sure if there was an Ethan Hunt in the original series.In the beginning it's nice seeing Emilio Estevez getting a part as one of the team members. He's entertaining and then he gets crushed on top of an elivator. Even the talented Kristin Scott Thomas is killed off in the beginning. With Ethan's team dieing he becomes the prime suspect and has to clear his name. I think that works and this isn't a bad movie even if it doesn't make sense. Still though Tom Cruise is such a pure ego actor. He produces the movie so of course the whole movie has to be his.He has them hack up the original show story and center everything around just one character....that he just happens to play. I always liked the 2nd film too but that's even more of a "look at me I'm Tom Cruise film". Look at Tom on a motorcycle with cool sunglases on, look at Tom do spin kicks, look at Tom think he's James Bond as he chases a hot girl in her car, look at Tom climb a mountain", well you get the point lol. I'm looking forward to the 3rd film but I still wonder what the movies would be like if they were more about teams working together and not just one super agent that likes to show off his teeth every 30 seconds with big stupid grins.What I do like about this original film is Danny Elfman's excellent score which is faithful to the series. Brian De Palma's direction since he trys to be faithful to the series by making us think instead of just throwing mindless action at us like John Woo does in the sequel. I also absolutely love the train scene at the end, probably mostly due to Danny Elfman's score. It's also a fun action scene. De Palma gives us a confusing story that leads to one fun and wild action scene. John Woo's sequel is just a goofy and sorta fun mindless stunt show of a film and that's why I like that one. This film is the complete oppostite, it has a brain and it's brain is way too big for human life to understand. It was probably written by an advanced life form.