Mission: Impossible

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, & Emmanuelle Beart

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Many will be surprised that I am reviewing this film, especially twenty years after it was released, but it was Directed by the legendary, Brian De Palma, making it a must see for me. In general, I find these huge franchise films to be fun, some are better than others, but that's usually based on the writing and the cast. In watching the first of the Mission: Impossible films, my expectations were very high, and while Tom Cruise didn't disappoint, Brian De Palma certainly did. The king of mystery could have developed a better story than this. The action sequences were impressive and the special effects were way over the top, but I still felt the story could have been developed a lot more. Maybe being the first film in an eventual franchise, producers wanted to give the series as much action and explosions as possible. If that was the case, they should have called Michael Bay, this film has all the makings of one of his films, not a De Palma film. That being said, the bottom line is that first mission is exactly what you'd expect it to be. Student replacing teacher, in a film that's one chase and fire fight after another. It was entertaining, but not something that requires a whole lot of thinking.