Released: 05/05/06

Viewed: 5:10pm 05/06/06

Starring: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Layurence Fushburne, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Disney Official Site of the movie

About the comic This conversation did take place. I wasn’t really upset but I played it up like I was. In all seriousness it would have been really cool to go to the big show and see the stars first hand. Something I’ve been dying to add to the review are photos of my experiences with the movies. Little things like the big crowds opening night of Sin City or the ornate classic insides of the Ziegfeld Theater where I saw The Baxter. My dinky camera phone just doesn’t do it justice though.

One day I’ll figure a way to add that aspect of my experience to the review. Until then, we’ll just move on. Ok. Mission Impossible 3:

What’s keeping you from seeing Mission Impossible:3? Is it too early for a summer blockbuster? Got a little too drunk on Cinco De Mayo? Whatever your reasons, enough is enough. Make a little time for one of the best action spy movies ever. Yeah, “ever�. Intelligent concepts and clever ideas have met a budget that will make every action fan’s wet dreams come to life. Your eyes will burst straight out the back of their skull with pure clandestine exhilaration. I’m not kidding. Mission Impossible: 3 is one of the most entertaining adventures of 2006.

I was being coy earlier, we all know the reason this movie didn’t meet it’s expected box office mark. Because Tom Cruise is crazy and has been spiraling lower and lower in a brilliant meltdown ever since he started picking up Dawson’s sloppy seconds. Is he really crazy? Who am I to say? To be honest I don’t care much. The guy makes incredible movies and even in popcorn fluff like this he’s still able to show with ease that he’s an extraordinary actor.

Why do people forget that?

But the very public peek at Cruise’s private life is the reason for the disappointing first weekend, which is a shame. Beyond people making a spectacle of his life, the movie and franchise have really come into their own with this third installment. I’m in love with the first Mission Impossible. It’s one of my top 10 movies of all time. I think it came along at the perfect time and showed new audiences how exciting and engaging a good spy caper can be. MI:2 amped up the action but took the characters into a lovey dovey snooze fest. A bunch of friends and I rewatched this before 3 and were shocked at how disappointing it was. The action is still Woo-tastic but the rest I’m content in fast-forwarding over.

Mission Impossible 3 manages to take some of that misguided emotion from MI:2 and uses it in a smart way, with purpose. Thankfully though, it’s also used sparingly. 3 is basically non-stop action with 3 minute doses of humor and love injected in every twenty minutes or so. Just so often that you remember to relax and take a breath in between the helicopter explosions and thermal detonators shoved up people’s noses. Is it weird that I just said, “Thermal detonators shoved up people’s noses�? It may sound weird but it totally works.

All of the new high tech gadgets and gizmos are a welcome treat. The Mission franchise has always been full of the coolest spy gear technology that could be thought up by Hollywood’s best-paid, over worked scriptwriters, but it was so nice to see some of the classic gear actually explained. They show the making of one of the latex masks on site. They explain in about 45 seconds how the voice adjustment patches on the neck work. And they do both by making them part of the mission instead of having some chucky sweaty guy with glasses over explain it to the audience. It was so cool.

Things like that have always been taken for granted. “Oh, they have masks – cool. I’m sure that makes sense somehow.� But for them to incorporate it in was one of those extra little touches that made 3 so much fun to watch.

Ok what really sells it is the action. Insane. Incomparable to anything else I’ve seen in the past 6 months. Ruthless and unrelenting, the action just KEEPS…COMING. There’s something like 6 missions that are all unique in location, objective, and execution. A movie that can move so quickly keeping you on your toes at every turn is a thing of beauty. But to do so with the level of action this movie does, is stunning like nothing else.

It’s the budget. Mission Impossible 1 I’m sure had a ton of money behind it but you can tell where that money was going. All the effects, all the CGI and the entire stunt coordinating cash went into the mind-blowing train sequence in the finale. And it shows. It’s absolutely amazing. Now imagine if your budget was large enough and the technology was advanced enough where you could do the train sequence 5 times over. And they do! And it’s amazing! Ok, I’m over selling it. There is such a thing as going too big, but I swear to you – it works.

The movie was directed by J.J. Abram’s who has conquered TV with LOST and Alias, and has now set his site’s on the big screen. He does a great job of making the franchise about being a spy again. Even though the story it self is driven by a real emotional purpose, the entire adventure holds together as a team of spys getting the job done. The movie was so good that I now have faith in the recent announcement that Abrams will be taking on the next Star Trek film. Trek has always been so hit or miss in theaters but something tells me the next one will bring the series back to the glory days of Khan. God my expectations are already through the roof and there’s not even a script yet.

The cast of MI:III is great but largely under explored. The best part of the cast of MI:I was that you were given time to get to know everyone on the team. Partially so that when they bite the big one in the opening mission, you feel for them a little. We got to know Ving’s character Luther pretty well over the series but 3 adds on more than a few revolving door characters that will not be back for 4. A shame too because Jonathan Rhys Meyers is cool as hell and Maggie Q look killer in that orange dress. My one hopeful return is Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) as tech contact Benjy Dunn. Not only does he bring a lot of lighthearted humor and street cred to the movie, but also his character has arguably one of the greatest last names of all time.

God, I wish I could go on about the cast. Michelle Monaghan is worth fighting for. Fishburne and Crudup have a few nice moments but go largely under used. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a terrific villain with no fear and no regrets. Some friends were a little worried he’d go over the top and sort of play him like a complete maniac (see Kevin Spacey in the Superman Returns trailer), but Hoffman reels it in and dials it down making the character all the more horrific.

If I had to, I could find some problems with the movie, but why bother. It’s all worthless nit picking of a movie that stands steady and squarely on it’s two feet. If the best complaint I can muster up is that I wanted the last fight to go on longer, it just means I was having a good time and didn’t want it to end. I think you’ll have a good time too. Give it a chance. No one can be crazy ‘round the clock.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Lots of twists, lots of action, lots of reasons to go see this movie.

DVD Worthy?:

Oh hell yes! I knew this movie was DVD worthy about 20 minutes in. The first major action sequence is THAT good. The more I think about the movie the more I feel it will have a good replay ability. It’s not like it was so intellectually over the audience’s head that a second viewing is necessary to catch up, it’s just so much damn fun.

If you liked this movie check out: Alias

After the movie Phil and I compared thoughts and he pointed out how much it’s like an episode of Abrams’ TV series Alias (Wednesday on ABC. There’s only like 2 episodes left). Alias represents the best parts of MI:III as a brilliant series showing the balance of spy life and the real world. At times it’s gone to far (Romboldi) but has been consistently smart and action packed in its five seasons. It even gave us Jennifer Garner who is still kind of hot, even after Affleck.

Phil and I then had this conversation:

Joe: I kept thinking, why can’t they make a 2 hour episode of Alias this awesome every week?

Phil: They’ve got no budget. Instead of going to China they just put Garner in front of a green screen.

Joe: Nah, they just put her in front of a Chinese restaurant.

And that’s what it comes down to. MI:III hasn’t had the opportunity to build the tension and back-story slowly over a season, but it certainly had the advantage of a proper budget. There’s no way Alias would ever have a helicopter and a plane in the same scene. It’s still some seriously entertaining spy drama. Phil recommends the first two seasons as the best of the bunch.

Vote incentive:

Ah today’s vote incentive features Joe as another famouse Laurence Fishburne character . And that will be the new running vote theme for the next month! Every weekday (that a comic doesn’t go up) I’ll do a new drawing of myself in a famous Fishburne role. I’m not really sure how far I can go with this, but it’ll be a fun little experiment. We shall truly see what it would be like If I was Laurence Fishburn.

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