Mission: Impossible

A DePalmber to ReMalmber reaches its thrilling conclusion as our intrepid director kicks off an action mega-franchise with an opening entry that's far more 'film' than 'flick' -- it's 1996's Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian DePalma, written by David Koepp and Robert Towne, and starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Redgrave, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emilio Estevez and Rolf Saxon. This classic of the 90s now takes its rightful place in the ADHD-DVD canon. Somehow, perhaps in viewing it within the context of some of DePalma's broader work, both hosts enjoyed this movie more than ever before on this latest rewatch. All that plus-with bonus-also: Justin's got theatrical field reports on The Holdovers and Godzilla Minus One, and Hayley can't receive gifts. Other works discussed in this episode include The Boy and the Heron, Godzilla (1997, 2014), Godzilla vs Kong, Friday Night Lights, Fooled Around Fell In Love by Elvin Bishop, Guardians of the Galaxy, Topkapi, and the entire Mission: Impossible franchise. If you'd like to watch the film before listening to our discussion, and it's not a requirement though in the case of a fine film such as this we do recommend you do, it can be found streaming on Paramount+(with). We'll be back next week with the first annual Shaqmas celebration on the program, as we honour Hayley's holiday tradition by watching a film starring Shaquille O'Neal on Christmas. This year it's friend and former guest EJ Feddes making his return with an unseen film from his collection: Steel (1997), starring Shaq as John Henry Irons, DC Comics' black Superman. It's... not very good, which should make it lots of fun to talk about, so we'll see you next week at the movies!