Mission Accomplished

Rating: 3/10 (28 March 2011)

In one sense, the Mission: Impossible movies have something in common with the Austin Powers movies. They aren't perfect, they contain more cons than pros but, darn it, I would never think of missing one.
I remember I walked out of the first movie feeling pleasantly satisfied until I thought back over Brian DePalma's bucket of red herrings to realize that the movie, for all it's pretzel plot twists, really didn't add up to much. The second film just left me cold. This was more John Woo than Mission Impossible. Here was a rip-snorting action movie with the kinds of stunts and actions scenes I could see in a dozen other movies done much better. I felt, in a way, that the movie was way too much Woo and not enough "Wow!" But as I said, I may have had these problems but I would never have missed them, for what they were they were just plain fun.
So with that, I did not proceed into Mission: Impossible III with too much expectation. That's good because surprisingly I found a movie more robust and satisfying than the previous two, a movie that has a great villain and a great sense of danger that evokes the qualities of the best of the James Bond pictures.
Cruise's Ethan Hunt finds a better motivation this time. In his previous adventures he found himself chasing computer files and viruses but this time he is trying to uncover a mysterious "Rabbit's Foot" to save the woman he loves. What's the "Rabbit's Foot"? Well, the movie provides us with a theory for that question but no real answer. This is what Alfred Hitchcock referred to as The McGuffin, a movie term for an object that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story itself. As the movie is closing, Ethan is still asking that question.
The point in chasing this "Rabbit's Foot" is that it is the key to saving Ethan's new bride from the hands of the slimy Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). The movie opens with a flash-forward scene than reverses back so that we know from the start what will be at stake and the horror of that scene makes it clear that this movie isn't going to be easy on poor Tom Cruise.
The key to the movie is Phillip Seymour Hoffman (who just won an Oscar for playing Truman Capote) who infuses Davian with a kind of cold dread. He doesn't speak much but when he does there is a seriousness in his voice that is note perfect. If we didn't believe him as the villain than the rest of the movie wouldn't work.
It also helps that the stunt work is set up so that it doesn't feel like just clotheslines for the story. There are two spectacular set pieces here that are pitch perfect, one involves a leap from one high-rise to the next resulting in Cruise hanging upside down with a semi advancing on him. Another involves an explosion on the Chesapeake Bay bridge.
All in all there is a deep sense of satisfaction in this third entry because I think the series has found it's tone. Director JJ Abrams doesn't weigh the movie down with too much plot but just provides the dread factor and a great motivation. The movie isn't perfect but it's far and away the best film in this series and one of the most exciting action films I seen in a while. So at long last I can finally say Mission: Accomplished.
*** (of four)