Movie Review: "Mission Impossible III" (2006)

As of events of late, I have not been the biggest Tom Cruise fan. This guy has done everything to basically kill his fame and make himself the butt of many late night monologue punchlines by openly poselyting for Scientology, questioning Psychiatric science, jumping up and own Oprah's couch, getting Katie Homes pregnant and eating her placenta after the baby was born and more recently, drinking olive oil stright out of the bottle. The guy's a tool. But Mission Impossible III is awesome.

This will be a review of the film, not of Tom Cruise, (which I'm basically done with, with the aforementioned rant).



Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) wants to start a new life with his new soon-to-be wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) when the IMF starts calling him up during the most important time in his life. As that the mission involves the rescue of his captured protege Agent Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell) from shady arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour-Hoffman), he is forced to go back into active duty and kick the collective behinds of the bad guys.
Things soon take a turn for the worse when they are messing with the most sought after ghost dealer in the business. Davian proves to be more difficult than most thugs they've dealt with. He manages to get hold of Ethan's most precious Julia and the dynamic suddenly changes. Who was once unattached and effective becomes volatile and impulsive.

I've left out a lot of details in the story so as not to spoil the twists.

JJ Abrams is an awesome action director. His experiance with Alias and Lost sure has paid off in his recent movie ventures like Serenity and MiIII, he has an uncanny talent for suspense. A case in point in the awesome opening sequence where Davian counts to 10 whit a gun pointed at Julia's head facing a tied down Hunt who is at the receiving end of questioning whether or not, he knows where the eponymous "Rabbit's Foot" is. This is also where Hoffman shines as the ruthless, determined Davian. Another scene would involve the chase between 2 helicopters in a field of power generating windmills in Germany. This has got to be one of the best action sequences of the year. The massive propellers of the winmills swishing against those of the copters plus guided missiles and detonating crainial implants is just movie magic.



Tom Cruise may be a tool, but he can sure carry a movie. His charisma is very material to the success of the character Ethan Hunt. His supporting team, led by the ever cool Vhing Rhames had some really funny lines to deliver. Some really rare gems are lines very liberally distributed among the cast like the jaw droppingly gorgeous Maggie Q and Laurence Fishburne ("I will bleed on the Flag to make sure the stripes stay red", classic). Back to Maggie Q, I have never seen Naked Weapon, but I have seen the beautiful screen shots of her. I Had doubts about her acting, but she did rather well given the role. Mere shots of her face and slender figure keep the guys glued to the screen until the next explosion.

I was surprised by the lack of Kerri Russel scenes, although you pretty much know why by this time. I would have loved to see her with more action sequences.

The movie is sure to make No. 1 easy next week. But I think it could have n=made more money or could make more money if Tommy Boy would just shut the @#$% up!

Rocketboy's Rating *****(5 out of 5)