Mission Impossible: 25th Anniversary Edition - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mission Impossible: 25th Anniversary Edition



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I was a little bit surprised to see Paramount announce a remastered 25th anniversary edition Blu-ray of Mission Impossible when I saw the Paramount press release. I mean, I get the idea of 25th anniversary edition, but back in 2018 we got a brand new remaster on 4K UHD that is stunning. Well, I guess Paramount decided to go back and re-do the Blu-ray with that new master as well, and bring that to those who haven't upgrade to 4K UHD just yet. I guess this would be my only "gripe" with this 25th anniversary set. The fact that Paramount didn't remaster the Blu-ray and put that in the 4K UHD combo set instead of the ABYSMAL 2007 release that is in there now (which means I'll be replacing that disc with this after I finish the review).

I was a 14 year old kid back in 1996, but I still remember my parents taking me to go see Mission Impossible (mostly due to my parent’s love of the original TV series) and staring with wide eyed delight at Brian De Palma’s love letter to the 1960s spy genre. It was fun, cheesy, full of hilariously goofy action sequences, and a couple of scenes that have become iconic in film history. Not to mention a baby faced Tom Cruise at the peak of his career and an all star cast that just made the film come to life.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is an IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent for the government, but after a botched assignment where his entire team is slaughtered, he comes to realize that he’s been played dirty. His boss’s boss, Kittridge (Henry Czerny) was actually running a mole hunt in an effort to sniff out a deep seeded mole in the agency. With Ethan being the only survivor he’s naturally thought of as the mole and has to make a run for his life and figure out what’s going on. After escaping IMF custody, Ethan finds out that he’s NOT the only survivor. The team lead’s wife Claire (Emnanuelle Beart), who was also on the IMF team, has survived leaving more doubt as to who the ACTUAL mole is. Digging back through the information they have, Ethan and Claire come to the conclusion that the NOC list (a list of all undercover agents in the field that they could be sold on the black market for bookoo bucks) in CIA headquarters is their only hope. They need to steal the list, flush out the original buyer for the botched operation, and find out WHO sold them out in the first place.

While Ethan is super spy, he has been disavowed by the IMF and his resources are now limited, so breaking into the most highly secure building in the entire United States, and stealing a highly classified document is going to take a bit more than just Ethan and Caire’s skills. This means turning to a pair of disavowed spies by the name of Luther (Ving Rhames) and Krieger (Jean Reno), who are experts in hacking and getaway driving, to get in, get out, and get that list to the buyer in an effort to flush out the real traitor, whomever he/she may be.

Mission Impossible is probably the most TRUE film of the entire franchise to the original 1966 TV series starring Frank Graves. However, there are some distinct differences in the “modern” (at the time) movie. Frank Graves actually was asked to come back as James Phelps, but he declined due to the fact that Phelps would turn out to be the villain in the film instead of the hero (giving that distinction to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt). This caused a mild stir among cinema goers as their classic hero became the villain, and a new hero took his place. Ironically, very few people today remember the classic TV show, and consider Tom’s Ethan Hunt to be the definitive IMF agent. A phenomenon that has been largely due to Cruise’s incredible charisma, charm and dedication to keeping the film franchise fresh and exciting for over 22 years.

I find Mission Impossible to be my favorite of the series, despite some outdated technology and cheesy writing. The film really feels a lot more like a cold war era spy movie with a twist, which makes it all the more charming to this reviewer. The action is not nearly as exotic, the places not nearly so big and, and the stunts not as wild, but this is where it all started for the movies. Tom Cruise was baby faced as ever, but oh so much fun as the naive Ethan, and Brian De Palma gave us some of the most iconic action scenes in cinema history. That suspension scene where Hunt steals the noc list, and the bullet train end scene are probably two of the most highly revered sequences in the series, and have been copied and parodied and studied by other film makers for the last 2 decades. It’s the perfect mix of exciting, cheesy, high tech (at the time) and fun, and easily the one film I revisit in the series the most.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some intense action violence




Video:

