Mission Impossible was as good as the reviews say.
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Nice. Im gonna hit it on the Imax this week
I missed the original Mission: Impossible, and then I saw MI-2 in the theaters because a friend wanted to. It wasnāt aggressively bad, but it was a whole lot of nothing. As we departed the theater, I said, āThat was okay, I guess.ā My friend said, in an upbeat tone, āYeah, it was entertaining.ā
And while that was not the first time I had heard the āentertainingā bit, I pretty much trace that universal backhanded compliment back to specifically MI-2 every time now. Someone says a movie is entertaining, and then I sigh and think with smug contempt, āOh, itās MI-2, is it? So it ranges from actually terrible to passable but totally missable? I see.ā
I havenāt revisited the franchise otherwise, though Iām given to believe that I really should watch the original sometime.
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I think its the best recent movie franchise with 3+ films.
Genuinely not a ton of great options, Harry Potter is there and a few others.
But once McQ took over they got so good.
PSH in 3 is one of the better movie villains ever, even if that movie is too Abrams-y
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MI:2 sucked balls, Iām just gonna say that right here.
MI:1 was brilliant, greatly respected the audienceās intelligence, just a masterwork spy thriller, A+.
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The last couple were near perfect action movies especially Fallout. MI:2 was John Woo and definitely has a different vibe, I donāt rate it too highly in the series.
I rewatched the series last summer and I think I was commenting on them in here. Donāt remember my exact thoughts but I wouldnāt be surprised if 2 was my least favorite although 3 may take that spot. My memory kind of sucks
Iām watching the original now. Bored so far. But itās picking up.
Goddammit I sat through all of Friday Nights Lights thinking there was a rewatchables on it, and no, they just did every other dumb sports movie ever. I think I mixed it up with Blue Chips in my mind.
The feedback here is useful, Iām open to giving some of the other MI installments a shot then. Would certainly start with the first one. Thatās been on the to-watch list for a bit anyway.
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Blue Chips is much more fun than Friday Night Lights.
It better be.
Unfortunately the only one you saw is the worst one by miles. 4/5/6 are essentially their own mobies separate from 1/2/3 and are well worth your time
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1, 4, 6, 5, 3, 2
Here we go again with the MI rankings lolā¦ for me
4>1>>6>>2>5>>3
I think 1 would win if weāre only talking first time watching and not rewatchability. Also wins if you adjust for the time at which it was released (almost 30 years ago !). Itās also the only one where the plot has a few twists.
I understand why people donāt like 2 because itās not a conventionally good movie overall, but the cool parts are very cool (jousting motorcycles, exploding sunglasses,ā¦). Also itās hard for me to not like a movie made by a director I love, and John Woo is one of thoseā¦
4 and 1 are the only ones I would say are truly great movies, all the others are very solid, even 3 is not that bad (but J.J. Abrams is clearly the weakest director in the line-up).
Re : 6, it has a scene in Paris with some young people singing Edith Piaf in a nightclub bathroom. As the one Frenchman here, I feel compelled to inform you that this has never happened (in the last 60 years at least), so this loses points on realism.
Another important criterion would be to judge based on the āTom Cruise as a godā curve, in which case the series was a gradual increase in power (see the Baldwin speech above), which then culminated in a non-franchise movie (Maverick). I doubt 7 can go even higher with that but weāll see 
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Mi2 is one of the very few films I walked out of.
Pretty sure Iāve told this before, but MI2 is possibly my favorite experience in a theater ever.
When I was in college, every Sunday night in the biggest lecture hall they showed a movie that was at the very end of its theatrical run.
MI2 was so bad that the entire theater of hundreds of people just started loudly making fun of it as if it were some giant MST3K episode.
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MI2 is a huge mistake for everyone involved.
We got a great Metallica music video from it.
And Dougray Scott would have been Wolverine instead of Hugh Jackman if he hadnāt taken this role instead as the villain.
But otherwise MI2 has become the poster child for how to kill a franchise.
Part 3 is what resurrected the brand and turned JJ Abrams into a blockbuster director. Before then this biggest accomplishments were the two TV shows Felicity and Alias. Without MI2, we donāt get Force Awakens. Hmm.
MI3 also has an incredible performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The action scenes, particularly the one on the bridge, are incredible.
And holy shit at the action scene that takes place entirely via Tom Cruise narrating the events over walkie talkie lmao but itās amazing.
The studio just wasnāt yet willing to invest that kinda money in MI again, so JJ Abrams had to get very creative. Hereās a typical action scene (mirrored in the Dark Knight) that Abrams turns on its head for suspense and humor.
Strangely, though, I donāt enjoy MI3 much more than part 2. Part 4 is where I could watch each one over and over and over.
The movies become outrageously good with essentially a reboot legacyquel in part 4 that treats part 3 as the pilot episode/movie the franchise will constantly reference going forward for emotional resonance.
And the movies only get better. Theyāre not always better experiences, but it is one of the only franchises to top Fast and Furious for both high quality action scenes that also utilize brief moments of emotional depth that hook you to the characters.
This scene from part 5 is one of the most amazing scenes ever filmed.
A little message for the MI2 haters
pretty sure sequences like the above are why cinema was invented
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I used to play cricket with him in a very informal team back in the late 80s.
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Well this re-frightened me, though admittedly itās semi-unfair because Iāve never even given The Fast and the Furious a chance. Anything that evokes ācar chaseā in my head becomes an immediate no, and I lay awake at night wishing terrible things upon the populace who has confirmed to filmmakers that we as a society REALLY want is to watch some goddamn chase scenes.
When people discuss Terminator vs. Terminator 2, my reaction is always that of course the original is the better movie, and then my head flashes to that absolutely endless chase scene during the climax of T2 as the part that slams the door on any reasonable consideration that my conclusion could be wrong. (The original is better for more reasons than that, of course. Though I enjoyed the sequel, Iām pretty sure the plot can mostly be summarized as āa kid ruins a robot.ā)
Anyway, Iāll still delve in and watch the original M:I at some point. Though I see that itās currently chilling on Paramount, so it wonāt be immediate since I donāt have that. Guess I missed my window when it was on Prime Video.
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