Mission: Impossible III

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read my review of Mission: Impossible III.

Tom Cruise returns as Secret Agent Ethan Hunt who has to stop a ruthless arms dealer, Owen Davian (Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman).

This was a fun action-packed spy thriller similar to the previous M:I movies and comparable to James Bond flicks. It was a great eye-candy filled popcorn flick, but just like junk food, the enjoyment is quickly forgotten as soon as the film ends.

You may have to think about it for a little bit as you try to figure out the questions you had about the plot twists and plot holes, but all the explosions distract you from thinking too much about the plot. Like a rollercoaster, I just enjoyed the ride instead of thinking too much about J. J. Abrams' deeper story about government conspiracies and corruption.

I love J. J. Abrams' t.v. show, Alias. I thought season one was mindblowing. His other tv series, Lost, also is extremely popular with the tv audience. However, in his latest project, I thought he focused too much on satisfying the masses with lots of action and explosions instead of fine-tuning his usual brilliant script writing. The ending was too sugary sweet and lacked his usual cliffhangers.

Although I enjoyed watching M:I:III, I didn't like it as much as M:I:I and M:I:II. In I, I really liked its originality and suspense. It had a great style and the plot twists were fresh and new. M:I:II had John Woo's visual flare and style.

In the third one, Abrams wanted to introduce a deeper romantic storyline. Ethan Hunt gets married and we see the dangers this poses to the loved ones of people in this line of work.

The movie starts off with Davian interrogating Hunt as he and his wife are tied up. Davian wants to know where the Rabbit's Foot is. Hunt keeps blabbing on as he stalls for time. Davian doesn't want to play games and shoots Hunt's wife in the leg. Then, he shoots her in the head.

The film flashes back to tell how they got to that point. Hunt's girlfriend is a nurse who doesn't know he's a secret agent man. He tells her that he works for the Department of Transportation. He tells her friends how he's fascinated with traffic. The guys think he's a bore and the girls think he's a catch. I guess girls are attracted to guys who look good and are passionate about their jobs. He gets a phone call and he meets another agent at 7-11. What I don't get is how someone can wait inside 7-11 waiting for another person, especially a secret agent. Wouldn't it be very suspicious if someone was standing in the aisles of 7-11 for a long time? What if Tom Cruise took his time getting there? After waiting there for like half an hour, they then proceed to talk secretively there. Not a great choice if you realistically want to be on the down low.

His boss tells him that he is needed to save an agent that has been captured. Hunt has been working as a trainer now instead of a field agent. One of his trainees has been captured by the bad guys. He says that she was a like a little sister to him. Ving Rhames asks if he's slept with his "little sister".

He and his special team manage to rescue secret agent Kerri Russell, but a small bomb that was implanted in her head goes off and she kicks the bucket.

Hunt is sad. He is told he has to go after Davian. He tells his gf that he has to go on a business trip for several days. She starts getting suspicious as to why he's been going away so much and acting so strange lately. Hunt marries his gf as a way of showing his love to her so that she can trust him. All of his co-agents tell him that people in their line of work shouldn't get hitched, but he tells them that it's too late. He tied the knot already.

He and his team hunt Davian down. They take photos of him and make a lifelike mask of him. That's cool, but unbelievable.

Tom Cruise starts going crazy on Davian demanding to know where the Rabbit's Foot is. Davian is such a icy cold villain that he keeps his cool and has the balls to threaten Cruise by saying that he's going to hurt his loved one and kill her in front of him.

Davian has connections within the agency so he escapes. During the bridge/helicopter escape scene, Tom Cruise manages to escape being blown up, but the blast pushes him sideways into the white Dodge Stratus. Everyone who watches action movies know that a blast would push him straight forward and not sideways.






They speculate that the Rabbit's Foot is probably an "Anti-God" end-of-the-world-type weapon. The U.S. government has sold this weapon to middle eastern bad guys and they're hoping that they would blow themselves all up. This way, they can start rebuilding the world the way they think it should be. --All in the name of democracy.

There's a lot of plot twists. People are not who they appear to be. Swinging and base jumping across buildings in Shanghai City. Split second decisions. Close calls. It's all there.

Finally, we get back to scene one again. Hunt is tied up along with his wife. His wife gets shot. I would have just told the bad guy where the Rabbit's Foot was. But, it turns out that it wasn't his wife. It was just a mask. The woman underneath the mask was really the translator that failed him before.

Hunt escapes and finds his wife trapped somewhere else. He beats up the bad guy, but the bomb in his head discharges and he gets a splitting headache. They continue fighting in the streets. The bad guy gets run over by a truck. His nurse wife tries to help him. He says he needs her to electrocute him to short circuit the discharge. She doesn't want to kill him, but he says, "If you don't kill me, I'll die." She fries him. He flatlines. She uses her nursing skills and resurrect him. They walk away happy and in love as Chinese people start running around frantically trying to figure out the cause of all the destruction around them.

She wants to know the truth and he says that he works for the IMF. No, it's not the International Monetary Fund. It's the Impossible Mission Force. She laughs, "Yah right!" I can't take that name seriously either.

They never find out what the Rabbit's Foot really was, but everyone starts cheering for Tom Cruise and his new wife.

The Highs: Great action, suspense, plot twists, explosions. Lots of adrenaline.

The Lows: Sappy romance. Corny ending. Lots of plot holes, but the explosions cover them up really well.

The Verdict: A fun rollercoaster ride with your pal, crazy Tom Cruise.

My rating: B, 82.

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