Mission: Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection: HD DVD And Blu-Ray Disc Sets: Combined Review Part One

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Mission: Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc Sets: Part One

Title: Mission: Impossible: Special Collector’s Edition

Media HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc: (Sold Separately Within Their Respective Sets)

Region: A (Blu-ray Disc Only)

Genre: Spy-Fi Espionage Action Thriller

Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Heart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vanessa Redgrave

Writers: David Koepp and Robert Towne

Based On A Story By: David Koepp and Steven Zallian

Based On The Television Series Created By: Bruce Geller

Director: Brian De Palma

Feature length: 110 minutes

Extras: Mission: Remarkable – 40 Years Of Creating The Impossible, Mission: Explosive Exploits, Mission: Spies Among Us, Mission: Catching The Train, Mission: International Spy Museum, Mission: Agent Dossiers, Tribute Montages, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, Photo Gallery

HD DVD Languages: English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound

Blu-ray Disc Languages: English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc Subtitles: English Subtitles For the Dead And Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

HD DVD Packaging: Elite Red HD Case

Blu-Ray Disc Packaging: Blue BD Case

HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc Chapter Stops: 13

HD DVD Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound

Blu-ray Disc Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Year of Theatrical Release: 1996/HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

This is not meant to be a true story, but I once heard an anecdote on the radio where a famous host referred to Tom Cruise as being smart by explaining that since he probably never will be the next James Bond, he found another Spy-fi franchise he liked where he could star and call the shots. Now as I noted above, this is just an anecdote and not at all meant to be a description of why Cruise resurrected “Mission: Impossible” into a successful film franchise, but I do believe in general that just like every studio would love to have an animation reputation and franchises like Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers, I do think every studio would love to have an ongoing franchise like the James Bond films. Mission: Impossible offered Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures the chance to tell exciting spy-fi stories that could conceivably transcend generations and movie stars much as James Bond has for more than three decades.

The plot for the first film in what is now a trilogy features Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a super spy who witnesses the systematic assassination of his fellow IMF operatives and is framed for their murders and disavowed by the CIA. Using any skills and connections he has, Hunt puts together a team of fellow disavowed agents and mercenaries in an attempt to find out who framed him and clear his name by preventing the CIA noc list from being exposed and placing the lives of operatives worldwide in danger. The cast features John Voight, Jean Reno, Vanessa Redgrave, Ving Rhames, and Emilio Estevez.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released Mission: Impossible on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc as a part of the Mission: Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection. All three films are also available on DVD sold separately or in a DVD set too. As far as I know, at the time of this writing, Mission: Impossible on HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc is only available within the Mission: Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection though Mission: Impossible III is sold separately on both high definition optical disc formats and is one of this holiday season’s big home video releases. The extra value features found on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions are the same ones from the Special Collector’s Edition DVD released earlier this year. In fact both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions are called Mission Impossible: Special Collector’s Edition. Both present Mission: Impossible in the native high definition widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio presentation and exhibit the film in potential maximum resolution of 1080p depending upon available equipment used. The picture quality is excellent on both. I noticed little background details I never had before. The famous scene in the train tunnel with the helicopter has never looked better. If there were any difference between the quality of the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions, I’d say it is extremely hard to tell and in fact the differences I noticed are so subjective that I have to say, to be fair, they are equal. However on my HDTV using HDMI and HD component video cables to test the image quality on both connections, I found the HD DVD was solid in every detail, but the colors were slightly muted when compared to the Blu-ray Disc. The colors on the Blu-ray Disc seemed more vibrant, but there was a slight reddish quality to the flesh tones. Not enough to warrant messing with the various picture quality controls on my TV, but if there were a difference between the versions, I’d say that is it. Soundtrack wise it was easier for me to make distinction between the two optical disc formats. Via fiber optic audio output, the English Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Soundtrack on the HD DVD disc blows away the English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack on the Blu-ray Disc. It just has more punch to it, but using PCM 5.1 analogue output from my Blu-ray Disc player did offer a greater sense of spatial sound separation between the speakers, but still not nearly as strong in terms of overall fidelity as the Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Soundtrack found on the HD DVD. French and Spanish Language Dolby 5.1 Plus Surround Soundtracks are available as options on the HD DVD version and French and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks are available on the Blu-ray Disc. Both versions feature English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired too and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto both media discs as options.

There are a number of featurettes included among the extra value materials on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc and these extras are the same regardless for both high definition optical disc versions. Both include the retrospective “Mission: Remarkable: 40 Years Of Creating The Impossible” (11:25), a look at the pyrotechnics and action effects under the title “Mission: Explosive Exploits” (5:09), a look at the climactic train sequence (2:38) as well as two very interesting shorts that give viewers a look within the International Spy Museum (6:30) and the art of assuming an undercover identity on the field (8:39). There are even Agent Dossiers for the characters in the featured IMF team from the first film.

In a celebration of Tom Cruise’s contribution to cinema, two montages are included, but the respective award speeches that were found on the DVD release earlier this year are not on either the HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc. The teaser and trailer for “Mission: Impossible” are both presented in high definition with 5.1 Surround and (1.33:1) TV spots are included on both editions too. A photo gallery wraps up the bonus features on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions. Both also include the same Paramount High Definition spot though in terms of length, the BD advertisement clocked in at one minute and twenty seconds while the same spot on the HD DVD runs at a minute and thirteen seconds. They appear to be the same so I’m not sure why the running time is different. The main menu is animated on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions with menu options that allow the user to examine scene selections without interrupting the film itself and so forth. The Blu-ray Disc menus seemed to work faster, but both are extremely smooth and easy to use regardless of format. Mission: Impossible: Special Collector’s Edition is available on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc within the Mission: Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection at retailers on and offline now courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. Please note that the set is also available on DVD and the DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc box sets are sold separately so choose your preferred format and enjoy and come back here for the second part of my combined comparative reviews of all three films on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Click Here To Read My Review of Mission: Impossible II on HD DVD And Blu-ray Disc

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