MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Mark Steyn's Movie Vault

Steyn Online ^ | 4 May 2006 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Since the latest MI is out tomorrow and since Mr Steyn so wonderfully skewers Tom Cruise......

[Rummyfan]

Four Weddings and a Funeral fades from memory; the brief scene where she confesses her love for Hugh Grant seems more and more the truest moment in the picture, and a zillion times better than any of his scenes with Andie MacDowell.

Really! He passed on Kristin Scott Thomas for Andie MacDowell. What a schmuck!

[Kenny Bunkport]

Skewering Tom Cruise is almost too easy.

[Moose4]

It's no wonder their erotic interlude was cut from the movie: they can send Cruise flying along the side of a high-speed train, they can deck him out with high-tech laser-beam neutralisers, but no one in the special-effects department can invent a gadget which would make him look as if he and his leading ladies have any sexual chemistry.

OWWWWWW. That's a steel-toed workboot between the legs, right there. Mind you, it's true. Has he had any chemistry with a co-star since Kelly McGillis? (And there's those who say he had more chemistry with Anthony Edwards in "Top Gun's" sweaty homoerotic beach volleyball scene than he did with McGillis...)

}:-)4

[GSWarrior]

Steven Hill (Adam Schiff on Law & Order) played the original leader of the IMF squad.

The original series, especially with Landau and Baine, rocked. It appealed to all age groups. I can still remember some of the cool stuff they did, usually without explosions.

[sageb1]

I think the general public is sick of Cruise. Extending his career may prove to be his next "Mission Impossible."

[Rummyfan]

I think the general public is sick of Cruise.

I agree - I certainly am. He's revealed himself as just too weird over the last year.

[50sDad]

This Scientology schmuck killed off Jim Phelps, and made him look like a two-faced traitor. What more do you need to know about Tom Cruise?

[Tzimisce]

"Mom, Tom Cruise won't come out of the closet!"

Stan from 'South Park'

[synbad600]

Is the original series available on DVD? Anyone?

[GSWarrior]

What more do you need to know about Tom Cruise?

Well, he always has a bad haircut in his films.

[martin_fierro]

This thread is ghey.

[Semper Paratus]

Mrs. Martin Landau in the original gave Diana Rigg a run for her money as sex object for teenage boys.

[subterfuge]

I loved the old tv show.

It was like The STing each week, as they fooled the antagonist into thinking he was somewhere he wasn't, and that things were happening that really weren't.

Next thing you know, the team would be gone and the bad guy'd be wondering what the heck happened.

[GSWarrior]

I think it's only on VHS.

BTW, that's 'Adam Schiff" at the top left. He left after one season because as an orthodox Jew he wouldn't abide by the shows production schedule.

[ARCADIA]

I thought his career was over when he did the Last Samurai. Excellent sets, good Japanese supporting cast, and an interesting story. It is to bad we had to keep peering around Tom's ever present fat head to see any of that.

[Hayzo]

I hate to admit it, but, I liked Cruise in War of the Worlds. Am I Gay?

Anyway, I guess it wasn't him so much in that I am fascinated by the story, even after reading it and seeing it a million times.

[RMDupree]

One of them comes on like a parody of every spy-movie cliché in the book as its vain hero is whisked from one absurd situation to another; the other is a comedy with Leslie Nielsen.

Zing! *laughing*

[knittnmom]

Amazon has some listings for assorted MI collections on VHS - "best of" sort of thing.

[BenLurkin]

Steyn correctly points out the hugely disappointing aspect of the Cruise Mission movies.

The Sixties series WAS about planning, teamwork and execution. It understood the true character of a good thriller. Cruise simply wnet for cheap thrills.