3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Tom Cruise- back in style!
Date of Review: May 28, 2000
With all of the hype surrounding this (or any movie for that matter) movie, there is bound to be some level of disappointment. And that pretty much holds true here. But not much. It starts out with some breathtaking scenery of our protagonist Ethan Hunt on vacation mountain climbing. The scenes were so breathtaking (and people were so shocked that it really WAS Tom Cruise up there) that some of the audience were gasping just at this. It was pretty intense. But here, for a while, is where the movie slows down.
I'll be the first to admit that we Americans are often too quick to see an action movie with lots of gunfire and explosions. We are quite mad fer it. But I am usually more discriminating. Still, going into this picture (about which I heard that some of the best action scenes EVER were transferred onto celluloid), I wanted some serious action. And this movie delivers that. But not without what seemed like an hour long interval until the real action started.
I am one for building a plot and characters, but this interval did not seem to successfully do that. I found the relationship between Ethan and his Bondesque woman to be just that- typical "I'm a dashing international spy and therefore suave but you must play hard to get." This is typical John Woo stuff here- even down to the flying doves (anyone remember those guys from Face/Off?). The action, when it comes, is intense and quite gripping. But this movie essentially faces the same problems as the last few James Bond movies- trying to act like there is a plot in there somewhere when there really is not one.
Still, not bad. I paid $7.50 to see this movie, and I didn't feel like I got ripped off. Maybe, because of all the hype surrounding it, I just expected more. Silly fun, but fun nevertheless.
