Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (Mission Impossible / Mission Impossible II / Miss

For anyone who doesn't already own the previous Blu-ray release of this trilogy, then now is the time to buy But there's a caveat.

But first, the quality of the films:

Mission Impossible is a very well crafted film. It has action, appropriately placed jokes to break the tension once in a while, and believe me, this film does a great job at keeping the tension palpable, and the acting is great all around. It actually even adhered to the original series method of storytelling to a certain degree. Top notch film for anyone who's a fan of suspense and action.

Mission Impossible II... meh. I enjoyed it for what it was, a mindless popcorn action flick. Directed by John Woo (Broken Arrow/Face-Off), the M:I formula is thrown out of the window, the character of Ethan Hunt is transformed into a cocky arrogant, and the only thing remaining is lots and lots of action, which has a tendency to be a little hard to swallow at times. That being said, it's still fun to watch. This is pure action eye-candy, and if you're OK with that, you're going to have a lot of fun. If not, well...

...The Mission Impossible III at least comes in to save the franchise. Directed by JJ Abrams (Alias, LOST, Star Trek), this film is a true return to form. A great story that's paced out evenly and some mindblowing action. Personally, it's still a shade under the original, but this film holds its own very well.

The best thing about all three films is that they're all seperate entities for the most part, meaning, you don't have to see any film before you see the other.

Now, back to that 'caveat' I was talking about The audio. It's all LOSSY audio, which is fairly inexcusable for a Blu-ray in this day and age. Yes, it's true that this boxed set has the same exact encodes in video and audio the original releases had, and that was pretty early in the HD game, but that's STILL no excuse. The studio really should have just taken the lossless audio and made a new encode for this release. So, what now? Does the studio give us 'proper' releases after the fourth film hits Blu-ray? My personal opinion is this If they release a four film boxed set at that time, you're not going to get anything new from the original trilogy. So you may as well pick this up now. After all, the price is pretty stellar.

I am not going to bore people with what the plots on these 3 movies are about as I think we all have a reasonable grasp of them. What I will say about the HD-DVD boxset is that MI2 and MI3 are both spectacular examples of this high definition format. They excel in both the video and audio transfers, I think they would have been par excellence if they had of included a TrueHD audio track.

The one down point to this set is the original MI HD-DVD, the ball was dropped on this one with a sub par video transfer which at times was so out of focus that it was not funny. The audio, while not jaw dropping, was acceptable.

Buy Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (Mission Impossible / Mission Impossible II / Miss Now

I was a bit dissapointed to find out that the so called "Extreme Blu-Ray Trilogy" edition of the Mission Impossible films was nothing more than a repackaged original Blu-ray discs . The specs and artwork of the discs are exactly the same as the ones previously released, the only change is that the BD case artwork is different as well as the box. If you already have the previous trilogy box set there is no need to "upgrade", or better say "downgrade", since M:I 3 only comes with 1 disc instead of 2 as the previous set.

If you never had them, go ahead, make the purchase, even better, Best Buy have them for $19.99 this week, and they include a $10 coupon for Ghost Protocol, so in essence you will end up spending only $10 for a 3-BD Box set. Not a bad deal.

Read Best Reviews of Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (Mission Impossible / Mission Impossible II / Miss Here

While it is true that retailers are trying to leverage the upcoming movie to bump sales on this item, who can blame them? For under $30, I get three blu-ray movies. Great price, and they put me in the mood for the newest release. I can't agree with the other reviewers who gig this movie just because there's a new movie on the way. Buy it if you want. Don't if you don't. For me, it seemed like a good buy.

Want Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (Mission Impossible / Mission Impossible II / Miss Discount?

For the price, this set is totally worth it. But to be completely honest I would not have minded paying a little extra for a better remastering of the first two films. The transfer for the first two films is not bad, but it isn't great. There is still a soft and grainy quality to the movies. For a blu-ray, this should not be an issue. For those of you who say that the age of the film is a factor, I invite you to watch Blade Runner on blu-ray. You will be amazed. Now keep in mind that Blade Runner is about 30 years old already, and the remastering of this movie looks A LOT better than the transfer for Mission: Impossible 1 or 2. I suppose I can't complain much since I paid 20 bucks for this set, but still. These are great movies, they deserve a better transfer.

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