Mission: Impossible (Special Collector's Edition)
by Brian De Palma
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DVD details
Actor: Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Jon Voight, Tom CruiseDirector: Brian De Palma
Brand: Mission
Producer: J.C. Calciano
Producer: Paul Hitchcock
Producer: Paula Wagner
Writer: Bruce Geller
Writer: David Koepp
Writer: Robert Towne
Writer: Steven Zaillian
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Mission: Impossible (Special Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: DePalma's Psychological Espionage Thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
Like "The Untouchables" (another film from a classic tv show that DePalma made for Paramount), producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner hired Brian DePalma to direct this espionage/action/summer popcorn fest for Paramount, and once he did, it became a 'Brian DePalma film', filled with lots of psychological profiles, deceptive characters, and a whole host of other mind blowing craftmanship that only he can deliver. Working from a script by Robert Townshend ("Chinatown") and David Koep (who worked with DePalma on "Carlito's Way" and "Snake Eyes"), DePalma delivered a tour-de-force of psychological/action/espionage that is just as mind blowing today as it was when it was released to great acclaim 11 years ago. Yes, still a classic, if not more so, after all these years! His trademark touches are throughout the entire film, swirling camera work, altered camera angles, slpit screen, split dioptor, et al. I haven't seen a film in this genre of such magnitutde since Hitchcock's "Topaz"! And, even though Cruise was a producer of the film, he and DePalma butted heads over budget (Cruise was concerned about going over, and DePalma said "F**k it, who cares!"), and it's obvious Paramount knew who to listen to about that matter (plus, we ALL know what an egotistical/arrogant/ignorant a**hole Cruise is anyways), letting DePalma make the film HIS and not Cruise's.
My mission here, dare I accept it, is to explain the very simple plot of this film (way TOO many people have declared and/or criticized the plot being too convuloted) because a LOT of people (for God knows what reason) just didn't understand it. No offense!
The film opens with a typical DePalma 'bait and switch' scene (where you see one thing, but it turns out to be something entirely different than what you expected it to be), where we are introduced to the first team of spy agents, led by Ethan Hunt (who we all know by now was played by Tom Cruise). They return to base headquarters, and their boss Mr. Phelps (Jon Voight in a superb performance) returns from vacation and sends them on a new mission on a mole hunt to recover a stolen NOC list, a list of spies' names that matches another disc with their code names, and this list of names CANNOT get out in the open. Emilio Estevez turns in a wonderful uncredited performance as Jack, one of the team members (he did it just for the opportunity to work with DePalma) who is first to meet with a sinister fate when this mission goes horribly/horrorfyingly wrong. The rest of the team is killed, Mr. Phelps is shot, so Ethan is the lone survivor, making him the lead suspect as the mole. He is then disavowed as an agent.
Enter Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the head of the whole operation, who is now on the trail of Ethan with (almost) a vengeance, so Ethan goes into hiding. That's when Ethan discovers the trail of 'JOB' and Max, and proceeds by internet to meet with Max (the awesome Vanessa Redgrave in one of her best roles ever). Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), one of the previous team members, and Mr. Phelps' wife (and thought dead) finds Ethan and lets him know that she is alive after all, leading Ethan to be suspicious of her, even as they rebuild a new team of spies (Jean Reno and Ving Rhames, who worked with DePalma in "Casualties Of War") from a list of other disavowed agents.
Then, out of the blue Mr. Phelps returns in a pivotal scene that DePalma plays for all it's worth, with Jim (Phelps) telling Ethan his version of the failed mission, him getting shot, and how he survived, all the while Ethan is having flashbacks of how it REALLY happened (very reminiscent of Hitchcock's classics "Stagefright" which opened with a 'false flashback', and "I Confess", which featured pivotal flashbacks that revealed more than what was being told), letting the viewer in on who REALLY set up Ethan's team for the assasination.
Ethan and team break into Langley in one of the most memorable exhilerating/breathtaking scenes in cinema history to steal the real NOC list so it can be delivered to Max in return for Job. This leads to one of the most awesome set pieces in espionage/action movie history, setting the most climatic scene of all (the film is full of them!) on a train moving at high speed. Ethan saves the NOC list from getting into the open, exposes Job for who he really is, and he and his team are re-avowed back into the spy business. See, simple plot!
DePalma employs a very old technique: Tell a simple story in a very complicated way, something that Hitchcock, Kubrick, Antonioni, Bergman, Fellini, Lynch, and any other great director does to make a great film. And, this is a GREAT film! Forget the sequels (if they could be called such) even exist, for this is the ONLY 'Mission' that exists other than the tv show it is based on. Oh yeah, a final twist:
"How about a cinema of Aruba, Mr. Hunt???".
