Review of Mission Impossible (1971) by Anssi V — 04 Nov 2012

Mission Impossible is one of those movies pretty much everyone knows, along with Dirty Harry, Die Hard and the like. And rightfully so, as it is a very solid action piece with memorable scenes, interesting plot twists and masterfully recycled classics and clichés. It's one of those movies that define a genre, in this case an action/heist genre.

Of the listed good qualities, I'd definitely pick the memorable scenes as the one thing that keeps this film in people's minds. This film is full of iconic scenes that have been remade, praised and parodied ever since. From the hanging computer heist to the chase sequence on top of the train, I'd say that if you haven't seen the original, you've probably seen many of its scenes in slightly different variations in other films. They're that good. Other memorable and well-done things include the score, obviously, and the story that's not terribly original or new, but which has been given a different spin to make it feel like it's original and new.

On the downside, the characters aren't very good, in my honest opinion. The actors playing them are terrific, even though I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, but they're not given much to work with. The main character Ethan Hunt especially just doesn't have that larger than life quality that John McClane and Harry Callahan have in abundance. He's not a bad character, none of them are, he's just not very memorable. He's a set piece, there to move the plot along, more than anything.

It's still very watchable movie, but not on my personal list of the top action films of all time. Still, every fan of action movies has seen it at least once, which is pretty much the highest compliment that you can pay to a movie, and it has earned that compliment.