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Join me in watching the fifth and by no means final episode in the Ethan Hunt saga, in which IMF—gasp!—gets shut down and Ethan—gulp!—goes rogue. Insiders turn out to be bad guys! Ethan works with a beautiful mystery woman he isn’t sure he can trust! They steal something they don’t understand and give it to the villain! I know this sounds like every other Mission: Impossible film! But this one is even better than most of the others!

I compare it to the other films, to James Bond (again [too much {again}]), to the TV show, to Hitchcock, to Faust, to Foul Play, and to Phantom Menace. I tiptoe around Cruise’s real life, explain the geography of Europe and the design of my swimming pool, fail to remember Timothy Dalton’s name (it’s Living Daylights’s cargo plane scene I was thinking of), do an impression of Luther that is half Ving Rhames and half Tracy Morgan, point out a couple of substantial logic gaps, and complain endlessly about how much I like the film.

I’m watching the Blu-ray. Start right after the Paramount logo on the countdown.

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Join me as I delve into JJ Abrams’ take on the Mission: Impossible series and examine how he makes it his own (by kind of turning it into Alias). I can’t remember “the Welshman” from the second movie (“You know! Hannibal Lector!”), and I stumble between character names and actor names. I complain that it’s all a little too familiar (like first-movie familiar and sometimes James-Bond familiar), but I give credit where credit is due to Cruise, Abrams, the DP, and the rest of IMF.

I’m watching the Blu-ray. Start the film after the Paramount logo on the countdown.

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Join me as I explore the first of Tom Cruise’s action movie tours de force, adapted from the nearly actionless TV series of the same name. Impossible, you say? Oh quite possible indeed if you throw out everything the TV show did.

I examine the differences between the movie’s treatment of IFM and the 1960s TV show. I consider Tom Cruise as a thinking-man’s action movie star, Brian De Palma as a director, Jon Voight as an IMF lead, and the locations as locations. I compare it to Rafifi, Topkapi, Die Hard and Knight and Day. I consider the idea of taking the TV show’s premise and complicating it until it becomes ridiculous. I pull apart story elements like the insider-gone-bad and the nonsensical parts of the plot like the use of bible verses.

NOTE: I’m shocked to find that in fact Gideons distribute full bibles to hotel rooms. The New Testament only version is typically handed out. So it’s not the huge mistake I thought it was at all. Sorry for the error.

I’m watching a DVR version. I think there’s only one version of the film. Start the film after the MGM logo on the countdown.

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