Thank you!
Description of Mission: Impossible (Special Collector's Edition)
Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, a secret agent framed for the deaths of his espionage team. Fleeing from government assassins, breaking into the CIA's most impenetrable vault, clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers... and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth.Mission Impossible
A flashy, splashy summer-movie blockbuster that's fun and exciting without being mindless? That's the impossible mission accomplished by director Brian De Palma, star-coproducer Tom Cruise, and the crack team of Mission: Impossible. Based on the '60s TV show and an almost impenetrably complex (but nonetheless thrilling) original story by David Koepp (Jurassic Park) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List), with a screenplay by Koepp and Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo), Mission: Impossible begins with veteran agent Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his expert crew embarking on a mission that goes horribly, horribly wrong. But nothing is what it seems. The nail-biting set piece--always a signature of director De Palma (Carrie, The Untouchables)--in which Cruise is lowered from the ceiling to retrieve information from a computer in a high-security vault--is an instant classic. But perhaps even more impressive, at least in retrospect, is a flashback sequence in which two characters attempt to reconstruct a series of events from multiple points of view. It's pretty daring and sophisticated stuff for a big-budget spy movie, but brains were always what put the Mission: Impossible team ahead of the competition, anyway, no? --Jim Emerson
Mission Impossible II
Visually stunning, and a likely must for John Woo aficionados, the second Mission: Impossible outing from megastar Tom Cruise suffers from an inconsistent tone and tired plot devices--not only recycled from other films, but repeated throughout the film. Despite remarkable cinematography and awe-inspiring, trademark Woo photography, the movie offers a tepid story from legendary screenwriter-director Robert Towne (Chinatown, Without Limits) and a host of other writers, most uncredited.
It is, regrettably, as forgettable as the first big-budget, big box-office MI in 1996, and it's clear (as Towne confirms) that the plot was developed around Woo- and Cruise-written action sequences. The film combines equal elements of romance and action, and is best when it features the stunning allure of Thandie Newton as Nyah, a master thief recruited by the sinewy charms of Ethan Hunt (a fit Cruise). Deeply in love after a passionate night, the couple must then combat MI nemesis (and Nyah's former lover) Sean Ambrose (Ever After's Dougray Scott). Ambrose holds hostage a virus and its cure, and offers them to the highest bidder.
Woo's famed mythic filmmaking is far from subtle, with heroic Hunt frequently slow-motion walking through fire, smoke, or other similar devices, replete with a white dove among pigeons to signal his presence. The emphasis on romance is an attempt to develop character and a more human side to superspy Hunt, but still the dreary story proves a distraction from the exciting action sequences. John Polson (as an MI team member) is an Aussie talent to keep an eye on. --N.F. Mendoza
Mission Impossible III
At the time of its release, Mission: Impossible III's box office was plagued by the publicity backlash against couch-jumping star Tom Cruise. It's too bad, because this third installment of the spy thriller franchise deserved a better reception than it got. First-time feature director J.J. Abrams (bigwig TV director/producer of Lost, Alias, & Felicity) proves more than able-bodied in creating a Mission: Impossible that's leaner and less over-stylized than John Woo's sequel and less confusing than Brian De Palma's original. Plot is still a throwaway here (Cruise's Ethan Hunt rescues his kidnapped former trainee and works to steal a device that... well, we don't really know what it does, but it's something about mass destruction that costs $850 million), but the action sequences, particularly one where Ethan faces down a helicopter on a bridge and gets flung hard against the side of a car, are particularly impressive since Cruise, at 44, is still doing most of his own stunts and shows no hint of the weathered look that's struck his action-star peers. (Though no Mission: Impossible stunt will ever be quite as simultaneously nail-biting and funny as the first film's wire-dangling break-in of CIA headquarters.)
Mission: Impossible III boasts a pedigreed cast, particularly Oscar® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) as baddie arms dealer Owen Davian. Hoffman plays Owen all teeth-clenched and cool, especially when threatening to kill Ethan in front of his lovely new wife (Michelle Monaghan) who has no idea of his spy life. But in his first action-film lead role, Hoffman's almost too calm and collected to really make a memorable villain, especially when the rest of the cast--Ving Rhames (the only other cast member to return for all three films), Asian film star Maggie Q, and an underused Jonathan Rhys-Meyers--are a highlight as Ethan's IMF team. Mission: Impossible is still fun popcorn spy fare, and if Cruise chooses to end the franchise here, at least he goes out on a high note. --Ellen A. Kim
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