MI:3 Raises the Bar Again

Rating: 9/10 (2 May 2006)

When you walk into a movie expecting to be blown away by death defying stunts and tremendous special effects, it's easy to be disappointed. What a monumental task directors had in making MI3 even more over-the-top and more spectacular than the first two. Mission Accomplished. (Sorry.) Tom Cruise takes Ethan Hunt to new heights. Fishbourne is great as the ambiguously dirty IMF leader. But the best actor in the movie is Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not many actors can take a role that's more one-dimensional than Doctor Evil and turn it into a deeply layered performance. From an acting standpoint, there was almost a feeling that he was too good for this movie and the actors around him. He doesn't breathe the same air as this cast, not even Tom Cruise. The women in the movie are a dichotomy. On the one hand you have Bahar Soomekh, an unknown actress who kicks ass and takes names on par with the bad boys, Cruise, and Ving Rhames. On the other you have Keri Russell in a part we've seen too many times in this kind of movie. The wide-eyed innocent who becomes the villain's prize and the hero's salvation. Keri Russell and Michelle Monaghan spend most of this movie tied to a chair. I hope they're not method actresses. They would have to spend the last year of filming at home, bound and gagged in the kitchen. At least they made Monaghan a doctor, so we know she's smart, even if she's so naïve she thinks her husband works for the department of transportation. Forget the love story, forget the corruption at IMF, forget the plot entirely. None of it matters. All that matters is "how are we going to get in" and "how are we going to get out" and the magnificent twists and turns that follow. Some action movies spend way too much time milking the set up of a weak script before the explosions and the stunts finally kick in. Others dull your senses with one mindless montage of violence and car chases, without a point to be found. MI3 walks the line perfectlythe story is simple enough to understand but well-thought out enough to not poke gaping holes in it. Now let's get to the action. MI3 manages the action sequences smartly, expertly getting your heart rate (and hopes) up and then bring you crashing back down to earth. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, followed by a 10 minutes of blah blah blah. "You shouldn't get married," Ving says to Tom in the middle of a dangerous operation. "You know guys who do what we do can't be married." By the way, this is another well-worn action film technique. Inject casual talk between principals during the most intense and dangerous scenes. It shows that they're so highly-skilled and confident, they can chat nonchalantly about relationships while in the middle of an elaborate Vatican City break-in. Thank you Quentin. Thank you Bruce Willis. But the breaks in the action work. They give you a chance to buy into the suspense each time, from your feet up. Acknowledging that you're drained from the previous sequence, they give you time to catch your breath and then come at you all over again. The air-to-ground assault on the Washington Bridge is astounding. Cruise attempting to catapult between two skyscrapers in Shanghais is beyond belief. Watching him descend way too fast from said skyscraper in a flimsy parachute, knowing he's going to crash down onto the busy freeway and immediately be run over by a gas tanker? Priceless. Remarkable stunts, solid acting, and a villain that may be the best ever in this genre (Hoffman) makes MI3 the best of the series and maybe the best action movie ever made. Until 4, that is.