Mission: Impossible
If it weren't for Tom Cruise, the special effects, and the miraculous stunts, Mission: Impossible would have been a horrid action movie with cliches popping up everywhere. But those three elements combined create a terrific and entertaining, though confusing, action movie. Confusing is the key word here, as I was overwhelmed by the plot twists and number of characters that I had to keep track of. One mistake might have been to cast people that look alike in dark places. The second time I saw Mission: Impossible I was able to follow the most of the story and plot without losing my mind. But when I saw it the first time, I kept asking other people, "Didn't she die?" and yet they didn't know either.
That brings up a question: Are movies too complicated for today's viewers? Many of the people, my parents included, that have grown up when movies were slow and thoughtful understood the plot around MI. However, today, movies are fast and usually dumb, and producers think that the audience will fall for action and tense situations and forget about characters and plot. Most of the time, they are right. Perhaps that is why I was lost with this movie: I figured that it was an action picture so I turned my brain off just to watch the special effects and stunts take over. The same thing happened with The Usual Suspects. Maybe the producers want to make complicated movies, because they know people will want to come back to see what they missed.
However, I'm sure that multiple viewings of this movie would have come even without a complex screenplay. The action is so taut with suspense and the special effects are dynamic that many people would come back just to figure out how Tom Cruise was blown from a train, onto a helicopter, and back onto the train. One of my favorite scenes involves Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and a group of disenvowed secret agents break into a computer center to get a copy of the agency's spy list. It's a tense sequence, mostly when Hunt is hanging by two cords just inches away from a very sensitive floor. Of course, there are many other action scenes, and one notable one (besides the train sequence) is right at the beginning with Hunt and several other members of the spy agency trying, what I think, to catch someone taking the spy list (though I'm not very sure). Unfortunately, someone starts killing the spy team off.
The casting is also a terrific thing about the movie. Tom Cruise fits the role perfectly, but I think he was probably just chosen because it would draw a lot of women viewers to the movie. However, I actually think that mostly men went to see the movie because it's a testosterone-rush of action and adrenaline. Women will enjoy it just as much, if not more because they understand things more than men and probably could explain the entire movie to anyone that asked them about it. But that's besides the point. Cruise is very cool to watch and he does things that we don't quite believe. Then again, the entire movie is hard to believe. Not only is Cruise a good choice, but Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, and Vanessa Redgrave are terrific in their supporting roles, which seem a little small for the movie.
The best thing about this movie is the final chase sequence, which involves a high-speed train travelling from France to Britain. Cruise is thrown around a lot during this scene, mostly by explosions and wind. But on top of that train, Cruise fights Voight and manages to hook the helicopter following them to the train. The train travels into the Chunnel, which Ebert says is too small for a helicopter to fly into. But since I've never seen the Chunnel, I don't know how big it really is. The special effects are all done by Industrial Light and Magic, the biggest visual effects company in Hollywood. I mean, how else are you going to show Cruise himself fly from an exploding helicopter and landing back on the train?
Mission: Impossible is rated PG-13. It's violent and sometimes gruesome, but there isn't much blood shown. There is some language as well. What probably got it that rating is because the plot is so complicated that only 13 year olds and up would be able to understand it, and not even 40 year olds would be able to understand it. But just remember: the plot is just there to setup action scenes, incredible ones at that. Of course what is a good Mission without those really cool Spy Gear either?