Mission Impossible III (2006)

Cruise knows Action

Why is it that Tom Cruise is at his best when he is running from something? Minority Report, The Firm, War of the Worlds, etc. - he does a significant amount of escaping and running away from people in all these films. I guess there is just something about seeing him running for his life at full speed that make people want to come back for more. Whatever the reason, I though Mission Impossible III was a good, entertaining show.

The key to this type of movie is expectations. You musn't expect an intricate plot, or clever dialogue. What you should go in expecting is action, and lots of gadgets and devices that help them accomplish their "impossible" mission. Since I don't watch many action movies, whenever I do, it is a fun, lively experience. I don't recommend more than one action movie every six months. Any more and you will be jaded to the genre very quickly.

I do remember that Mission Impossible I, and maybe II as well, had lots of crazy plot twists, so much so that it was hard to figure out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. The third installment has some of that, but it does not take nearly so many turns, and it is very easy to follow. However, if you are looking for a "mystery", you will probably be disappointed.

One thing that did bother me was the lack of rationality on Tom Cruise's character's part. He seems to lose any perspective toward the end of the movie. While believability does have to be suspended during this type of movie, he is generally a cool, scientific, rational character, but when his girlfriend/wife is kidnapped, he loses it. Oh well, maybe that's the Power of Love.

One side note. When they refer to "IMF" in this film, they are referring to the "Impossible Mission Force" and not the "International Monetary Fund". This became clear to me at the end, but it made me pause in the middle.

Overall, I would recommend this movie if you haven't watched an action movie in a long time and don't really feel like anything more serious. It is a fun way to waste two hours as long as you don't set your expectations too high. July 14, 2008

MI3: Tom Cruise's face is amazing.

...or, Mission Impossible 3: The one that will try to prove Tom Cruise is still better than Jesus.

This movie features a derivative plot, with generic spies racing each other toward obtaining a nameless unexplained super weapon. It also features (extremely prominently) Tom Cruise. And Tom Cruise. Plus, Tom Cruise running.

I recommend the Pan-and-Scan version over the widescreen. About 75% of this movie's running time is a close-up of Tom Cruise's face. The widescreen version will distract you from his faux-intense mug, with too much scenery ("costars") off to the sides. The fullscreen version nicely features nothing but Cruise's face, filling most of the screen, most of the time.

Without even a good gimmick (the superweapon is never explained), the only attempt at drama made by this movie is putting Cruise's wife in peril. Trouble is, she is an extremely shallow character, and Cruise has lied to her about most of who he is... so it's hard to feel very invested in her welfare or their "relationship." Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Best Actor Oscars: 1) does well, but is on the screen for about eight minutes, dwarfed by the 124 minutes that Cruise (Oscars: 0) dominates the picture.

Cruise mostly does two things: be "intense," and run. He runs about four miles combined throughout the 7-8 scenes focused on him running. He somehow looks shorter than ever too--at one point, Lawrence Fishburne was glaring at him, and I thought he was considering actually *eating* Tom Cruise like a snack. June 18, 2008

J.J. Abrams + Tom Cruise + Philip Seymour Hoffman = Action Movie Masterpiece

When this film was first announced it was met with skepticism and with the constant bad press Tom Cruise had received over the months this movie was destined to fail. That was before we had the chance to see this stellar combination in action; Tom Cruise reprising his role as Ethan Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman taking the role as the main bad guy, arms dealer Owen Davian. These two great actors combined together with the unique and talented Directional mind of J.J. Abrams this movie shut all the skeptics up and gave us an action movie that would truly wrap up the Ethan Hunt saga.

Tom Cruise in this movie I think really excels and this is somewhat of a film that really pushed his acting ability to which he delivered perfectly. Philip Hoffman was the true shining light of this film as he played the sick and sadistic arms dealer who was willing to go to any lengths to have Hunt destroyed, even if it meant murdering his girlfriend in the process.

This is a great movie and I thought this was truly the right time to re-ignite an old franchise, if you haven't seen this yet and have been one of the skeptics I challenge you to hate this film. June 15, 2008

Mission accomplished

Finally we have a sequel that stands closer to the series. Don't get me wrong mission impossible pt 1 was good but at times it was overly complex. Not to mention MI: 2 which was an exaggerated over blown sequel. Instead here we have a balanced chemistry of a simpler plot and more realistic action.And what I liked was that everything is accomplished as a group; exactly as it was done in the TV series. Best of all JJ Abrahams creates tension from time to time with interesting close ups that are in a way similar to the TV show 24.

The plot in this movie is much simpler than part 1 but not so simplistic as part 2. It all begins with Ethan Hunt coming back to the IMF agency; he is sent to rescue a fellow agent. Along the way we discover there is an arms dealer that is negotiating with terrorist about a potential nuclear device, possibly known as The Rabbits Foot. I don't want to ruin anymore but at least I can say that it's a worthy sequel. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because even though the movie is somewhat better than the predecessors i felt that it was still a Tom Cruise vehicle, concentrating on an exaggerated ego of his. But other than that is was all good. Mission accomplished

MY PERSONAL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5
May 25, 2008

A Beautiful Film on Blu-ray

The movie itself was so much better than MI:II and the blu-ray version is noticeably cleaner looking than it's DVD counterpart. April 6, 2008

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