Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2006)

The first was very complex. We moaned about it.
The second was very simple. We moaned about it.
I guess they wanted a mid-level of complexity to this film, it works in a very basic way but nothing other than some fantastic set-pieces really becomes of it. In fact, the only thing that stops this from being a typical action movie is the soppy romance laced through it and Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance as the baddie.
This particular baddie sells things to people who should own them wants to steal a Maguffin (a completely unimaginative plot mechanism) to sell to the Arabs. Cruise and Co try to stop him but he slips out of their hands and promises to make Cruise cry unless he does his bidding. You don't have to do much to make that happen. Just point a water pistol at him.
The Maguffin is none other than the Rabbit's Foot? What's the Rabbit's Foot you ask? Who cares? Like I said already, it's just an excuse for action to happen. We've seen plots like this before in Pulp Fiction and Ronin, but done to much better and much more intriguing effect.
The action scenes are superb! The chopper chase, bridge attack, skyscraper swing and Vatican Heist are bursting at the seems with excitement and are all shot and cut brilliantly. They add a huge sense of death-defying spectacle to a film that's low on ideas but high on espionage thrills.
There are some weak links though. I HATED Simon Pegg's cameo and his apparent ad-libbing was the unfunniest thing I have ever heard in my life. The romance talk does reek of that corny 'You complete me' scene in Jerry Maguire and Ving Rhame's character STILL gets no development whatsoever, spending practically the whole movie sitting at a laptop, again!
As a popcorn movie it works very well, but I had higher expectations so I was kinda let-down. But it never fails to entertain.