Rewatched (in the background) Mission: Impossible, the original 1996 (!) Tom Cruise flick, while Katherine was a pre-school today (as background to my getting lots of telecommuting work done, of course).
The Good
- Though plenty of folks critique the plot as being too complicated, that’s about the only thing (other than window dressing) that gets brought over from the original series, which were always about convoluted plots (how much simpler the IMF team’s job would be if they were just allowed to use a nice sniper rifle …). The plot is complex, but pretty much everything gets explained at the end, without too many seams showing.
- The cast is a good one. Cruise plays a wonderfully intense Ethan Hunt. The caper ensembles — both of them, in fact — work well together. Vanessa Redgrave’s work is enjoyable.
- Danny Elfman’s score is perfect, one of the best he’s done, in fact. That they went to the cost of bringing in and using to good effect the Schifrin theme (unlike some other big-budget TV remakes) was an excellent decision. I could almost have wished they’d used some of the TV incidental themes, but I wouldn’t pass up Elfman’s work, either.
The Bad
- The film sets up Kittridge as an obnoxious, overbearing Control, lacking only twirling moustachios to come off as the main bad guy. Yet, in the end, not only does he turn out to be right in all but his (understandable) suspicion of Hunt, but he plays a key role in the final defeat of the bad guys.
- Gratuitous romance between Ethan and Claire, and gratuitous violent end of same.
- The computer interfaces are beautiful to behold — but unnecessarily so. These things don’t need to be visually exciting; indeed, that robs them of some of their verisimilitude.
- The computer stuff hasn’t held up well in general. Granted that it was probably written in 1995, the inclusion of actual technologies in the film (Oooooh, a “686 prototype,” you say?) immediately dates it in a way that very little else does.
The Ugly
- Jim Phelps would never, ever do that. Never. Ever. Forget it. Assume he’s a clone, or an evil twin, or something like that. Never. Ever.
- Gratuitous actor-getting-spiked-through-the-eye shot. (Though I do wonder why, evidently, Emilio Estevez wasn’t credited with the role.)
An enjoyable flick, overall, moreso now that I’m doing the Spycraft game.
(I’ve never seen the sequel, though from what I understand, it suffered from “sequelitis,” where the three “best” things in the original are extracted, cranked up to 11, and shoved into a new plot, usually with dismal results. Still, I guess it did well enough to warrent a third outing next year.)
77 view(s)
arrrggghhh!
Feh!
This movie had me yelling at the screen worse the Episode’s 1 and 2 of Star Wars.
The Plot was thin and transparent( I am still looking for the people that thought that the plot was “too complicated”, so I can laugh at them). The security system was a joke. Cruise does what he almost always does…play Cruise. He’s just just a Hayden Christensen in his 40’s.
The ending was probably the most anger inducing part of it. The train is an Electric train. They are fighting in the Catenary well on the back/front of the train. It was a “Hey, we really need a cool ending for this turkey…How about an old-fashioned-fight-on-a-train scene”.
Even the worst of the Bond’s are better then this one.
Redgrave and Elfman’s score were the only bright spots in the flick. Though I am still a bit more partial to Elfman’s work in Batman and Edward Scissor’s-hands.
Huh. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think it’s fine adrenaline candy. (And it was fun listening to it on the new sound system.)
As for the “The Plot is Too Complicated” folks — check out the Amazon reviews.
The Amazon Comments were a great laugh Dave. Thanks!
I had four problems with this film, some of which you’ve touched on:
1: Learn what newsgroups are like before trying to use them as a plot device!
2: It was M:I up until the helicopter, when it became 007.
3: Recasting Phelps did not work. I wonder if they tried to get Peter Graves. If so, I like to think he turned it down because of
4: “Jim Phelps would never, ever do that. Never. Ever. Forget it. Assume he’s a clone, or an evil twin, or something like that. Never. Ever.” No friggin’ way. Unacceptable. Simply, absolutely, totally unacceptable. Period.
Yes, yes, no, yes.
Jon Voight did, I thought, a fine job as Jim Phelps — up to the point that he turned into a traitorous backstabber. Graves was, I fear, too old for the role. Voight was fine — he was even fine as Phelps’ evil twin. The problem was not the actor, but the role.
The entire cast of MI was very upset by the movie. Here’s what Peter Graves said about it:
“I know that when the publicity first came out, before the picture was released, even before it was shot, that they were making a movie of it. People asked are you going to be in it,” Greg Morris said. The actor had to tell them “no.” For seven years, Morris portrayed the force’s electronics wizard Barney Collier. He also checked out the movie. His opinion? “I left early.”
What bugged Morris also bothered Graves. The film did choose to have a character named Jim Phelps, played by Jon Voight. “I am sorry that they chose to call him Phelps. They could have solved that very easily by either having me in a scene in the very beginning, or reading a telegram from me saying, hey boys, I’m retired, gone to Hawaii. Thank you, good-bye, you take over now,” Graves said.
“I felt a little bad that they called him Phelps, and what happens to him happens,” Graves said cryptically. (Don’t ever come crying to us about how we give away the ending.)
Well, Graves and Morris were. But, then, that’s been a truism of many TV actors shut out of movie revivals of their roles or shows. The only real bitch that Graves has, at least, is how “his” character was portrayed.
I think it’s nice when remakes incorporate earlier actors, though it’s almost never done as the same characters, but as cameos (Superman and Lost in Space come to mind). But if the production company doesn’t choose to do so, that’s their call. (I feel more strongly about using music riffs from the original, frankly.)