Forgettable bang-bang should spell end of the franchise...

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2006)

...or at least we may all hope so.
This one ended up being the second half of an unplanned double feature, the first half being "Poseidon." I'm almost sorry to say that "Poseidon" was the more entertaining of the two, despite the opposite opinions of IMDb voters, who seem to exhibit typical IMDb reactions to the film, i.e. the older they are, the less they liked it. That's true of "Poseidon" as well, of course, but the situation seems more attenuated with "MI-3." Regardless, I'm hoping that this will mark the end of the franchise, which was never all that much shakes in the first place, despite the star wattage of Tom Cruise and Co. The TV show, though popular, never pretended to be anything more than clever fantasy (I've always loved those fake faces they'd use, as if no one could tell the difference), and the films made no serious attempt to alter the situation. They didn't label things "Impossible" for nothing.
As I said, this was the second half of an impromptu double feature, and it failed to keep my interest successfully. Perhaps I'd already been brainwiped by "Poseidon," but I think it had more to do with the seen-it-all-before plot. Phillip Seymour Hoffman does a nice turn as a coldblooded dirtbag, but it's no real stretch for him, and Cruise is...well, Cruise. I liked him better in "War of the Worlds," and he didn't do much of anything he hasn't done before in that, either. His love interest (Keri Russell) is a virtual cipher, and his obligatory supporting castmates (Ving Rhames, Lawrence Fishburne--looking very bloated, Billy Crudup, and others, particularly a mostly superfluous Simon Pegg) all do the MI thing with competence, but none of it adds up to much more than an excuse for elaborate, unbelievable stunts. I found myself nodding off at several points in the film, which is not a good sign.
If I'd seen this one first, I might have enjoyed it more, but alas, "Poseidon" drained me of most of my thriller endurance. I'll give it another shot on DVD (maybe), but I can't recommend "Mission Impossible 3" to any but the usual assortment of popcorn movie junkies. It's shot well, it's staged well, and it wears its budget with pride, but "MI-3" is just as instantaneously forgettable as "Poseidon," and lacks the geek factor of watching a large ocean liner capsize and slowly sink, killing hundreds of people. Sorry, Tom, but you've been upstaged by a boat.