by Scott Jentsch

Aug 14, 2003

Mission: Impossible stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a member of the Impossible Mission Force. He, and his other IMF team members, work to complete covert missions using technology, teamwork, and cunning. As in many James Bond films, ordinary-looking gadgets that do really cool things are prevalent (I especially like the gum that would cure anyone's nicotine habit!).

I attended Mission: Impossible expecting a James Bond-style movie (perhaps a little lower in quality than your average 007 flick, but much better than the worst of them...), but moreover, I expected it to be a vehicle for Tom Cruise.

For the most part, I was not disappointed. The movie had a better plot than expected, and it didn't lean all that hard on Cruise's star status to carry it along.

The beginning sequence, where the team is working on a mission, is very good. You get involved to the point where you believe that these people have been working together for years, so the synergy between the team members works very well. It's actually unfortunate that they didn't continue with this synergy through more of the film. Instead, the movie falls back on the all-too-common situation of lone hero vs. the bad guy. Sure, he has the help from a few accomplices along the way, but the original team members would have been much better company on the adventure.

Aside from these minor flaws, I thought that Mission Impossible was pretty good. At first, I was considering giving it a "See Now!" rating, but upon further consideration, it's not worth fighting crowds if that's not your favorite thing to do. If you're more the type of person to enjoy seeing a movie when there is a little more elbow room in the theater or if you tend to wait for it to appear in the 2nd run theaters, you will still enjoy this movie just as much. It doesn't lean heavily on sound effects and explosions to the point where, without them, the movie isn't at all worth the time or the money. Which is a refreshing change.

The plot is good, albeit somewhat predictable, and Cruise does a good job getting the viewer to believe in his character. Early predictions had this as the blockbuster movie of the summer; personally, I'm holding out for The Rock or Eraser as my favorite movie of the summer.