Mission: Impossible Gift Set Collection (Mission: Impossible / Mission: Impossible 2 / Mission: Impossible 3) [Blu-ray]

strongembr /Mission: Impossible/em/strong br /Tom Cruise ignites the screen in this runaway smash hit that "holds you on the edge of your seat before blasting you out of it." (Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times). Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, a secret agent framed for the deaths of his espionage team. Fleeing from government assassins, breaking into the CIA's most impenetrable vault, clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers... and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth. br /br /strongemMission: Impossible II/em/strongbr /The world’s greatest spy returns in the movie event of the year, M:I-2. Top action director John Woo brings his own brand of excitement to the mission that finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) partnering up with the beautiful Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) to stop renegade agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from releasing a new kind of terror on an unsuspecting world. But before the mission is complete, they’ll traverse the globe and have to choose between everything they love and everything they believe in. br /br /strongemMission: Impossible III/em/strong br /This is emMission: Impossible/em...like you've never seen it before! Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt in this pulse-pounding thrill ride directed by J.J. Abrahms (Lost, Alias). Lured back into action by his agency superiors (Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup), Ethan faces his deadliest adversary yet - a sadistic weapons dealer named Owen Davian (Oscar® winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman). With the support of his IMF team (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q), Ethan leaps into spectacular adventure from Rome to Shanghai as he races to rescue a captured agent (Keri Russell) and stop Davian from eliminating his next target: Ethan's wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan).

strongMission: Impossible/strongbr / A flashy, splashy summer-movie blockbuster that's fun and exciting without being mindless? That's the impossible mission accomplished by director Brian De Palma, star-coproducer Tom Cruise, and the crack team of emMission: Impossible/em. Based on the '60s TV show and an almost impenetrably complex (but nonetheless thrilling) original story by David Koepp (emJurassic Park/em) and Steven Zaillian (emSchindler's List/em), with a screenplay by Koepp and Robert Towne (emChinatown, Shampoo/em), emMission: Impossible/em begins with veteran agent Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his expert crew embarking on a mission that goes horribly, horribly wrong. But nothing is what it seems. The nail-biting set piece--always a signature of director De Palma (Carrie, emThe Untouchables/em)--in which Cruise is lowered from the ceiling to retrieve information from a computer in a high-security vault--is an instant classic. But perhaps even more impressive, at least in retrospect, is a flashback sequence in which two characters attempt to reconstruct a series of events from multiple points of view. It's pretty daring and sophisticated stuff for a big-budget spy movie, but brains were always what put the emMission: Impossible/em team ahead of the competition, anyway, no? em--Jim Emerson/em br /br / strongMission: Impossible II/strongbr / Visually stunning, and a likely must for John Woo aficionados, the second emMission: Impossible/em outing from megastar Tom Cruise suffers from an inconsistent tone and tired plot devices--not only recycled from other films, but repeated throughout the film. Despite remarkable cinematography and awe-inspiring, trademark Woo photography, the movie offers a tepid story from legendary screenwriter-director Robert Towne (emChinatown, Without Limits/em) and a host of other writers, most uncredited. br /br / It is, regrettably, as forgettable as the first big-budget, big box-office emMI /emin 1996, and it's clear (as Towne confirms) that the plot was developed around Woo- and Cruise-written action sequences. The film combines equal elements of romance and action, and is best when it features the stunning allure of Thandie Newton as Nyah, a master thief recruited by the sinewy charms of Ethan Hunt (a fit Cruise). Deeply in love after a passionate night, the couple must then combat emMI/em nemesis (and Nyah's former lover) Sean Ambrose (emEver After/em's Dougray Scott). Ambrose holds hostage a virus and its cure, and offers them to the highest bidder. br /br / Woo's famed mythic filmmaking is far from subtle, with heroic Hunt frequently slow-motion walking through fire, smoke, or other similar devices, replete with a white dove among pigeons to signal his presence. The emphasis on romance is an attempt to develop character and a more human side to superspy Hunt, but still the dreary story proves a distraction from the exciting action sequences. John Polson (as an emMI/em team member) is an Aussie talent to keep an eye on. em--N.F. Mendoza/em br /br / strongMission: Impossible III/strongbr / At the time of its release, emMission: Impossible III/em's box office was plagued by the publicity backlash against couch-jumping star Tom Cruise. It's too bad, because this third installment of the spy thriller franchise deserved a better reception than it got. First-time feature director J.J. Abrams (bigwig TV director/producer of emLost, Alias, Felicity/em) proves more than able-bodied in creating a emMission: Impossible/em that's leaner and less over-stylized than John Woo's sequel and less confusing than Brian De Palma's original. Plot is still a throwaway here (Cruise's Ethan Hunt rescues his kidnapped former trainee and works to steal a device that... well, we don't really know what it does, but it's something about mass destruction that costs $850 million), but the action sequences, particularly one where Ethan faces down a helicopter on a bridge and gets flung hard against the side of a car, are particularly impressive since Cruise, at 44, is still doing most of his own stunts and shows no hint of the weathered look that's struck his action-star peers. (Though no emMission: Impossible/em stunt will ever be quite as simultaneously nail-biting and funny as the first film's wire-dangling break-in of CIA headquarters.) br /br / emMission: Impossible III/em boasts a pedigreed cast, particularly Oscar® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (emCapote/em) as baddie arms dealer Owen Davian. Hoffman plays Owen all teeth-clenched and cool, especially when threatening to kill Ethan in front of his lovely new wife (Michelle Monaghan) who has no idea of his spy life. But in his first action-film lead role, Hoffman's almost too calm and collected to really make a memorable villain, especially when the rest of the cast--Ving Rhames (the only other cast member to return for all three films), Asian film star Maggie Q, and an underused Jonathan Rhys-Meyers--are a highlight as Ethan's IMF team. emMission: Impossible/em is still fun popcorn spy fare, and if Cruise chooses to end the franchise here, at least he goes out on a high note. em--Ellen A. Kim/em