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by Raul Burriel Published: October 24, 2006
Although I've watched and enjoyed the "Mission: Impossible" movies, I've always had trouble with the logic flaws and gaping plot holes in them. I find it odd that filmmakers can't make a movie that makes sense. It's like once the budget gets too big, producers and directors and writers lose all grasp of reality. I had hope that the third installment in the "Mission: Impossible" series would redeem itself but the choice of TV creator J.J. Abrams as director had me wary. Sure, he'd created the remarkable TV series Lost, and he'd given us a couple of good seasons of Alias, but the decline in Alias's fortunes and the constant teasing with little reward in Lost did not bode well for me. It is my regret to say that this installment of "Mission: Impossible" - tailored by Abrams into an Alias meets "True Lies" hybrid - does not surpass its predecessors. As a summer blockbuster, "Mission: Impossible III" is precisely what you expect it to be. It's over the top action with lots of gun fire, explosions, and dead bodies. It's got everything you'd expect from a "Mission: Impossible" movie, including the disguises and masks, gadgets, exploding recordings, shocking plot twists, and - of course - the ubiquitous theme music. It's also got plot holes you can drive a truck through and logic flaws that totally take you out of the moment and make you want to shout "Come on!" at the screen. In movies like these, the plot is secondary. In this case, retired IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) gets dragged back into the covert operations business to rescue his greatest protegee, Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), from the clutches of an evil arms dealer (Philip Seymour Hoffman). From there, things get complicated as we learn about double agents and a super secret weapon that could spell doom for all mankind. An impressive supporting cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Ving Rhames is the actor to return - besides Tom Cruise - from the previous two films, reprising his role of tech whiz Luther Stickell. Hoffman is perhaps the stand-out but even his performance is nothing to write home about. Hot off his Oscar winning performance in "Capote", Hoffman plays the role of Owen Davian with subtlety and few words. At least he gives no hint of his character from "Along Came Polly". Bonus Features Unlike the movie itself, the DVD stands out. There's so much packed into this 2-disc set that you have to wonder if Paramount started putting together the bonuses before Redstone decided to fire Cruise. For one thing, there's a feature length commentary by Cruise and Abrams (would Cruise have agreed to recording a commentary after he'd been let go by Paramount?) In some cases, the commentary proves more entertaining than the film itself as you find yourself listening in on two Hollywood heavyweights shooting the breeze. A myriad of bonus featurettes pepper the disc. "The Making of the Mission" is a look at the production from start to finish, including interviews with cast and crew. "Excellence in Film" is a montage of Tom Cruise clips from his body of work assembled by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented on the occasion of his being awarded the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film. We get five deleted scenes. Two of them are extended action scenes. Two add to the story. One is entirely superfluous. Seeing these cut scenes, it makes you think back to what other parts of the movie could have been cut (at nearly 2 hours, it's tempting the patience of audiences, and may have contributed to the film's poor box office haul.) The disc also includes trailers for "Transformers", "World Trade Center", and the Tom Cruise Collection on DVD. A second disc gives us nothing but featurettes. "Inside the IMF" is a look at Ethan Hunt's team and the movie's supporting cast. "Mission Action: Inside the Action Unit" features interviews with the action unit director and looks at the film's stunts and action sequences. "Visualizing the Mission" is an examination of a software product called "PreViz" which allows the production to generate scenes in the film in CGI prior to actually acting them out (like storyboarding, but in computer animation.) "Mission: Metamorphosis" is all about the famous "Mission: Impossible" masks. "Scoring the Mission" is about the production of the film's musical score. "Moviefone Unscripted: Tom Cruise/J.J. Abrams" is direct from AOL's online Moviefone site where two actors from a film (or, in this case, an actor and the director) interview each other using questions e-mailed in by fans. There's your obligatory collection of theatrical trailers, TV spots and photographs. And finally, "Generation: Cruise" is a tribute montage of Tom Cruise in the same vein as the BAFTA montage, this time collected for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In terms of bonus material, if you weren't tired of Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams before you started watching the second disc, you will be by the end of it. None of it is particularly enlightening or entertaining and too much of it feeds the celebrity of Tom Cruise (something he sorely needs right now.) As a whole, there's nothing here that will really help you understand why this movie failed at the box office. Was it too long? Did Tom Cruise's meltdown really turn off viewers? Or was it something else? No, it's not a great movie, but you don't expect summer movies to be great. Early word of mouth was positive and reviews were good. I can think of worse ways to pass two hours. The bonus features are hardly worth watching but I'm sure that if the film came with no bonus features, I'd be screaming bloody murder, so I'll forgive their vacuous content. The commentary is the highlight of this film. "Mission: Impossible III" is not a bad movie by any means. It's just too bad it'll always have the albatross of Tom Cruise's meltdown around its neck. |
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