Mission: Impossible III
Tags: murder, violence, good versus evil, psychedelic, action, suspenseful, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Ethan Hunt has retired from field work for the IMF. He instead trains new recruits while settling down with his fiancée, Julia Meade, a doctor who is unaware of Ethan's true job. He is approached by fellow IMF agent John Musgrave about a mission to rescue one of Ethan's protégés, Lindsey Farris. Lindsey was captured while investigating arms dealer Owen Davian. Musgrave has already prepared a team for Ethan: Declan Gormley, Zhen Lei, and his old partner Luther Stickell.
The team rescues Lindsey and collects two damaged laptop computers. As they flee, Ethan discovers an explosive pellet implanted in Lindsey's head. Before he can disable it, it goes off and kills her. Back in the U.S., Ethan and Musgrave are reprimanded by IMF Director Theodore Brassel. Ethan learns that Lindsey mailed him a postcard before her capture and discovers a magnetic microdot under the stamp.
IMF technician Benji Dunn recovers enough data from the laptops to determine Davian will be in Vatican City to obtain a mysterious object called the "Rabbit's Foot". Ethan plans a mission to capture Davian without seeking official approval. Before leaving, he and Julia have an impromptu wedding at the hospital's chapel. The team successfully infiltrates Vatican City and captures Davian.
On the flight back to the U.S., Ethan threatens to drop Davian from the plane as he interrogates him about Rabbit's foot, but Davian remains tightlipped. After landing, Ethan learns that the microdot contains a video of Lindsey warning that Brassel is working with Davian. The convoy taking Davian across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel is attacked, and Davian escapes. Ethan races to Julia's workplace, only to find she has already been kidnapped. Davian gives Ethan 48 hours to recover the Rabbit's Foot in exchange for Julia's life, but Ethan is soon captured by the IMF.
Musgrave takes part in Ethan's interrogation but discreetly mouths that the Rabbit's Foot is located in Shanghai, China, and provides Ethan with the means to escape. Ethan escapes IMF headquarters, travels to Shanghai, and acquires Rabbit's Foot along with his team. As he delivers Rabbit's Foot to the meeting point, Ethan is tranquilized. When he comes to, he realizes a micro-explosive is implanted in his head. The restrained Ethan sees Davian holding Julia at gunpoint. Despite Ethan asserting that he brought the real Rabbit's Foot, Davian shoots Julia and leaves.
Musgrave arrives and explains that the woman killed was not Julia, but Davian's head of security, executed for failing to protect him in Vatican City. The ruse was to confirm the authenticity of Rabbit's Foot. Julia is alive and held as hostage. Musgrave reveals himself as the mole. He arranged for Davian to acquire the Rabbit's Foot and sell to a terrorist group, so that IMF would have reasons to launch a preemptive strike.
When Musgrave lets his guard down, Ethan knocks him unconscious. He frees himself and uses Musgrave's phone to track the last call's location to find Julia. He arrives and finds the place, but encounters Davian. Davian triggers the micro-explosive in Ethan's head, but Ethan kills him and then jury-rigs an impromptu defibrillator to deactivate the explosive. Before electrocuting himself, he kisses Julia and teaches her how to use his Beretta 92 to defend herself. While Ethan is unconscious, Musgrave and a henchman arrive and Julia shoots them dead. She successfully revives Ethan and he explains his true IMF career to her.
Back in the U.S., Ethan is congratulated by Brassel as he leaves for his honeymoon with Julia.

Review: J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost, takes on the third instalment of the action franchise, which sees human yo-yo Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in rare human mode as he plans on making an early retirement to be with his nurse wife (Michelle Monaghan), only to be go on another impossible mission as he plans catching sadistic arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
His scenes aside Tom Cruise are superb, as they practically tremble in tension and quiet hatred on both characters parts.You will go to see Mission Impossible III expecting some grand-scale set pieces, and you will not be disappointed here.
