Mission......Tom Cruise

Want to see a fast action movie with a lot of different “faces”? How about a lot of close up shots of Tom Cruise, hair blowing in the breeze, muscles pumped? Hang on then, cause your in for a fast, fun, exciting, unbelievable film. They don’t call it Mission IMPOSSIBLE for nothing!

OK! I just love Tom Cruise. I am as hung up on him as Rosie O’Donnell, I swear! I am telling you this because this is one, no THE main reason I liked this movie so much. My husband and I went to see this film last Saturday evening. He was not as impressed with it as I. Hey, I could have taken him to some sappy love film, right? And the leading lady Nyah Hall(played by Thandie Newton) was a really nice looking babe. They fall in love and of course are the main focus of the film, other than "Chimera" the deadly man made virus. So I guess we could call it an action packed love story.


The film opens with an airplane scene ( I will not go into great detail, in case you haven’t yet seen the film), then moves on to Tom Cruise climbing a cliff. What beautiful scenery! It is on this cliff that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is given his assignment. He puts on his sunglasses and listens to Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins) give him his orders. Find Nyah Hall ...she is an international jewel thief and he will need her help on this mission. We soon find out that she is also Sean Ambrose’s (the villain) ex-girl. Dougray Scott plays Sean Ambrose. I am not familiar with any of his past work, however, he did do a good job in this film playing the bad guy. I found him repulsive and a bit over the top, but I guess that was the whole jest of it.


So it goes....the race is on to figure out what exactly has been stolen and why. Ethan must find the deadly virus, destroy it and save the world from a greedy, murderous bunch of mad men. Nyah is used as the pawn to get to the source. The car chases, motorcycle chases, and fight scenes seem to drag on and on at times. It is a fairly violent film, surely worth at least the PG-13 rating. I was a little unnerved by the sight of a couple of children younger than 10 in the audience, but what can you do? They were with their parents. I caution against this, however.


I felt this movie should have been cut down a bit from it’s 2 hour and 6 minute running time. I wanted to see it in the theater because of the sound and high impact, but it became quite uncomfortable sitting for this length of time. Metallica’s “I Disappear” and Limp Bizkit’s “Take A Look Around” (M:I-2’s theme) are well worth listening too.


This film is directed by John Woo (Face/Off). You will never be too sure who is who in this film. The rip off faces become commonplace throughout the film, which does keep you in suspense. I would recommend this film for Tom Cruise fan’s, of course, and anyone that likes a good action packed flick. I was not disappointed and got exactly what I expected.....an interesting 126 minutes!