The best Mission yet...but still lacking greatness

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2006)

All of the Mission: Impossible movies have been entertaining in their own ways, but none of them has amounted to a great, MUST SEE movie. Brian DePalma's original was an overly intricate head scratcher that pretty much crapped upon everything the television series established. After all, taking the iconic hero of the series and making him the villain of the movie is about as insulting the source material as you can get. Nonetheless it contained two great scenes...Cruise's dangling theft of the secret list, and the final helicopter/train sequence at the end. John Woo's follow up was an overly stylish ballet that focused way too heavily on Woo's obsession with slow motion. A more straightforward plot got drawn out by Woo's "look how pretty my action sequences are" style of directing. Now J.J. Abrams takes his "Alias" show and replaces Jennifer Garner with Tom Cruise. The result is curious mix of "Alias", "James Bond", and "24". A lot of action, and plot that is as bare bones as you can get. In fact, the item that is the macguffin of this whole thing, something called "The Rabbit's Foot" is never even explained. It's basic good guy vs. bad guy with the item itself being insignificant. Tom Cruise is basically on auto-pilot here. In fact in this movie he's more "Tom Cruise" than "Ethan Hunt". With many close ups of Cruise's mug, his eyes shrink wrapped in tears, I kept waiting for him to jump on a couch and say how incredible Katie Holmes is. Is it a coincidence that his wife in the film is played by Michelle Monaghan, an actress that bears a striking resemblance to Katie? I think not. Ving Rhames returns in his thankless walk on role. Laurence Fishburne continues to pack on the pounds and gives another NyQuil induced performance, much like he was in the last two Matrix movies. Phillip Seymore Hoffman is the main bad guy, and while he chews the scenery well in a couple of scenes, never really comes off THAT menacing. One of the better performances in the movie is by the gorgeous Keri Russell. She makes a meal out of her role as Cruise's one time protégée, but unfortunately she isn't in the movie long enough. Another standout in the film is from "Shaun Of The Dead" star Simon Pegg, as the equivalent of Q from the Bond films. He's quick, funny, and instantly likable. There is more action this time around, but unfortunately, director Abrams doesn't believe in keeping the camera in the same space for more than two seconds. The camera NEVER stops moving. During some of the most intense action scenes in fact, the camera shakes so bad, you'd think it was sitting on top of a blender. Michael Bay's cameras don't move this much. But action there is. Gunfights-a-plenty, car chases, and a bridge attack that is thrilling, but unfortunately lifted almost directly from "True Lies", a far superior spy movie. Now with all this, I know it sounds like I hated the movie. I didn't. I, in fact, enjoyed this more than the first two Mission's. But it's just that there's nothing spectacular about them. The presence of Tom Cruise seems to make people think that there will be something here that hasn't been seen before. But we have seen it before. It's big, fast, loud, and by the numbers. And I think Tom Cruise's recent public meltdowns, and increasingly bizarre behavior will keep many people away. And those that do go, may realize that without his hype, Tom Cruise is just another actor, and M:I 3 is just another in one end, out the other action movie.