As I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review, we get a brand new remaster that is struck from the same master that the 2018 4K UHD disc was struck from. Let me tell you this, it is a night and day difference over the 2007 Blu-ray. That 2007 Blu-ray was a taken from an ABYSMAL master, slapped on a BD-25 during the format wars when everyone was encoding to fit the HD-DVD size limitations, and was known as one of the worst Blu-ray transfers of the day. It was all we had until 2018 though, when the 4K UHD disc came out, but those of you who still haven't gone to 4K UHD (which is a decent amount) you were stuck with the same cruddy Blu-ray... Until now. This new transfer is fantastic. It holds a strong grain structure (the film was always grainy, even when I saw it in theaters and the 35mm print reproduction in the early 2000s). There's a few grain spikes (such as the night time Prague shots, or the bullet train ticket scene). Fine detail levels are amazing, with the audience able to see every line and detail on Cruise's young face, and primary colors showing incredible pop in the opening party scene. The bright blue and green contrasts of the restaurant where Kittridge and Hunt meet are rich and vibrant, and the slightly dull colors for the rest of the film are well balanced. Black levels are deep and inky throughout, and except for the yellow lit hallways of the Prague streets (which show some crush), this is great in the black level department.






Audio:

One of the biggest caveats of the original three Mission Impossible films from 2007 was the lack of lossless audio. All three came with 640 kbps 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks, and while they weren’t AWFUL, they were definitely a bit thinner and weaker than they could have been. This new anniversary set gets the exact same 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless upgrade that the 4K UHD disc got back in 2018, which is a good thing considering it was a rock solid track. The mix was never a wild one like some of the later films, but the front of the room opens up quite a bit, as does the low end with the chaos of the bullet train sequence. Surrounds can be a bit sparse, but they do come up with some solid interaction with the front of the track in quite a few spots. The opening sequence is really great for listening to how much fuller and richer the track is over the Bluray, with it adding weight the elevator, as well as how the music in the ball room actually flows effortlessly through the mix. While not a perfect audio mix in comparison to today’s mixing, it is a large step up from the underwhelming Dolby Digital 5.1 mix of 14 years ago.







Extras:

• Mission: Remarkable -- 40 Years of Creating the Impossible
• Mission: Explosive Exploits
• Mission: Spies Among Us
• Mission: Catching the Train
• Mission: International Spy Museum
• Mission: Agent Dossiers
• Excellence in Film
• Generation: Cruise
• Photo Gallery
• Mission: Marketing

Final Score: ​

Mission Impossible is wildly fun ride, and a kinetic spy movie that feels very reminiscent of cold war era spy films. Tom Cruise was at the top of his game in 1996, and as a 14 year old boy I watched the living daylights out of the film. Then wore out 2 VHS copies, have the DVD somewhere in a box, the Blu-ray, and the 2018 4K UHD release. The new 25th anniversary edition is a bit of a mixed bag for me personally. On one hand I'm really glad that the Blu-ray community got a remastered Blu-ray and that it wasn't just relegated to the 4K UHD community (which is a substantially smaller sized group than the Blu-ray crowd) as the new remaster is FANTASTIC. On the other hand I'm slightly miffed that the Blu-ray wasn't remastered and put in the 4K UHD combo pack 3 years ago. The master was struck, the encode was created for 4K, and it would have been fairly simple to down mix to 1080p as well las 2160p. Especially when you consider that this 25th anniversary edition has the same extras as the 2007 disc (which were the same extras for the 4K UHD disc). So as I said, a mixed bag. But in reality, Blu-ray fans will be VERY pleased at the upgraded video as it is light year ahead of the 2007 disc and now they don't have to buy the 4K UHD to get the newer master. Solid film, great video, great audio, just a bit frustrated for a few minor reasons.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voigt, Kristen Scott Thomas, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: Bruce Geller (TV series), David Koepp, Robert Towne (screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, German, Spanish, French DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Spanish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 110 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 18th, 2021

Recommendation: Recommended

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

This release has really emphasized the fact that the UHD release of this is apparently a Day 1058 purchase. I love this movie, and had forgotten the UHD was released a few years ago. Ordered, along with 2 & 3 to round out my MI UHD collection.

 

[Michael Scott]

This release has really emphasized the fact that the UHD release of this is apparently a Day 1058 purchase. I love this movie, and had forgotten the UHD was released a few years ago. Ordered, along with 2 & 3 to round out my MI UHD collection.

The first 3 are massive improvements over the Blu-rays. 1 and 2's blu transfers were simply awful. #3 was a decent early blu, but the 4K handily outclasses it. The 4th and 5th were much newer and thus the Blu-rays looked great, but the 4K discs beat them up pretty badly too, so in reality they're all worth the 4K uptick IMO.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

For whatever reason I already had 4-6 on UHD but only had the first 3 in my Movies Anywhere account.