The feedback here is useful, I’m open to giving some of the other MI installments a shot then. Would certainly start with the first one. That’s 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 lol… for me
4>1>>6>>2>5>>3
I think 1 would win if we’re 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 !). It’s also the only one where the plot has a few twists.
I understand why people don’t like 2 because it’s not a conventionally good movie overall, but the cool parts are very cool (jousting motorcycles, exploding sunglasses,…). Also it’s hard for me to not like a movie made by a director I love, and John Woo is one of those…
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 “Tom Cruise as a god” 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 we’ll see 
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Mi2 is one of the very few films I walked out of.
Pretty sure I’ve 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 hadn’t 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 don’t 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 it’s amazing.
The studio just wasn’t yet willing to invest that kinda money in MI again, so JJ Abrams had to get very creative. Here’s a typical action scene (mirrored in the Dark Knight) that Abrams turns on its head for suspense and humor.
Strangely, though, I don’t 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. They’re 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 it’s semi-unfair because I’ve never even given The Fast and the Furious a chance. Anything that evokes “car chase” 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, I’m pretty sure the plot can mostly be summarized as “a kid ruins a robot.”)
Anyway, I’ll still delve in and watch the original M:I at some point. Though I see that it’s currently chilling on Paramount, so it won’t be immediate since I don’t have that. Guess I missed my window when it was on Prime Video.
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No no that’s my fault for name dropping F&F. This is the anti F&F. Watch that opera scene and you’ll get it.
The action scenes are so incredibly inventive and often do what you don’t expect so as to make them grounded and dramatic beyond popcorn butter bubbles.
Idk why they aren’t advertising it but you can watch the first four movies for free on Pluto.
That Metallica song sucks.
By Metallica standards at least
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I’m sorry about naming F&F. I just use it as an example of a franchise that reinvented itself for the better and shouldn’t be compared to it’s worst earliest offerings. It’s otherwise a totally different experience for different audiences.
I hear you. I’m a fan of them until the Load era and didn’t enjoy their music past the Garage stuff, so for me this was like their last hurrah.
Nice; thanks. Maybe I’ll watch it sooner then.
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I feel like Rebecca Ferguson’s shooting stance in that scene is the sexiest shooting stance there is.
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There was a time when Nic Cage took any role to make money. Now he’s in the “my debt has been paid and now I only make bangers” stage of his career:
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