MI3? Third time's the Charm!

Rating: 8/10 (8 May 2006)

This movie, should you choose to accept watching it, had some tributes to some of Tom Cruise's previous movies - a piece of reggae at the beginning tying in to both "The Firm" and "Cocktail" especially when he was using a cocktail shaker, his travelling a motorcycle like "Top Gun;" even the chases thru the flick lends themselves to his "Minority Report," but MI3 was better than the first two missions.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the insidious arms dealer was very villainous and totally different from his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Truman Capote, which shows his versatility.
Laurence Fishburne as the other potential foil to Cruise was very good as a by the book and neo-jingoistic agent. A far cry from the prophet/ally of Morpheus in the Matrix (patriotism in another way), or the fury of Othello, or his days with the "Boyz In The Hood." Obviously we'll be seeing more of him in other missions...
The film was handed to JJ Abrams of "Alias" fame and justifiably so - the transition of secret agents on TV to the big screen was easy for the director, through him the main plot and sub threads were deftly woven! The fact that Cruise's Ethan Hunt is getting married; how his team feels he's betrayed them in seeking romance; another plot is that Ethan's effectiveness as an agent could be compromised by having close ties - all juxtaposed with achieving a new mission after being out of the field for so long!
But the main plot is seeking a biological doomsday device known as "The Rabbit's Foot" and Hoffman as the arms dealer hoping to get it into his greedy clutches.
The techniques and technology in MI3 is very scary if indeed possible - sculpting a mask on the spot; a vocoder matching the voiceprint of who you're impersonating; satellite imagery that can locate a license number from a vertical slant; implanting a debriefing in a supposed disposable camera - it's not "What will they think of next?" but "Why haven't they done so-and-so yet?"
The idea that defibrillator can defuse a head-bomb was a stretch in hindsight, but with the break-in to the Vatican, Cruise/Ethan as a Cardinal and other amazing effects, you can forgive that! Go and see this film before it self-destructs in...