MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - FALLING THROUGH THE FRANCHISE

 I had a plan but I got distracted......  

My plan was to go through all of Master of Horror Wes Craven's filmography I could get my hands on.  But then to avoid watching The Last House on the Left I clicked on the first Mission: Impossible from 1996.  Why not go through this series as well, it's a great action movie franchise that leans into what Tom Cruise does best, be a movie star and be a movie star while running.  The best thing for me about the franchise is that it is a show case for the director as much as it is for Cruise.  Nearly every movie is about how a Director can fit their style into an action setting.  Apart from the Christopher McQuarrie Administration, each Mission: Impossible has a distinctive style and alternating Cruise hair cuts.  Going through the series was a fun experience and I found something to love in each movie.  

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, DIRECTED BY BRIAN DE PALMA 1996

Watching the first Mission Impossible reminds why I love Brian De Palma so much.  The man can never just point and shoot.  It has to be an array of different angles, colours, perspectives and cuts.  There is always something interesting to look at, whether the multitude of odd expressions caught from Tom Cruise when he wasn't looking isn't looking or array of angles.  I swear you never see the same thing with the same shot in Mission: Impossible.  Which is maybe why Cruise looks weird because we are not seeing him from his best side.  You may not like De Palma, but you'll never be bored.  Mission: Impossible was part of that 90s boom of film remake of classic television shows.  The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies, Adams Family,  The Mod Squad, Wild Wild West.  I think I saw all of those in theatres.  Adams Family Values, twice.  But what I love about Mission: Impossible is that this is not just a remake, it's a De Palma movie, and he's going to pull the rug from under you and Emilo Esteves has a piece of elevator shaft stuck in his face.  The Spy genre is perfect for De Palma, he's been quietley making them for years within Hitchcockian thrillers.  So the notion of spies, voyeurism and pretending to be someone else, is right up De Palma's alley.  But also it was De Palma proving that he could make a block buster.  And he did.  And it's a fun movie.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II, DIRECTED BY JOHN WOO 2000

The second Mission: Impossible or M:I2 fits into that specific movie category of weirdly misogynistic movies I like.  Movies where the misogyny just pops up randomly and not insidiously woven into the spine like most movies, think Armageddon or the random 1977 Canuxploitation Cathy's Curse.  There's a weird hardness to how Anthony Hopkins says the line, to go to bed with a man and lie to him, she's a woman, she's got all the training she needs.  Ouch Hopkins, where did that come from.  M:I2 feels like a loose remake of the Hitchcock classic, and one of my favorites, Notorious.  Thandie Newton is caught between spies and is surprisingly okay with being prostituted out - but because she is a bloody thief she doesn't have a conscience?  I don't think Woo is commenting on how men can treat or use women, but he's definitely using it as a plot point.  In how Thandie Newton is portrayed it does not help that M:I2 is a glorious mess of a movie, her perspective and what she means to the movie comes out in fits and starts, so things like the brutal sexism does feel likes it's coming out of nowhere.  Well that, and as much as I like Tom Cruise as movie star, but I just can't as him as a romantic interest.  Maybe if John Wood got his three and a half hour epic the themes would have been more streamlined but nothing emotional sticks.

However, the glorious mess helps with the Woo-ism of the piece.  And the Woo-isms are fantastic.  The space Woo uses in M:I2 are great, not only do they give the action room but also the sound design.  The gun shots feel like they have an echo as they fly through the air.  A Mission Impossible movie feels almost perfect for Woo, big action and plenty of duality to place around it.  The Mask action here in M:I2 feels more playful and digs into the duality of what it means to wear the mask of someone else.  In the words of John Travolta being Nicholas Cage, it's like looking into a mirror but ... not.  John Woo is one of those directors who developed a new form of cinematic language with how he shot action.  His movies need to be epic and Shakespearean to get the grammar in it's correct form.  But even with a chopped M:I2 you get these amazing large action sequences.  It's the over the top that I really respond to when it comes to Mission Impossible, with De Palma it's the editing and Woo it's the bigness of the action sequences.  Over all I really do like Mission Impossible 2.    