Still, "M:I:III" is a fast-paced thriller that manages to get hold of you for the 120-minute span of its running hour and never lets go.After retiring as Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team leader to lead a "normal" life with his fianceé Julia (Michelle Monaghan), Ethan Hunt (Cruise) returns to the team to help recapture criminal arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who has escaped from prison and is now making life difficult for the IMF.
Yet the way director J.J. Abrams and his co-writers injected humor and emotions, plus how its action scenes were superbly handled, save "M:I:III" from becoming just another passable popcorn movie which is why I liked it.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, as usual, is excellent as the main villain "Owen Damien." Michelle Monaghan makes for an attractive fiancée of Cruise in this movie, but her role is not a major one.
His sweetheart Julia (Michelle Monaghan) thinks he works for the Department of Transportation When one of his pupils is kidnapped by a sadistic arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Hunt decides to assemble his old team to retrieve her, putting in mortal danger his new love J.J. Abramsin his first feature filmshot "Mission: Impossible III" with a sense of timing and suspense We're dealing with full-flash blanks, glass breaking, explosions And we see Hunt, in a quite interesting shot, running up a wall to enter the Vatican Also, in the bridge sequence, he runs away from a rocket hit on one of the vehicles It's cool because the way he's running, the look on his face, before, during and after that impact could only have been done only by an actor as good as him In China, in an old fishing village, we see him jumping off tile rooftops, with incredible grace, precision, coordination and footwork Then, with Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) they jump out of a building on a cable landing on a truck The special effects, and visual effects are great They all work together...
The Shanghai street chase with Tom leaning out of the car at some insanely dangerous angle to shoot a gun under a truck; Also Tom, in a high-speed boat, on the Tiber River in Rome, Italy; the blowing of a nice spectacular sports car; and, of course, the helicopter chase sequence where, in pursuit, the bad-guy helicopter emerges out of a fireballAlso, in a fantastic shot, in Shanghai, China, when the camera comes in and then goes around Tom as he's standing on top of a Shanghai roof The camera comes over his shoulder and look down at the ground, so we'll see Tom on the top of the Shanghai building, hundreds feet in the air, and just to show and set up the jeopardy of what he's about to accomplishWell, I loved the director's work He's so detail-orientedThe fun, the adventure, the creativity, never eased up And, please, don't miss Colleen Atwood, entering the Vatican, with a head-turner red dress.
Ethan Hunt still saves Julia though, without even being able to retrieve the "Rabbit's Foot"."Mission: Impossible III" is a great start to the summer movie season.
When I was watching this, I was thinking to myself, "I hope I don't have to use the restroom during this movie." What I liked most is that this was more of a team effort then the previous ones, especially "Mission: Impossible II", and in order to do that you need a good cast, which this had.
Both movies were a mess, with some great parts and a lot of bad parts.J.J. Abrams has had years of work doing spy drama in Alias, and he seems to recognize how to bring the movie back to its roots.I mean, essentially, that's what the TV series was, they had a mission and they'd carry it out in the most convoluted way possible, and the suspense was how they'd pull it off despite the million of things that could go wrong.Abrams is like a magician.
With a cohesive writer-director team, add a good team of actors (Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Simon Pegg and the two female leads, Michelle Monaghan and Keri Russell) plus a great scorer (Michael Giacchino who did a great John Barry impression for The Incredibles, doing a great Lalo Schifrin adaptation here), it's like an engine with all cylinders firing in perfect tune, the audience is taken for quite a wild ride.Even the essence of the story, that they are looking for the "rabbit's foot", Simon Pegg's explanation is brushed off as "It could be my imagination", and when Fishburne was about to explain it, he didn't!
There are moments where Mr. Abrams' style of dialog does come out, but one must wonder if the other two writers actually hindered his dialog.The plot of the movie revolves around Ethan Hunt's secret that he keeps from his fiancé about his true job working for the IMF and whether or not an agent can actually have a normal life.
A mishap with her during the mission causes Ethan to want to dig deeper into the nature of her mission which led to her capture.Enter our henchman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who does make for the best villain of the series (much like Blowfeld to James Bond) and Mr. Hoffman is an excellent actor, but when pitted against Tom Cruise on the screen, he does not come across as being threatening as much as he does a pawn in a much greater scheme (of which the movie begins starts to take more clever turns).
