Impossibly entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2006)

The third instalment of the MI series attempts to add a little "depth" to the proceedings by giving our hero a fiancé (played by Michelle Monaghan) to further intricate the matters of Ethan Hunt. In the meantime we have Philip Seymour Hoffman in full-on Mr Nasty as Owen Davian as the man who must be stopped this time. He is after a container known as the "white rabbit" the contents of which is never revealed. Could it be a deadly virus? A bomb? A code? A dead animal? Who knows (or cares).
As Ethan and Davian play the deadly cat-and-mouse game the film never stops making things go boom! We see our protagonist impersonate a priest, wear a latex mask with a voice depreciater, manage to swing from building to building, slide down the side of one only to grab on to the edge (yes! he made it!). Apparently if you are a known arms-dealing terrorist you can have access to all sorts of helicopters and and soldiers and blow up bridges without anyone noticing.
From start to finish MI:3 is complete and utter nonsense. Anyone who has recently been watching directer Abrams' TV phenomenon Lost will know just how much sense of disbelief he demands from his audience. But since the film really pushes for its key demographic (spotty, boyish teenagers) you can't really blame it. Picking on the film's lunacy is unfair, as a standard genre film it is darn entertaining. If anything the potent boisterousness of Cruise's latest action vehicle makes for a rather amusing experience on top of the first class action scenes. If you are beyond the horny teenage years you may roll your eyes when Hunt's foot-partner Luther Strickell starts talking to him about his wife in the middle of an explosion spree, yet you can't help but crack a smile at the actually-slightly-campiness of it all. What's more the film is certainly darker than the previous two. Hoffman's bad guy really spits the vile at our hero like nobody's business, to create a great foil for our lead. And stuff about explosive charges in the head may leave some slightly ill-at-ease. Yet don't despair: the ridicule never stops in this one - when the film reveals the outcome of the opening scene you'll know what I'm talking about.
But what's wrong with an empty-headed couple of hours? MI:3 is nothing more than a case of "If you missed the last explosion, don't worry, there will be another one along shortly". And who can argue with that? It delivered exactly what you could hope for. And it kicks the hell out of MI:2.