OK so its time for me to tackle another film franchise and I thought I would give the Mission Impossible series a go, i.e. the films starring Tom Cruise as the agent, Nathan Hunt with the Impossible Mission Force (or IMF). So there are four films to cover so might as well start with the first one funnily enough called Mission Impossible. So let's gear up and give this one a look!
So the film starts with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who is part of the IMF team which is led by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and they are sent on a mission to prevent the theft of the non-official cover (NOC) list from the American embassy in Prague. However the mission goes drastically wrong as several of team members are killed as Ethan witnesses Phelps being shot via Phelp's video glasses and Phelps wife, Claire (Emannuelle Beart) being killed in a car bomb, ultimately leaving Ethan the only surviving member. Ethan later regroups with the IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) to debrief where he learns that the mission was a setup and the NOC list was a fake and the purposes of the mission was to try and reveal an internal mole within IMF. Kittridge reveals that he believes that the NOC list was set to be sold to a black market arms dealer known by the alias "Max" and as Ethan is the only surviving member of the team, Kittredge suspects Ethan to be the mole. Ethan however creations a diversion and he flees before being captured.
Ethan then returns to the safe house where he deduces that a contact for Max, nicknamed as "Job" was from an entry from the Bible, Job 3-14. Ethan then contacts Max via the Internet posing as Job to set up a meeting, when all of suddenly Clare arrives at the safe house. Claire eventually convinces Ethan to trust her as she tells him that she escaped the car bomb just in time as Phelps had given the order to abort the mission. Ethan then meets with Max (Vanessa Redgrave) and tells her that the NOC list she acquired is a fake but it has a tracking device, which will alert the CIA, and they escaped just before the CIA agents and Kittridge arrive at the scene. Ethan then agrees to steal the real NOC list for Max in exchange for 10 million dollars and in order to steal the list Ethan recruits help from two former disavowed IMF agents, Luther Stickell (Vingh Rhames) a computer expert, and a volatile pilot Franz Kruger (Jean Reno). And together they pull off a daring robbery at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where Ethan successfully steals the NOC list. But from here this is where things take a twist as Ethan meets up with a familiar face and one he least expected......
Mission Impossible sees the TV show make the transition to the big screen very well as its an entertaining and at times suspenseful film, which is well directed by one of the suspense meisters Brain De Palma. Tom Cruise who stars as Ethan Hunt was keen on the idea of doing the film as himself was a big fan of the TV show and at his own insistence did his own stunts for the film as well (well he is nuts after all!). Cruise also would prove to be quite an influential figure during the production of the film so much so there were rumours that De Palma did not get on with Cruise during filming.
Performance wise things are fairly good in Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise doing a good job in the role as Ethan Hunt, although it has to be said that he is still doing that cocky callow youth thing a bit like he had done for the first ten years or so of his career, which can make his performance a bit annoying at times. Regardless of that though Cruise does have some good moments in the film such as the scene where he meets with Kittridge who ends up accusing him of being the mole that IMF are looking for. And as Kittridge says Ethan must be upset, Ethan says "Kittridge you've never seen me upset!" just before Ethan throws an explosive stuck of gum against a large fish tank in the restaurant and Ethan flees as a tidal wave of water gushes out into the streets. Then there is the scene where Ethan and the others infiltrate the CIA headquarters and Ethan prevents Kruger from killing one of the security guards and says "zero body count!" and Kruger sceptically says "We'll see!". The scene where Ethan enters the CIA computer room is also one of the highlights of the film as Ethan is suspended by a wire, which Kruger holds up above in a vent but let's go of it in the last minute as a rat clambers toward him leaving Ethan dangling just inches from the security triggered floor! Another good scene for Cruise is when Ethan uses his slight of hand tricks with the NOC list to tease Kruger into thinking he has the fake list. And Ethan says to Kruger "What have you never seen this trick?" and then he produces the NOC list again saying "Do you really think I would let you have the NOC list?!". Then there is the scene where Ethan is in London on a telephone to Kittridge who is insists that he turn himself in and Ethan says "Can I ask you something, Kittridge? If you are dealing with a man who has crushed, shot, stabbed and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated are you going to make him by hauling Mom and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse?". And during the film's climactic action scene with Ethan in the tunnel on the outside of the train being chased by Kruger in a helicopter, Ethan launches himself onto the helicopter and sticks the explosive piece of gum on it yelling "Red light! Green light!". And last of all when its all over, Nathan meets with Luther who says to him after he has been cleared of his disavowed status "I'm gonna miss being disreputable!" and Ethan says "Well if it helps, Luther, I'll always think of you that way".