The action scenes are where this movie truly shines and it's a good thing there is an abundance of them in this film because when the film comes to meet one of it's more emotional scenes, it's such a jerky transition that the audience can feel like they're experiencing first hand what a manic-depressive goes through.Still, the Mission: Impossible movie franchise has yet to find it's feet and by the third part of the series, it can seem a bit exhausting as the audience waits and compares the style.
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.
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).
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!
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!
The crack undercover agent Ethan Hunt(Tom Cruise) is again called back into action by IMF operation chief named Musgrave(Billy Crudup), his assignment is a crucial mission to rescue former protégée named Lindsay(Keri Russell).
Making the audience forget the disaster that was "Mission: Impossible 2", first-time director J.J. Abrams (best known for ABC's breakout television hits "Alias" and "Lost") gets back to what made the original in 1996 so great and interesting---liquid mercury flow and pace.
I just saw MI3 and came back home trying to imagine what MI4 will be like in 4 or 5 years, I really liked the TV show from the sixties and the remake from the 90's, when the first movie came out ( 1996 ) I felt a little disappointed, maybe because of Coppola and his very personal directing style, MI2 was much better than its prequel, but MI3 just fulfilled all my expectations, it's captivating and a very good way to spend 2 hours of nonstop action and Mission Impossible gadgets.
This is, without a doubt, one of the best action movies to date and just as good as the new Mission: Impossible film, Ghost Protocol (which means the best).
Before the mission is completed, things go from bad to worst; Ethan looses a friend, and a massive terror plot is unveiled for Ethan to prevent.J.J. Abrams, one of the most imaginative and intelligent directors/writers of the decade, mastered this film without breaking a sweat and took it so far that Tom Cruise was even thrown against a car by a (very) close explosion.
By far and away the best of the MI movies to date, the first having the gall to make the character Jim Phelps from the original TV series into the villain (what were they thinking, and what quicker way to alienate an established fan base?) and the second abandoning the old MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE team formula completely, making it a one-man show and just cashing in on Cruise and the title.Here the formula is re-established.
Added to all this is the fact that that Hunt is now romantically involved and his spouse consequently becomes the target of Hoffman's villain's revenge, and also adds a much needed humanity to Cruise's character.The wit and wiles of TV's IMF squad are admittedly replaced here by ridiculous yet riveting stunts, but when these are beautifully realised and executed under the direction of veteran 2nd Unit director and stuntman/co-ordinator Vic (Bond) Armstrong, you can't go far wrong, especially with a budget that Eon would cry for.British actor Simon Pegg (SHAUN OF THE DEAD - see my review in the archives) makes a welcome appearance as a 'Q' like computer boffin at IMF HQ, and eventual reluctant inside man to rogue agent Hunt.
This movie is sanitised for my liking.The acting especially from Tom Cruise was top class he played the role of a returned special agent all to easily and for the first time and thankfully so looked his age.
The scene had some great action and mind boggling special effects.The movie lacked the big ending that we have come to associate with the series.
J.J. Abrams is the director for part three in the Mission: Impossible franchise, meaning that there is an excess of lens flares but also a surfeit of top-notch action making this one yet another small step in the right direction for the series.This time around, retired agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes back in the field to try and apprehend Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a sadistic arms dealer who is trying to get his hands on a device code-named "The Rabbit's Foot".
In doing so, Hunt not only puts his own life at risk but also that of his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan).Where parts 1 and 2 were sparing with their action scenes, Mission: Impossible III's pace is much faster, Abrams going all out for tension and excitement, including a superb helicopter chase through a wind-farm, Hunt breaking into the Vatican to capture Davian, an explosive attack on a bridge, and a perilous leap for our hero from one skyscraper to another.