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III,  DIRECTED BY J J ABRAMS 2011

If each director is bringing there own scene of style, pace and action to the Mission Impossible movies, on the third movie helmed by J J Abrams I am coming to the conclusion that these are all style over substance.  But I here for it.  Before this re-watch, I have always thought the third was my favorite of the franchise (spoiler, it's not any more), for it's Philip Seymour Hoffman and it's incomprehensible non-stoppable nature of it all.  Like a lot of Abrams joints, M:I3 it's built around a mcguffin or puzzle box - the Rabbits Foot and fit feels like it's being told to you by an excited year old who doesn't speak with punctuation.  M:I3 does not stop stopping.  And I still like it a lot for those reasons.  You just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.  The first few M:I movies don't really make sense, M:I3 might be the more incomprehensible, yet most serious in it's incomprehensible.  This might have something to do with Philip Seymour Hoffman who can make the gibberish they give him sound grounded.  Unfortunately, Tom Cruise trying to have an emotional connection just doesn't work for me.  And I love Michelle Monaghan, she's working hard and doing her best - but Action Cruise is the same as  Action Cruise in love.  I'm getting nothing.  Even though M:I3 is no longer my favorite, I will still watch it anytime any where.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL,  DIRECTED BY BRAD BIRD, 2015

I am a full convert to Ghost Prots.  It's like an intricate clockwork machine, the precision of the action and how moves and changes is immaculate.  Brad Bird was really able to bring his animate action from The Incredibles to the live screen.  And I loved every moment of it.  Ghost Prots feels the most like Buster Keaton-esque out of the series.  Nothing feels staged about the stunt work, cause you have Tom Cruise actually hanging off the side of Burj Kahalifa in Dubai, and Bird makes full effect of not cutting around the action to hide the stunt double.  And with Bird's natural 1960s futuristic style, and because now Cruise is trying every death defying stunt for our entertainment, the action feels cleaner and fluid.  The fact that the M:I team is on their own just makes the action and how it's film just that more delicious, because the every action sequence is furthering the story and each has it's own pacing and arc.  And maybe because he has that room Bird is the first director who manages to balance style, action and story.  I just really like all the performances, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton all feel a touch too qualified but they all bring something great to the movie, they are part of the mechanics, and it all works.  I kinda love this movie.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION - DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE (2015)

Welcome to the McQuarrie Administration.  It's a little bitter sweet that the next Mission Impossible movies in the near future will be helmed by solely by Christopher McQuarrie, because what I love is seeing how different directors styles fit into the Mission Impossible Action.  But McQuarrie is Cruise's guy, and with McQuarrie the stunts keep getting bigger.  In Rogue Nation we really see the cementing of what was begun in Ghost Prots, how the action is shot, how characters are developed.  For me it's the more simple seeming stunts that are the most impressive.  In the mid way motorcycle chase, Cruise is trying to get past a large truck with cars coming in the other direction.  The timing of this has to be perfect, no matter the speed of what is happening.  Rogue Nation feels very much like controlled chaos, again the IMF team is thinking and learning on their feet.  It's a smart if dangerous format, it's kind of like even when it looks like it's going break, don't fix.  I'll show myself out.

Though, lets be honest Rogue Nation is all about Rebecca Ferguson, who scissor leapt into my heart in a gorgeous gold high split dress.  She injects new and fresh life into the movie, as she does with nearly everything she's in.  I like it's Rebecca Ferguson who is the Rogue Nation in question, not Tom Cruise.  It's Ferguson who gives Rogue Nation it's depth, which is important because I felt McQuarrie trying to balance all the elements and some times getting getting stuck in the quagmire.  I adore Ferguson just takes control over the movie with a mere flick of her manicured eye brow.  

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT - DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE 2018

Fallout is far too long and bloated.  However, it is my happy place. My collective crushes on Rebecca Ferguson and Henry Cavill is strong.  Never underestimate my enjoyment of Cavill cocking his fists in the bathroom fight.  There are just too many line readings and tiny character moments where I just giggle in the purest of joys.  In terms of the movie itself, I can feel McQuarrie smoothing out the rough edges around Fallout.  The action, drama and characterization feel more balanced, and McQuarrie really lingers on those tiny beats.  More than anything, when Fallout goes large it really goes large, and it could be argued because of this where Fallout's bloated-ness comes from, whole action set pieces can be considered it's own act.  Tom Cruise has to get a small detonator, which of course he uses a helicopter to fight another helicopter to get it, you know as you do.  I am not sure how much bigger the series can go, or they will at one stage they are just going to shoot Tom Cruise into space.  Fallout might not be the best in the Mission Impossible Series but it is a comfort movie, fight helicopters and all.

I have one request, if we could give Rebecca Ferguson her own Franchise where she can ride motor bikes, kick ass and wear hats, while wandering around the country I'll be happy.  And yes, I want some one to combine Elsa with Rose the Hat.