Tags
When the second Mission: Impossible movie came out, I wanted to see it. I was freshly armed with a new (and expensive) organizer1 (along with an accompanying personal productivity system) and I specifically recall this movie being one of the early entries in my first, formal to-do list. Apparently, I had seen a positive review of the film and its recommendation drove me to make this my priority.
I was at this time enamored with the work of director John Woo. I know I’d watched Face/Off and Broken Arrow although I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about either one. I suppose I was more into the idea of John Woo in general than any of his films in particular. This vaguely-remembered review probably drew a connection between what the director was good at and what the film had to offer. I was sold.
One issue thwarting my desire to enjoy Mission: Impossible 2 is that I’d never watched Mission: Impossible (1). The original was popular enough in its time but it never quite seemed like my cup of tea. Back in the mid-90s, I’m not sure I had much respect for Mr. Cruise’s acting and anyway I was more into the independent, artsy films than the summer blockbuster action movies. Nonetheless, I didn’t feel like I should watch installment #2 without having taken in the original.
It wasn’t until late in 2023 that I actually began the process of following-through on that decades-old to-do item. Mission: Impossible and, indeed, the first four of the Cruise-helmed series became featured on Amazon Prime’s streaming. I’ve speculated (somewhere) that this wave of Cruise films I’m seeing all over my streaming subscriptions was orchestrated to promote Top Gun: Maverick – one more movie that I haven’t got around to watching. With the whole series available to me, I did finally take on the original Mission: Impossible on Amazon and, frankly, found it pretty ho-hum. While I had the next three in the series lined up on Amazon for me, the ratings for subsequent films pointed downhill. It seemed to me that future impossible missions weren’t worth the cost of pursuing them. I had, in all of this, forgotten that it was M:I 2 that I had originally wanted to see, along with my reason why.
At the time, Amazon had scheduled the Mission: Impossible series for removal from the Prime array. I had finished the first film with plenty of time to take in all four but was in no hurry to do so. As the weeks went by, I felt ever more compelled to work my way through the series just because the opportunity was coming to an end. That time pressure, as much as any other reason, got me to watch M:I 2 and, in doing so, I remembered the whole backstory. As I write to you today, though, I’ve made no further progress.
After watching two installments, I can now report that I really did like M:I 2 better than the original. Here, my IMDb algorithms have failed me. Mission: Impossible is recommended to us with a decent-enough score of 7.1 M:I 2, by contrast, sports a better-avoided 6.1. If I were awarding the points, I would be tempted to flip those two scores.
I think part of the problem is John Woo and his now-twenty-years-old iconic look. It no longer comes off as visionary – it maybe just seems a little weird. For example, I had forgotten about Woo’s thing with the pigeons. My age and prior Woo exposure meant that those scenes, when they came, excited me. Kids today would not appreciate slow-motion imagery of feral birds as much as I do. I can’t say I blame them.
I must add that another part of what drove me along this Mission: Impossible journey is that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, out in 2011, ranks on IMDb (with a 7.4) as the crown of the Impossible jewels2. Even before I remembered that I wanted to watch Mark II specifically, I was motivated by this reward at the end of the I-IV journey. As I say, though, I have only made it to step two. Back in December the whole series was slated to get shifted to a premium channel (Paramount+, fwiw). Even under that particular gun, there were other films which seemed a higher priority for me to get in before the end-of-the-year expiration. Without that pressure, I’m even less inclined to forge ahead.
As a result, Mission: Impossible 3 now remains on my list – a list that is fully electronic and cloud based rather than bound in a leather-clad, European-designed, $300-dollar-a-pop notebook and recorded in my own handwriting. M:I 3 also remains available on Amazon Prime, at least for the time being.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pexels-photo-5246101.jpeg)
- This quick reference is either obvious or will be entirely missed. Back in the 90s, one status symbol in corporate America was an expensive calendar/diary notebook designed to enhance productivity. In my case, it came with a company-paid, week-long training program – a program that was oversubscribed and often restricted to only those employees that were “going places.” Somehow, I managed to get a spot anyway – but only after a long wait. ↩︎
- My first 2024 entry in the mixed-metaphor contest. A little weak, I know, but I’m just getting started. ↩︎