Mission Impossible

I've been an admire of Mission Impossible since the original series. Of course I caught the original series in syndication because it aired before I was born. The storyline follows a super covert special mission force who operates in complete secrecy and if anyone on the team is caught they're on their own. In 1988 they did an updated version of the show which I loved but unfortunately it didn't last long. The original series lasted 7 seasons and the re-vamped series only lasted two. Then along comes Tom Cruise and makes the Mission Impossible series into a film franchise. And he did an awesome job!

In this first film Tom Cruise establishes the character Ethan Hunt as the best operative that the IMF, Impossible Mission Force, has. The story has him setup as a traitor and he has to go on the run to prove his innocence. It was an awesome movie that was more story driven than action driven, though there was plenty of on-the-edge of your seat action to be had. It was well acted by all the actors and the story flowed at a decent pace, though slow for others. I was especially happy with Ving Rhames being cast as expert computer hacker, Luther Stickell. This is still my favorite of the four but it is not the best. Ethan Hunt is basically an modern American version of James Bond.

 

Doesn't that just look exciting?!

This second installment of Ethan Hunt's exploits was much more action driven than story driven. Though there was a strong cohesive story, the action was the focus. Tom went full old school 80's action hero in this one. Thandie Newton's character as the semi-love interest and partial motivation for Ethan completing his mission was an excellent choice. Ving shows up again and is still just cool on screen. Overall though this was my least favorite of the films.

Ethan finds himself back on the outside of the IMF and having to find the traitor he is accused of being. Man, this happens to him a little too much. If you can't trust your super duper covert super duper agents who can you trust, huh? Anyway, this third film got the balance of story and action almost flawlessly. The first was a little too much story and the second was too much action. One of my favorite actors ever, Laurence Fishburne showed up as one of the IMF decision makers. He, of course, more than held his own when on screen with Tom. Philip Seymour Hoffman did an excellent job as the villian. And Ving was here reprising his role of Luther Stickell once again. This one was very good.

THIS movie was just pure AWESOME SAUCE!!!! This fourth and latest installment of the Mission Impossible franchise was edge of your seat awesome from beginning to end. Ethan was put through the ringer, and this time we really get to see the rest of the agents on his IMF team shine. Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Simon Pegg were excellent agents and complimented Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt well. Especially Paula. Whooooooooweee that woman is fine. And she can act. And she can fight. She did very well. I truly hope she is in the next one. Ving showed up at the very end. Me thinks he'll be in the next one more actively. The story was good and executed very well. It was tight and concise. The action was excellent, above and beyond what was done in the previous films but not over the top. They went into the gadget territory a little bit but it was done well. Ethan used the gadgets but was quite capable without them, unlike the old version of that other agent dude whose initials are J.B. This is the best film in the franchise so far. I've seen it twice and cannot wait for the Blu-Ray!


Bonus pics:

 

Paula Patton as agent Jane Carter. Damn!

 

Jane Carter in action. Gotta love it! That look says, "I WILL kill you."