(Time to find a boyfriend with a job that doesn‘t get you kidnapped…)
CAST: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Simon Pegg, Bahar Soomekh.
DIRECTOR: JJ Abrams
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one seriously impossible relationship - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: After putting up with his own people disavowing him in MI1, then having to pretend to be a long-haired Cary Grant from NOTORIOUS in MI2 (not to mention avoiding falling shit from all of John Woo‘s goddamned doves), Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) decides he wants off the playing field and settles for a comfy job training other agents. But when his protégé Lindsay Ferris (Keri Russell) gets nabbed on a mission in Berlin (doesn’t say much about Ethan’s training skills, eh?) he must jump back into the fray to save her from a fat megalomaniac named Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Oh, and Ethan has to try to conceal his espionage activities from his nurse fiancee Julia (Michelle Monaghan), who thinks he’s a boring suit at the Department of Transportation. And I thought my love life was complicated. Dang…
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: Ethan, of course. With solid assists and crosses from old pal Luther (Ving Rhames), and new pals Zhen (Maggie Q), Declan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), and Benji (Simon Pegg).
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: Easy, very easy: Maggie Q as ultra-smokin’ Eurasian spy Zhen Lei. Two words: red dress. Oh, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Declan running around in that unbuttoned white shirt is a very, very close second. Hey, Declan, undo one more button, please...
MOST HAIR-RAISING SCENE: That opening sequence with Davian threatening Julia while he interrogates Ethan. Then there’s the “Davian meets Davian” scene at the Vatican. You’ll see. Oh, and then there’s the scene where Zhen gets out of the Lamborghini and almost does a “BASIC INSTINCT interrogation scene” reprise because of how high that slit in her dress is. HE-LLO!
HOTTEST SCENE: The aforementioned Zhen getting-out-of-the-car-while-wearing-a-really-sexy-outfit scene. Also, the scene where Zhen and Declan look like they’re about to get it on in the car in Shanghai is pretty, um, provocative as well. By “provocative” I actually mean “boner-inducing.”
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Will Ethan, Luther, Zhen, and Declan catch up with Owen before he kills Lindsay? What did Lindsay discover that might get her killed? Did someone betray her? Is it someone from her own agency? What about Julia? Will she find out that her lover is actually a spy? And will she be pissed about that? I wouldn‘t. In fact, I’d be pleased as punch. Finally, some excitement.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “M:I 3”: If you like twisty, exciting, intelligently and kinetically-executed action/thrillers that don’t ignore the characters by making them all unique and giving each of them their moment in the sun. And if you really have a jones for Maggie Q, this movie is for you. Again, two words: red dress.
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “M:1 3”: If you don’t like Tom Cruise.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Like I wrote above, M:1 3 is a dynamic and invigorating experience that hardly ever makes a false move. Eschewing the cool, clinical approach used by Brian DePalma in M:I 1 and avoiding the B-movie grandiosity used by John Woo in M:I 2, director JJ Abrams takes a slick, no-nonsense approach to the material here that lends the film a feel that is both glossy and gritty. It’s a great style, and it serves to pull us into the story rather than distance us from it as sometimes happened in the previous films.
Tom Cruise is his usual reliable, charismatic self as Ethan Hunt, while Philip Seymour Hoffman makes for a nice, atypical villain who displays evil as banal and unattractive, unlike past villains who were glamorous and almost idealized. Ving Rhames provides more of his trademark gruff-yet-caring tone as Luther, while new team additions Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys-Myers make their roles their own. Especially Q, whose half-Irish/half-Vietnamese beauty is absolutely hypnotic and perfectly appropriate for an alluring, mysterious spy. As for the other two main females, Michelle Monaghan and Keri Russell deliver with their touching performances as, respectively, Julia and Lindsay, the two women who affect the course of Ethan’s life.
In the end, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 is the best of the series. The first one was very well done but also a little too chilly and distant, and the second was the polar opposite - a little too fathomable and earthy. M:I 3 gets the combination right.