Jon Voight does well enough in his relatively small role as Jim Phelps the leader of the IMF team who is supposedly killed during the opening mission of the film only to find all is not what it seems. Emmanuelle Beart is very good as Claire, Jim's wife who survives the IMF team's attack and teams up with Ethan to carry out the NOC list robbery at Langley. Vanessa Redgrave also makes a good impression as the rather mysterious Max who she plays with a certain amount sexiness as she teases and flirts her way through the film. And as Kittridge finally catches up with Max at the end of the film she says to him "my lawyers are going to have a field day with this. Entrapment, jurisdictional conflict...!". Henry Czerny is also good as the rather smarmy IMF director, Eugene Kittridge who chases Ethan and he has some good moment such as the scene where he just misses capturing Ethan in Vienna and he says to one of his men "Let's not waste time chasing him, let him come to us. Everyone has pressure points. You find something that is personally important to him and you... squeeze!".
Jean Reno is also really good in his role as Kruger, the corrupt and somewhat devious disavowed agent who get's invovled in the robbery of the NOC list. Reno has some good moments such as the scene where Ethan performs his slight of hand trickery with the NOC list and he says to Ethan "Try any slight of hand with my money and I'll cut your throat!". And Vingh Rhames provides a fine and enjoyable performace in the film as the wily Luther Stickell who get's involved in the heist but also helps out Ethan near the end. And Luther at the end of the film says to Ethan "I'm gonna miss being disreputable". And there is the scene where Luther meets with Ethan on the train and Ethan reminds him of a previous hack and Luther says "there was never any physical evidence I had anything to do with that.... that.... exceptional piece of work!". And lastly there are some brief but decent efforts from Kirsten Scott Thomas, who is criminally underused here and Emilio Estevez also does OK in his brief role as Jack the hacker (makes a change from the ripper!) who ends up getting crushed by colliding lift when he works in an elevator. Estevez has a good moment where he hands the explosive stick of gum to Ethan and he says "Asta lasagne, don't get any on ya! Just don't chew it!".
Getting onto Brian De Palma who does a fine job here as he is no stranger to suspense films and he also lends his own visual splendour to his films and he uses the frame well and certain scenes he juxtaposes characters well. Such an example is this where we see Ethan in the vault at Langley as he dangles above the CIA analyst who is in the foreground of the shot and Ethan is in the back up above. The film's score by Danny Elfman is also worthy of note which is overall pretty good but it is in Elfman's typical style a bit loud and overbearing at times but nonetheless there are some good moments there as well.
As for the flaws of the film.... well MI1 is far from bad but I guess in a way the problem lies with its use of some the characters is pretty minimal such as Kirsten Scott Thomas's character and Emilio Estevez who are quickly killed off. I also felt that Jon Voight's performance was one of the weaker ones in the film and his character's (PLOT SPOILER) betrayal is a bit predictable and he isn't too effective as a villain. The film also stumbles a bit in its climax with Ethan chasing after Phelps on the high speed train as Kruger also pilots his helicopter through the tunnels chasing the train which is a bit silly and over the top.
But those niggles put aside MI1 is still a very entertaining start to the movie franchise of the original TV show and its a pity it would be followed up by the rather medicore MI2 however I will review it nonetheless soon (but I will need it to watch it first as its a film I never really watched all the way through so a bit of homework lies ahead and I will give my opinion on it soon).
So until the next one see you's later.
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