as the first turn-off-your-mind and suspend major disbelief action picture of 06, it's decent at best

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2006)

I'd be more inclined to recommend Mission: Impossible 3 if I was as ready as I maybe should have been to prepare for the amount of preposterous twists, goofy dialog, and out-of-mind action sequences that this movie holds. But coming from the first two films, which were good on their own terms in doing the summer-Hollywood-popcorn action deal, I thought there might be at least some credibility in some of the parts of the story or characterizations. As it is, this third installment is just OK as far as attaining a level of suspense, even as it goes further and further to wear down my expectations. This is the Tom Cruise world of escapism, after all, and his co-writer/director JJ Abrams (of TV's Alias) is definitely not an un-talented guy by evidence here. Even as his camera goes with a jittery hand-held way, and his editing style pushes into the kind of kinetic mode that might've made Scott/Bruckheimer proud (indeed, there's the kind of dialog in this flick that almost out-ranks their works with cheesy talk).
What maybe bugged me throughout the usual strokes of the movie was that, well, just that, the usual strokes going through. There are a couple of twists meant to be of the pretzel kind (but then again who's going for the story), and the enemy of the film in Philip Seymour Hoffman's character is a good one. So, what, if anything, do I really have to criticize about anyway? Is it just a personal preference that, while not by a long-shot, this is my least enjoyed installment in the franchise, or am I just carping about the parts that are maybe better than the whole? Maybe one thing is that in the other two films, while not to a great degree, there was some interest to be had in whatever it was Cruise's Ethan Hunt was seeking out or protecting, and in this film as he goes after the MacGuffin-like Rabbit's foot, the interest just wained and wained. And the more the script tried to intermittently shake the importance of this obscure object of espionage desire, the more I resented it for how much more so they went for the action scenes.
A kind of balance that can work in action films is slightly askew this time, and for all the little moments I liked, i.e. Cruise and team's scenes getting in and around the Vatican, part of the chase in Shanghai. While others were just, to put it in short, about as dangerously formulaic as possible (bordering on, if not just, stupid). This being said, I know that if you're reading this and still want to see it anyway, all I can say is have fun, as it is quite a preeminent force in the big, loud, exploding-kind of Hollywood thriller this year. But I would also say it might not be the best to look for either. 6/10