Solid action/thriller. 77.5%

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2012)

I watched this movie on DVD yesterday (Saturday, at the time of writing), after having seen the sequel, "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol", and not remembering certain developments in the main character's (Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise) life. I know that I'd seen the first two movies...must have missed this third one...perhaps because I didn't like its predecessor that much...or something (I watched the 4th in the series because the cinema chain showing it gave you the chance to win a car if you booked a ticket online...ah, marketing!).
Anyway, this movie does indeed fill in the missing pieces from the 4th in the series. It concerns a romantically entangled Ethan Hunt no longer working in the field for the IMF organisation (his love interest's reaction to what that acronym stands for pretty much spoke for me!) and now working there part time as a trainer of would be field agents. Of course, the IMF comes calling on him again to help out in a mission to rescue an agent he trained who has been kidnapped (the beautiful Keri Russell as field agent Lindsey Farris...the IMF seems to have impossibly high beauty standards for new recruits!).
Predictably, things go pear shaped and soon Ethan Hunt has to deal with a mysterious, shadowy figure called Owen Davian (played coldly and malevolently by Philip Seymour Hoffman...a chilling performance as a truly nasty piece of work). Davian is seeking to sell something of unimaginable value...and possibly something of great power.
The best thrills/tension comes from when Ethan is stretched to his limits trying to save the women he cares for.
The beautiful Michelle Monaghan perhaps has a thankless role (unless she had posters of Tom on her wall while growing up!) playing Ethan's love interest, Julia Meade. She is suitably adorable.
Watching this movie I did get some odd moments with it...where I wasn't engrossed in the proceedings...like:
* Ethan Hunt cracking a smile near the end of the movie...no doubt that is the 'money shot' for Tom Cruise's female fans...I can imagine the director wheedling that out of him with a "Come on Tom! Show us those pearly whites!".
* Near the end of the movie, there's a moment which comes across as comedic, concerning some extraordinary measure which must be taken to stop Ethan from dying...maybe everyone knows it's all a bit silly, really, but maybe Tom just doesn't pull off those many moments where he has to emote in this movie...his expression in that scene comes across as something from a teen comedy.
To close, the DVD I watched has some extras, including deleted scenes. There was a good action scene missing from the movie, featuring the beautiful Maggie Q as Ethan's field agent partner Zhen Lei. Hmm...I was watching a scene in the Vatican in the movie...she wears a very revealing dress...I played a scene slowly where she reaches for an item hidden near her leg...something struck me as 'weird'...had a look higher up on Zhen's body...the 'weird' thing was her underwear! I sort of got the impression that she had been digitally altered in some way...haven't seen Basic Instinct...but I was thinking in that direction...don't think anything was digitally altered though...it's just that in trying not have distracting underwear for the actress it actually proved a distraction!
Watching the making of featurette did also remind me of another couple of instances I utilised the slow motion ability of my machine...there are two scenes where Ethan and Lindsey pirouette together in action sequences...apparently Tom went for that ostentatious move...it definitely does catch the eye though. It also seems that a middle aged, behind the scenes woman who is interviewed is not credited...have no idea who she was!