Mission: Impossible (25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition): Blu-Ray Review

The Mission: Impossible franchise and the Fast & Furious Franchise have one major thing in common. Both Series kicked off with a couple entertaining, yet unimpressive films before eventually finding their footing and getting better with each new installment. However, the Mission: Impossible films are far less idiotic.  The 1996 Brian De Palma film that kicked off the cinematic take on the classic television series, was a huge hit, but it wasn’t that great of a film. The action is lacking, and the twist can be figured out early on.  Still, Mission: Impossible was slick, well directed and Tom Cruise made for one hell of an Ethan Hunt.

This week sees the release of Mission: Impossible on a newly remastered Blu-ray for the film’s 25th anniversar. Now, I should mention that in 2018 the film was released on 4K UHD. Having never seen that release, I can’t tell you if that is a superior transfer, but I would assume that it is. Still, there are still a large number of people who do not have 4K setups, so is this new remaster an improvement over the older blu-ray release?  Quick answer, yes it is.

For those of you who have never seen the original film, the story centers on Ethan Hunt, an agent who believes his whole team was killed by a mole who wants the stolen noc list that would reveal the identity of every single undercover agent. That team consisted of his boss and friend Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), his wife, Claire (Emmanuelle Béart), Jack (Emilio Estevez) and a few others. If things weren’t bad enough, it turns out that the latest mission was a mole hunt and the head of the agency, Kittridge (Henry Czerny) believes Hunt is that mole since he is the only one left alive.  Now Ethan must clear his name and find the real mole.

The new remaster looks clean and it most impressive when focused on either closeups on the actors or in brightly lit scenes. The film’s most famous sequence, when Ethan breaks into Langley and hanging by a rope to download the files looks truly, beautiful. The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track works best during the action sequences, like on top of the train in the final act and of course the film’s incredible score.  This is a solid release, though not perfect. Although the transfer is superior to the 2007 release, it’s not really worth the upgrade. If you don’t already own the film and want to ad it to your collection, it is worth the pick up.

Bonus Features:

• 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: Cruise
• Generation: Cruise
• Photo Gallery
• Theatrical Trailers
• Mission: Impossible Teaser
• Mission: Impossible Trailer
• TV Spots

By: Marc Ferman