• Director: John Woo
• With: Tom Cruise, Thandiwe Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins, Dominic Purcell, William Mapother, Rade Serbedzija
• Music by: Hans Zimmer
• Duration: 123 min
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Based upon the Mission: Impossible tv-series
• Rating: 6,5/10

Review:

How opinions on movies can change with time passing… I remember seeing this with a friend in the cinema in 2000 thinking it was one of the best action movies of its time… and now rewatching it… my opinion has turned to the opposite to be honest… it’s the worst movie in the M:I series (followed by Fallout) so don’t expect a very good review… (sorry for the fans!)

A scientist creates Chimera, a deadly virus with which he injects himself and takes the plane to the States. Joining him is Ethan Hunt or at least, that’s what he thinks. In fact it’s a disavowed I.M.F. agent, Ambrose, who wants to steal the virus and the antidote. The real Ethan Hunt is then hired by I.M.F. to assemble a team and get the virus and the antidote back. In order to get what they want, Ethan is asked to hire Nyah Hall, Ambroses ex! But when Hunt starts to get feelings for Hall he has to work around his jealousy and stay professional to reach his goal.

It was Tom Cruise who wanted John Woo’s typical style of moviemaking for this movie, although Woo planned a continuation of De Palma’s way of filming. That results in over the top action scenes, bullets flying around, things blowing up and a final hand to hand combat climatic scene…

But this movie was supposed to be over three hours, that was what John Woo had filmed and edited the movie into… but the studio wanted a shorter movie so Woo had to ‘downsize’ making this movie a bit of a mess and one with a few plot holes (things were left out that had an impact on the storytelling).

And Woo used something in this movie that was very popular in the early 2000s, slow motion scenes! Looking back on this way of filming, it feels outdated and very unnecessary! (When Cruise meets Thandiwe Newton’s character Nyah Hall, this slow-mo feels so redundant).

Plus the second half of the movie almost completely erases Newton’s character which is a damn shame as she is a very talented actress that deserved more screen time!

I’m not saying it’s a bad movie… plot holes and mistakes are in almost every movie made. But it’s just the way the movie suddenly feels so outdated to me, not withstanding the test of time, in the way certain scenes are brought to life… and as in every action movie: stupid decisions are made throughout the story… otherwise we wouldn’t have a two hour movie, I guess…

It’s weird how a person changes and how visions can change after all these years. Maybe in ten years I will think this movie even better than I thought the first time I saw it? Who knows? 🤷