Wednesday, May 22, 1996
By Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Anyone who felt let down after watching "Cliffhanger" can attest
to the fact that movie trailers and movies themselves are two
vastly different beasts.
When you make a film, you construct a story, worry about
performances and often deal with elaborate exposition.
When you make a trailer, you blow shit up.
"Mission: Impossible" had a world-class trailer. Perhaps the
best of the summer, maybe even of the year. There’s that great shot
of Tom Cruise descending from the ceiling to access a computer, and
the knockout special effects of Cruise hurling around on a train
and a helicopter. Oh, and the theme song, a tune that wild horses
can’t drag from your head.
So everyone and their mother will show up to see a decidedly
unspectacular film. The worst news first: The best clips of the
movie show up in that minute-long preview. "Mission" lacks the
action to compete with "Twister" or the soon-to-be-released "The
Rock," and only partially delivers the adrenaline summer movies
swear by. Expect less, because no one’s getting more.
Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, one of a team of boring but elite
agents sent to Prague to ferret out a rogue spy for the good old
U.S. of A. Their initial mission, an elaborately constructed but
uneventful slice of espionage, seems to be going OK until one of
the team gets bloodily squished.
Agents start dying and Hunt ends up alone, confused and
horrified in Prague. Luckily, no one trots out and yells at him,
"You could’ve been the best," but it’s implied. His mission: to
make sense of what happened and get out alive and on top.
Your mission: to make sense of a complicated and sometimes
convoluted plot. "Mission," written by most of Hollywood’s finest,
including Robert Towne and Steven Zaillian, fills the screen with
spies on every side of the fence. There are never clearly defined
opponents, and every character is constantly redefining events
already seen.
These machinations, recently more fruitful in "Usual Suspects,"
are intriguing for a while, but one gets the sense even the
performers didn’t quite know why they were doing what, when.
Tracing character motivations throughout the story, something
"Mission" begs one to do, is unfulfilling.
But this won’t be the complaint of the millions of summer
moviegoers who let the fine print wash over them. They’ll be let
down by the lack of action, as this film needs at least two more
set piece gun, knife or fist fights to compete with other summer
films in its genre.
DePalma’s direction is more lively than the proceedings Â
one gets the sense he thinks he’s making a more meaningful film.
Cruise’s performance is consistently passable, but during his
speeches the audience is slightly uneasy. He just seems so close to
lapsing into stale melodrama.
Surrounding actors are a sturdier lot. Jean Reno and Ving Rhames
get to demonstrate their charismatic cool, Emmanuelle Beart pouts
with abandon and Henry Czerny perfects the bureaucratic asshole.
Jon Voight is convincing as grizzled agency champ Phelps, the sole
character held over from the TV series. Unfortunately for Voight,
two things beyond his control work against him: He’s replacing the
memorable Peter Graves from the television show, and age has made
him look too much like Adam West to be taken seriously.
Luckily, the boredom of "Mission’"s first hour is almost erased
by the high-tech and suspenseful dangling scene at the heart of the
trailer. And any hesitation caused by script or story is completely
forgotten after the heart-pounding and wickedly implausible train
finale.
Unfortunately, after these two action scenes are through, so is
the movie. There isn’t any message or insight to be had, not even a
simple lesson like "tornadoes are mean." Watching the "Mission:
Impossible" trailer about 90 times in a row might have been just as
stimulating.
FILM: "Mission: Impossible." Written by David Koepp and Robert
Towne. Directed by Brian DePalma. Starring Tom Cruise. Opens
everywhere today. Grade: B
Tom Cruise in a scene from the film "Mission: Impossible," which
opens in theaters everywhere today.