I liked the first movie, but all the others just had too many ridiculous scenes, esp with cars.
You just can't take that bike scene where Tom Cruise just decides to stand on the road while the motorcycle is moving, or the part where both agents play chicken, but then jump off their motorcycles and hug in mid air, then throw themselves off a cliff, still hugging.
I would say that the theme of the entire franchise is pure excess. It turns everything up to 11 and then overclocks it, and that just makes for a wonderful experience. The "out-JohnWoo-ing John Woo" is a perfect example of that, but really they all do the same sort of thing.
It's definitely not to everyone's taste, but it knows exactly what it's trying to do and delivers on it masterfully.
The only other franchise that comes close to that level of Pure Dumb Fun is Fast and Furious, but by necessity the vast majority of action scenes are vehicle based, whereas MI has more of a mix.
Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed the over-the-top installments from the 3rd onwards, but the 2nd was just too bizarre. I enjoyed the scene in the bunker, where tied up mook was wearing Hunt's mask, and the antagonist only realized it when he noticed his bandaged finger, I thought this was inventive and smart writing, but the rest of the movie was just too fucking much.
I liked the first movie, but all the others just had too many ridiculous scenes, esp with cars.
You just can't take that bike scene where Tom Cruise just decides to stand on the road while the motorcycle is moving, or the part where both agents play chicken, but then jump off their motorcycles and hug in mid air, then throw themselves off a cliff, still hugging.
The first one is a genuine homage to old-school spy thriller genre, that's why it feels different.
The 2nd one was so John Woo, it out-John Woo'd John Woo.
I would say that the theme of the entire franchise is pure excess. It turns everything up to 11 and then overclocks it, and that just makes for a wonderful experience. The "out-JohnWoo-ing John Woo" is a perfect example of that, but really they all do the same sort of thing.
It's definitely not to everyone's taste, but it knows exactly what it's trying to do and delivers on it masterfully.
The only other franchise that comes close to that level of Pure Dumb Fun is Fast and Furious, but by necessity the vast majority of action scenes are vehicle based, whereas MI has more of a mix.
Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed the over-the-top installments from the 3rd onwards, but the 2nd was just too bizarre. I enjoyed the scene in the bunker, where tied up mook was wearing Hunt's mask, and the antagonist only realized it when he noticed his bandaged finger, I thought this was inventive and smart writing, but the rest of the movie was just too fucking much.