Product: Mission: Impossible (1996)
Rating: 1.0
Bastardized!!
Mission:Impossible, the TV series, told the adventures of the Impossible Missions Force -- an elite team of covert operatives who were sent to overthrow mob kingpins, foreign dictators, terrorists and others who threatened the security of the United States. Rather than engage in James Bond-like shoot outs, the IMF team worked together to covertly neutralize threats, leaving little or no trace of their involvement. Although the IMF had a leader (Steven Hill as Dan Briggs and Peter Graves as Jim Phelps), there was no star of the group -- just a bunch of individuals working together to achieve its objective. A truly groundbreaking show.Along comes Brain De Palma's catastrophe of a remake, starring that couch-jumping Scientologist Tom Cruise. Within half an hour of the film starting, the entire IMF team, save for Cruise, is killed off, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) is exposed as a double agent and basically the entire concept of the original Mission:Impossible is shot to hell. Granted, Ving Rhames and Jean Reno are present as Cruise's new team, but Mission:Impossible is quickly bastardized as yet another Tom Cruise vehicle where he preens and postures. Making a film called Mission:Impossible into a star vehicle goes against the spirit of the original TV series. It's obscene what Tom Cruise's ego has done to Bruce Geller's original concept. This is just another action film with Mr. Cruise flashing his toothy smile and saving the world all by himself. See the original TV series and skip this piece of bastardized trash.