Mission: Impossible (1996)

The critic calls it a summer blockbuster that delivers with gadgets, disguises, and De Palma's masterful set-pieces like the wire-suspended vault sequence. The convoluted plot is forgiven because the film is enormous fun overall.

Cruise and De Palma deliver a thrilling extravaganza of jaw-dropping effects and stunts; forget the complicated plot and enjoy the epic rollercoaster, especially the vault burglary and helicopter pursuit sequences.

The film has lots going for it including Cruise's charisma, De Palma's sleek direction, a first-rate cast and superb suspense sequences capped by a breathtaking climax stunt. The script is mercifully simple at heart despite its spy plot complexities.

The critic finds the film glamorous, exciting, sexy and sometimes witty with indelible visual moments, but gleefully superficial and lacking depth or coherence. It belongs to a history of cinema of attractions, offering spectacle and set-pieces that assault the senses.

The critic finds the film dour and only fitfully entertaining, with a dreary script and half-baked characters that take themselves too seriously despite some strong actors being underutilized. The climactic train sequence provides crowd-pleasing fireworks, and performances like Vanessa Redgrave's stand out.

De Palma makes action-movie magic with ingenious craftsmanship that elevates the big-budget film beyond crude entertainment. The director's strengths turn the script's commercial strategies into a dense, formally complex visual experience.

The film is a sleek, entertaining update of the TV series with Tom Cruise as the ideal superhero spy racing to protect a list of secret agents. De Palma directs with chilly suavity, balancing gadgetry and twists in an exhilarating way.

The film is a bewildering, ludicrous but mostly fun postscript to the spy genre, with more and less than meets the eye; De Palma crafts elaborate conceits and a nail-biting robbery sequence with Hitchcockian panache, though the result is ultimately superficial.

The film is dour and sexless escapism with a letdown from its top creative team, though De Palma generates tension in set pieces like the vault heist and train climax. It succeeds as a star vehicle for Cruise but lacks heart or identifiable villains.