Brian dePalma | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On How “Mission: Impossible” Would Cause Fan Outrage Today…

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With Brian dePalma’s Mission: Impossible turning twenty-five years old this month, it seemed as good a time as any to take a look back the film that started the modern iteration of the franchise.

In hindsight, it is impossible to imagine Mission: Impossible getting made today. The movie’s big twist is the revelation that the one character carried over from the television show, a standard bearer for the larger franchise, has secretly betrayed everything that the audience took for granted. The twist was controversial at the time, with several members of the original cast and some fans objecting to the characterisation. However, in a franchise-driven age where any deviation from the template is a source of outrage, it’s impossible to imagine Mission: Impossible attempting anything so bold today.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: abomination, Brian dePalma, canon, Cold War, continuity, fans, history, jim phelps, jon voight, mission: impossible, outrage, peter graves, respect, reveal, tom cruise, twist | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Carrie (2013)

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Darren

Carrie is, for the first half of its runtime, a fairly effective attempt to update Stephen King’s iconic high school horror story about religious repression and teenage issues. While Chloë Grace Moretz isn’t quite as memorable and quite as nuanced as Sissy Spacek was in Brian De Palma’s much-loved original adaptation, she gives a strong central performance. However, the film falls apart a bit as it enters the second half, turning into a large-scale action set piece that feels more like a superhero disaster movie than a psychological teen horror.

There will be blood…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brian dePalma, Carrie, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gabriella Wilde, Julianne Moore, Kimberly Peirce, Lawrence D. Cohen, Margaret White, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Sissy Spacek, stephen king, Sue Snell | 10 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Mission Impossible

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Darren

This post is part of James Bond January, being organised by the wonderful Paragraph Films. I will have reviews of all twenty-two official Bond films going on-line over the next month, and a treat or two every once in a while.

I can understand you’re very upset.

Kitrich, you’ve never seen me very upset.

Tom Cruise really wants to be James Bond. I mean, I think that’s the driving force behind the Mission: Impossible films, an attempt to construct an American James Bond franchise around the character of Ethan Hunt – they certainly aren’t the biggest of the blockbuster movies, and yet Cruise has used his influence to produce a trilogy of films (with a fourth one in the works). Between that and Knight & Day, I think the role of a globe-trotting secret agent action hero just appeals to the actor. I think he pretty much wants to be an American James Bond and – truth be told – I think he’s a great candidate for it.