1996 Directed by Brian De Palma
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
Tom Cruise Jon Voight Henry Czerny Emmanuelle Béart Jean Reno Ving Rhames Kristin Scott Thomas Vanessa Redgrave Emilio Estevez Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė Karel Dobrý Marcel Iureș Rolf Saxon Olegar Fedoro Dale Dye Ion Caramitru Valentina Yakunina Marek Vašut Nathan Osgood Michael Rogers Keith Campbell John McLaughlin Andreas Wisniewski Ricco Ross Mark Houghton Annabel Mullion Garrick Hagon David Schneider Helen Lindsay Show All…
"Would you like to watch a movie?"
Usually a respected auteur like Brian De Palma doesn't get credit for delivering a great piece of pop blockbuster entertainment unless he or she subverts it in some way, deconstructs the genre or introduces some kind of wildly transgressive element like Verhoeven's satire or Scott's formal mayhem, but that's not what De Palma does here. This is more like his Manhunter, where a great director takes pulpy source material and turns it into a meditation on the act of watching, and the romance and excitement of movies themselves. In the opening sequence, IMF are basically established as a film crew, creating a fake scenario in order to get the name of a spy…
After PULP FICTION maybe the pop masterpiece of the 90s? Probably hyperbole, but minutes after my umpteenth viewing it's the truth.
94/100
Mission: Impossible is delightfully cheesy, aged to perfection and surrounded by the meatiest strip of bacon ever crafted. It's a tasty and junky blast, from the first frame to the last. Brian De Palma has always been known for his sensual and gleefully silly ventures, all of which possess immaculate form and content. but this is easily his most delicious in regards to spookiness. The set-pieces here are just magnificent, relishing in flawless camerawork and ingenious pacing, and it's all enhanced by Danny Elfman's peerless score. In spite of its commitment to tone, De Palma's film also has a rat complicating things and dangerous chewing gum. Fun, fun, and fun.
It's all about the scene in the third act when Ethan and Jim reunite and have a drink together. Jim is trying to convince Ethan that Kittridge is the mole, not knowing Ethan already figured out it was Jim because of the Drake Hotel bible. So Ethan, having the upper hand, narrates a flashback where he pretends to realize how Kittridge did it, all for Jim's benefit -- meanwhile, DePalma's visuals tell a different story: the way Ethan is seeing it, watching Jim take out the IMF team. And even in that sequence, there's a shot of Claire taking out Hannah, and then one of Jim taking out Hannah, because Ethan isn't sure yet of Claire's loyalty. And he can't…
94
Still the gold standard of auteur-franchise-fuckery. De Palma lays out all the traditional crayons and colors inside the lines, yet it still plays like one great big con-job. The *classic* opening, literally dividing its space and revealing itself as a movie-set, is only the beginning of how De Palma constantly expands and constricts his canvas. Shooting wide and large, in the case of the final train/helicopter action set-piece (which is still an all-timer), and shrinking a 'light-bulb' revelation to nothing more than conjoined edits and alternate viewpoints find common ground in his delicious zooms, ghostly steadicam, and operatic tendencies. The looming fog, traveling gazes, and canted angles are right out of early-British-period Hitchcock and Film Noir, but there's a few additions such as exploding chewing gum, floppy-disc-drives, and (gasp!) email. So assured it'll re-wire the brain.
I grew up seeing trailers for movies like this and thinking they were super sophisticated and adult-oriented, but now that I've seen this, it's a movie a teenager or even a pre-teen could understand and digest, and it's a movie with enough camera movements and fast-paced action to hold just about anyone's attention. The plot is also considerably less involved than I had expected. Expectations aside, this was a very fun popcorn movie and a decent start to the franchise, if a bit on the shallow side.
My first foray into the MI series. I went into this expecting nothing but 90s-hot Tom Cruise and the theme song so I had a good time. I did call the big reveal about 5 minutes into the movie but that’s okay. Please let Luther be in the sequels.
2018 new-to-me film 66/100
I'm really starting to think that this movie is an underrated gem and probably one of my all time favorites.
This is so good! Watching Tom Cruise put the pieces together as Jon Voight tells him lies is cinema at its finest. It's solid action, solid writing, and solid pacing. And Vanessa Redgrave is such a boss
Two problems though:
1. Emmanuelle Béart was miscast.
2. She and Jon Voight had zero chemistry.
3. Also, that part where he said "... I've tasted the goods."
It turns out I have never seen this before. It was proper old-school -- which is to say, pretty classy (and somewhat restrained for Mr De Palma).
I can see how one would say the first one is not the best movie in the world. It does have flaws. It's a mediocre De Palma only by 1990's standards. He's sunk so much lower after that.
Some dialogue is a little weird, even with Robert Towne as one of the screenwriters. The plot is just the IMF creating problems that they have to solve, and Hunt's idea of hacking into the CIA for the real list only to use it as bait (and almost have it out in the open) is extremely dumb. Some of the flashy scenes didn't age that well (the aquarium is fine, but not the edgy blockbuster money shot they made it to be…
Jayce Fryman 17,439 films
This list collects every film from the Starting List that became They Shoot Pictures Don't They's 1000 Greatest Films. This…