In my opinion, M:I:III makes it an explosive start to the summer lineup, lives up to the hype it built, but though it took on a more personal look into the life of Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, I still felt, and no offense to JJ Abrams, that while it balanced action with personal drama effectively, somehow it lacked that X-factor oomph after all the smoke has cleared, to truly make it one heck of a classic action thriller.Sure, elements of M:I are there, the mysterious calls, high octane action and technology driven gadgets which self-destruct in 5 seconds, save for the missing traditional opening sequence where images and agents photos are juxtaposed as Lalo Schifrin's theme comes blaring.
Although this installment of the Mission Impossible franchise is certainly a better effort than the abysmal showing we had in MI:2, this movie still misses the mark by miles.We have come to know Ethan Hunt, or so we think, but even familiarity with that character is taken from us and we are never allowed to know him or connect with him again.
Likewise the character of Hunt's protégé whose rescue takes up a large part of the film is tossed at us and only much later are we allowed to understand Hunt's connection to her.Unlike MI:2, at least this outing has a plot, but even then, the story is tossed at us in pieces and in flashbacks too long after the questions arise in our minds to help us understand or enjoy the movie.Tom Cruise needs to stop now before we have to endure an MI:4 which could be subtitled Action for Action's Sake..
Just screened for critics and exhibs in Australia ahead of local release Thursday.....Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star of our generation for one very simple reason - he knows how to deliver the goods.Sometimes he chooses smart material that resonates (Collateral, Jerry Maguire, Few Good Men, Rainman, Risky Business); sometimes he promises and, most importantly, delivers great popcorn entertainment (Top Gun, The Firm, War Of The Worlds); sometimes he makes crap that coasts on his charisma alone (Vanilla Sky, Mission Impossible 2, Days Of Thunder, Cocktail).
The film tries to combine elements of the first two films; the intelligence and surprising plot twist of the first film, and the intense, loud action of the second, but part three does try to do one thing different that has yet to be done; giving our main hero and lead spy, Ethan Hunt a personal life, and you don't have to have seen True Lies or the first few episodes of Alias (which was created by J.J. Abrams) to know that spies can't have a personal life, it just flat out doesn't work.
This film is easily packed with more action than the first two films combined, but there's no real flow to it all like M:I-2, but some of these scenes early on are quite exciting and highly energetic and thrilling, like one particular scene where Hunt has to jump off the roof a skyscraper in Shanghai (which looks like an amazing city at night I must say) only to swing over and crash on top of the building next to it, but overall this movie does feel like a really intense two hour episode of Alias, and I'd expect a little more from Cruise, but this is pretty much exactly what I would have expected from director Abrams.The romance that the film is built upon isn't that convincing, probably just as convincing as the one in the last movie, but here we are just forced to "accept it" and move on.
guru that did manage to make me laugh, but casting Pegg in a small role wasn't the only good choice in casting, no; the film is pretty well cast throughout; from Keri Russell as Hunt's protégé to Billy Crudup as an IMF team manager, Laurence Fishburne as the IMF operations director and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the icy villain, but they are all underused, which is a damn shame, and even though these are all great choices and it certainly keeps the film entertaining and exciting.Part of M:I:III is brilliant and some of the best moments in the series.
STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back-this time on the trail of a merciless arms dealer (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who's implanting deadly devices in people's brains in order to obtain what he needs.Six years after the last movie, Mission:Impossible III hits the big screen.
(Reminded me of Spielberg in recent years with his hand-held shots to be honest.) The plot is confusing at the end because they try to implement the typical "twist" - and in that sense it's a lot more like the first film, which did a similar thing - but the build-up actually works quite well and the two hours + fly by.The acting - Tom Cruise picked up a lot of criticism recently because of his stupidity as a public figure (being the Scientology-promoting, couch-jumping, Katie-loving, psychiatry-slamming guy he is), but he does well here - the audience only laughed at him a few times to be totally honest.The scene-stealer is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is the best villain any of the "M:I" films have had yet.
If you haven't seen the first 2 sequels, don't be whining about it, because you haven't missed anything special....All in all, I would say nice performance, and it was good with some new comers to join Ethan Hunt in his impossible missions, so it wasn't only Tom Cruise who contributed to the movie's perfection....
The Movie is produced by Tom Cruise so like as the previous chapter all the action and the story is around the character of Ethan Hunt!