Classic Movie Review: Mission: Impossible (1996)

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it..."

I really love the first Mission: Impossible movie, like really love it. All the action movie franchises of the 90s were sequels from the 80s, like Die Harder, Lethal Weapon 3 and Predator 2. But Mission: Impossible came along and made an original and exciting splash.

On a quiet night in Prague, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) is leading his deep cover team of IMF (Impossible Missions Force, a secret team within the CIA) agents to entrap a terrorist who wishes to steal and sell a list of every known deep cover agent of the CIA. After this goes wrong and nearly every team member dies, the lone survivor of the group, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) comes in for a debrief with IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). Little does he know, that the mission was just to find out who the mole was in the organisation and he is now the prime suspect. Now a disavowed agent, Hunt must clear his name by finding the actual mole and is joined by disavowed agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), as well as Phelps wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart).

I don't think I can explain how much I love this movie. I love it even more than that other ultimate 90s action movie Goldeneye. That's an even more blasphemous claim when you learn how much I love James Bond (just you wait for the 48 hour/24 Bond challenge). But the reason I love it is that it is so exciting. The pacing is so fast and it is well written. Brian De Palma (who also directed another of my favourites, Scarface) makes the story semi-believable, which is important for a blockbuster action movie because none of the action movies of today make much sense.

The film also employs tension perfectly. Take for example the famous vault scene, which uses no sound. This is because the vault that they are breaking into has sound sensors (it makes sense if you watch the whole movie, trust me). Other tense scenes are when Ethan figures out the mole and when the mole is finally revealed.

But that's the one problem I have with this movie. If you've seen it before (like I have, many times since it came out), is that if you know who the bad guy is, the opening sequence kind of ruins the revelation at the end. But this is one tiny problem I have because this movie is all about the journey to get to the end and the action climax at the end is still pretty exciting to watch. But then again, if you're not a fan of old school CGI, it might feel a tiny bit cheesy (it still works for me!).

I think the reason I like this movie so much is due to Ethan Hunt being such a likeable character and that is something that Tom Cruise really has going for him. His boyish charm comes through in this movie (even if you think he's weird because of the Scientology). All the actors in this movie give top notch performances though. Vanessa Redgrave has just the right amount of menace as international arms dealer Max, Emmanuelle Béart is good as Hunt's sidekick (although as the movies progress the characters turn into the same idea as a Bond girl). Both Ving Rhames and Jean Reno are fantastic as the disavowed agents. But the real star is Emilio Estevez at the start of the film, who I am so disappointed isn't in any of the others.

Now I've mentioned James Bond a couple of times in this review and thats because Mission: Impossible is sort of a mid-90s Hollywood response to the dominance of Bond in the thirty years prior to this film. And while it doesn't knock James Bond of his throne, it is still a super exciting movie. If I would give this movie five stars if I could.

John Hughes Movie: The Breakfast Club (1985)

When it came out in 1985, The Breakfast Club was extremely popular and relevant and watching it now, thirty years later, that relevancy is still there. It deals with themes of broken homes, stereotyping and teenage rebellion with such grace and subtlety that leaves you with a truly satisfying feeling after the film has ended.

This is more a character movie than a plot movie. Five students get given a detention on a Saturday and have to endure it together. They each come from a different stereotype that teenagers generally fall into; a nerd, a jock, a criminal, a princess and a basket case (who is just an introverted kid). 

Over the course of the day these kids eventually learn that they each have something in common, despite their socially appointed roles that they think are so important. This is still something that pervades teenage culture today. The kids in the movie discover that these stereotype boundaries don't actually exist, although at the end of the movie they come to the grim reality that despite the time they spent getting to know each other, come Monday they will neglect to recognise that they are just the same as each other.

The other major theme is the idea of rebellion against authority figures. Early on this comes John Bender (Judd Nelson) "the criminal" against principal John Vernon (Paul Gleason). At one point in the film Vernon speaks about his difficulty relating and dealing with the teenagers. The kids also have trouble with their parents. It is hinted that Allison (Ally Sheedy) "the basket case" has an abusive home life. Both Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Andrew (Emilio Estevez) have undue pressure from their parents. Bender and Claire's (Molly Ringwald), "the princess", home lives can be summed up in this clip.

If there's one thing that is consistent throughout Hughes' movies, it's the soundtracks. And this is a great one. Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is a fantastic lead track in a list of songs that includes a lot of other 80's pop classics and themes from TV shows and other movies.

Verdict: Undeniably the best teen movie of all time that hasn't aged one bit.