Mission: Impossible Reviewed by: Namio Noma Rating:
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, Henry Czemy, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave Studio: Paramount Pictures Producer: Paul Hitchcock Director: Brian DePalma Screenplay: David Koepp and Steven Zaillian MPAA Rating: PG-13 Release Date: May 22, 1996 Running Time: 111 Minutes
Too many times in the last few years have films flopped as they tried to translate top-rated television shows into blockbusters on the silver screen. Remember Beverly Hillbillies? What an awful movie. Or even worse, The Brady Bunch Movie? Ugh. But Mission: Impossible, the new movie from Paramount Pictures, takes a different approach from its TV-to-movie predecessors, avoiding the rote repetition of the original series' plots and characters and instead translates the 1960s show into a 1990s blockbuster. The film is filled with contradiction and operates opposite from the traditional spy-thriller genre of movies. The plot is simple - CIA agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is caught in a botched mission, "disavowed" wrongly from the agency as a traitor and sets out to find the real "mole." But through a series of mind-numbing twists and turns that keep the audience guessing, Hunt finds people who were dead alive and agents who were against him at first now on his side, all the while traversing through seemingly impossible encounters. After his group of merry agents, headed by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), is killed off one-by-one in a botched mission, Hunt is confronted by Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and told he is the suspected traitor of the group. But Hunt escapes and vows to find the real "mole" of the operation, using the Internet to track down "Max" (Vanessa Redgrave), using a list of CIA operatives to lure out of hiding the person buying top-secret CIA information. Along the way, fellow agent Claire (Emmanuelle Beart) reappears, obviously not killed in the first mission, and joins Hunt on his quest. Then, perhaps the best section of the movie comes when Hunt and Claire meet with a pair of disavowed agents Luther and Krieger (Ving Rhames and Jean Reno). What follows is the thrilling and surprisingly hilarious scene where they try to break into CIA headquarters. But what sets Mission: Impossible apart from other action-adventure flicks is its intelligence and understatement, as director Brian DePalma brings thrills without the violence, a sexy allure without the "in-your-face" sexuality and an intricate story web without the traditional Cold War cliches. Rated PG-13, Mission: Impossible goes where other movies have been afraid to go - away from violence. There are few incidents of violence in the film, and aside from a few explosions, no simulated killings are performed on screen, proving death can be just as frightening without the gore. And the film is smart and alluring, thanks to DePalma's choice of actors and sites. With an all-star cast including the French Beart and Reno, England's Kristin Scott-Thomas and Redgrave and Lithanian Ingeborge Dapkunaite, the world of international espionage is true to form. The locations in Kiev, Prague and London provide a glorious and beautiful backdrop for the movie, adding even more of an international appeal that is often missing from other spy movies. The inevitable comparisons with the James Bond films can't be ignored. But while Bond films reflected a romanticized notion of the Cold War conflicts, Misson: Impossible charges into the end of the century, with the modern storyline and modern feel - the avant garde aquarium in Prague, the use of the Internet, the closing scene in the "chunnel." Most striking about Mission: Impossible is its statement by understatement. The most tense and riveting feature of the movie is the most quiet, with the antagonists to Hunt and Krieger a sneeze, a drop of sweat and a rat! Judging by the media explosion and massive opening audiences nationwide, Mission: Impossible has done what others have failed - making a movie that's different and smart. Who says movies are all the same? Return to The Movie Corner |
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