BLU-RAY REVIEW

Mission: Impossible

Featured In Issue 122, July/August 2007

Picture3.5
SoundNA
WSR Score
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Paramount Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
11989
(MPAA Rating):
PG13
(Rating Reason):
For some intense action violence.
(Retail Price):
$29.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
110
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
1996
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
05/22/07
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Brian De Palma
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(Theatrical Sound):
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Based on the television series created by Bruce Geller, Mission: Impossible is an explosive, edge-of-your-seat spy spectacular. Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, an over-eager IMF agent whose team is assigned by their chief Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) to retrieve the Noc List—a list of every name of top undercover agents around the world. When their mission is ambushed, Hunt's persistence leaves him the sole survivor (so he thinks), and framed for the deaths of his espionage team. To recover the list, Hunt stays one step ahead of the government assassins, pulling together his own group of secret agents.

All of the special features can be found on the DVD reviewed in Issue 109 and include the following featurettes: "Mission: Remarkable—40 Years Of Creating The Impossible" (11 minutes), "Mission: Explosive Exploits" (five minutes), "Mission: International Spy Museum" (6-1/2 minutes), "Mission: Spies Among Us" (nine minutes), and "Mission: Catching The Train" (three minutes). If you're a big Tom Cruise fan, you'll be sure to enjoy "Excellence In Film: Cruise," (a nine-minute montage of films Tom Cruise has been in) and the three-minute acceptance speech by Tom Cruise for the Bafta/LA's Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award For Excellence In Film. Also included is "Generation: Cruise" (another 3-1/2-minute Tom Cruise montage), and there are also two teaser trailers, the theatrical trailer, nine TV spots, a photo gallery, and up-front ads included.

The MPEG-2-encoded Blu-ray Disc and VC-1-encoded HD DVD show bold colors and well-captured details. There are times when the images can look overly soft, which can be distracting. Fleshtones occasionally look too pink, and colors can occasionally look overly saturated. The two versions look virtually identical. (Danny Richelieu)

The HD DVD's Dolby® Digital Plus 5.1-channel encoding provides a slight improvement in overall fidelity over the Blu-ray Disc's Dolby Digital encoding, but the mix can be lacking in surround envelopment at times. Music can occasionally sound phasy and distorted, but dialogue fidelity is good. (Danny Richelieu)