Skip to content
Dan Owen reviews
Paramount Home Entertainment As premiered on
danowen.blogspot.com
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8968
- Running time: 126 minutes
- Year: 2006
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2*DVD 9
- Price: £24.99
- Extras:Audio Commentary, 8 Featurettes, 5 Deleted Scenes, Trailers, TV Spots,Photo Gallery, Generation Cruise
Director:
- J.J. Abrams
Producers:
- Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner
Screenplay:
- Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & J.J. Abrams
Music:
- Michael Giacchino
Cast:
- Ethan Hunt: Tom Cruise
Owen Davian: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Julia Meade: Michelle Monaghan
Theodore Brassel: Laurence Fishburne
Lindsey Farris: Keri Russell
Luther Stickler: Ving Rhames
Musgrave: Billy Crudup
Declan Gormley: Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Zhen Lei: Maggie Q
Benji Dunn: Simon Pegg
Ethan Hunt is called back into active service to rescue an IMF agent he trained,but he soon becomes embroiled in a plot to obtain a mysterious “Rabbit’s Foot” wanted by arms dealer Owen Davian…
After numerous aborted attempts, wherein directors David Fincher (Fight Club)and Joe Carnahan (Narc) left the project, Tom Cruise’s franchise finallyfounds its saviour in television supremo J.J. Abrams (creator of Aliasand Lost).
Mission: Impossible III, hereon MI-3, marks Abrams’feature film debut, and while I’m sure the likes of Carnahan or Fincher wouldhave done a more spectacular job, Abrams brings a frothy sense of fun and pacehoned by years of TV, together with an emphasis on teamwork sorely missingpreviously.
Tom Cruise clearly relishes playing Ethan Hunt, and what’s not to enjoyfor any man living out their James Bond fantasies? MI-3’s plot affords himmore emotional scenes, as Hunt is now engaged to be married and has taken abackseat at the IMF to train agents (his fiancee blissfully unaware of this,in shades of True Lies).
Whatever your opinion of Cruise in the wake of his couch-hopping antics onOprah, you can’t deny the man is committed and passionate about filmmaking.He’s an actor who can deliver the physicality but also ground his characterwith a believable emotional punch. Yes, he’s essentially dusting off thegrinning hero he’s been touting since Top Gun, but it doesn’t matter.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gets to play nemesis Owen Davian, another of theactor’s patented lowlifes, but this time with a sadistic attitude that chillsthe screen (watch the opening scene). Sadly, while Hoffman’s great, hischaracter is phased out of the movie half-way through until a disappointingface-off with Cruise at the end. It’s almost as if the script was tailoredto fit around Hoffman’s tight schedule, meaning he has less presence than mostbad guys. It’s a shame, because Davian is a worthy villain but he’s just notused to his full potential.
Michelle Monaghan (stunning Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)doesn’t really make a lasting impression here; hamstrung by a script that setsup her relationship with fiancee Hunt nicely, but then forgets about her untilthe last 15 minutes! It’s also frustrating that when she’s made aware Ethanis actually a globe-trotting secret agent she hardly bats an eyelid!
The supporting cast are an electic bunch: Ving Rhames returns as Luther,wasted despite more screen time; Keri Russell is practically a cameo;Laurence Fishburne is fantastic as IMF boss Brassel; Billy Crudupis good as Musgrave; while Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys Meyersare just background faces.
After the high-octane bore of John Woo’sMI-2,J.J. Abrams makes a wise decision to mix more humanity into MI-3 between thegunfire. The screenplay, by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and J.J Abrams, isalso much simpler than Brian DePalma’s tangled original, with the “Rabbit’sFoot” macguffin just a thin excuse for various dilemmas.
But the streamlining works wonders. MI-3 doesn’t offer much broad originality,but it’s still a very effective action movie with enough surprises and stuntsto leave you smiling, if not quite as exhilerated as you’d hoped.
The action sequences are great, particularly a tense helicopter chase througha wind farm and a stunning bridge attack. J.J. Abrams is well-served bylegendary Second Unit Director Vic Armstrong, and the action throughout iswell choreographed and visually strong. An “impossible mission” at the Vaticanis a brilliant orchestration of action beats, even explaining how thoselife-like IMF masks are created.
Overall, MI-3 is an entertaining popcorn movie with a few neat touches (brainbombs!) and some cool stunts. It’s far more enjoyable than Woo’s brash effort,although it doesn’t quite eclipse DePalma’s original because the script isn’tas textured. However, for pure entertainment value, MI-3 is the best of thebunch. It was also very satisfying to see the original TV show’s team aspectbetter utilized than before, although this is still Tom Cruise’s baby and nota true ensemble piece.
On the whole, J.J. Abrams’ movie debut succeeds on most levels, and providesenough fun and machismo. Abrams’ small screen background means it sometimesfeels like a TV episode with big-budget set-pieces, but Abrams ensures MI-3has slick pacing and packs some thrills, so that problem can be easilyoverlooked.
Mission accomplished.
The 2.35:1 widescreen image is gorgeous, with the transfer handling brightscenes (Vatican), picking out detail in China, and coping well with the manydark sequences (wind farm).
Dolby Digital 5.1 spits out the expected array of explosions and gunfire togreat effect, placing you amongst all the visual mayhem.
The single-disc release of MI-3 contains the following extras:
- Commentary: Director J.J. Abrams and star Tom Cruise provide an entertaining andinsightul commentary that’s a great deal of fun.
- The Making Of The Mission: a featurette covering the creation of the film, never outstaying its welcomeand giving you a good overview of the challenges involved in making aglobe-trotting action spectacle. It focuses almost exclusively on filming,so fans of post-production work like musical score and CGI effects could befrustrated.
- 5 Deleted Scenes: a typical assortment of underwhelming scenes that were quite rightly left onthe cutting room floor.
- Generation Cruise: this is a montage of clips from Tom Cruise movies, compiled by MTV. It helpsto remind you of just how many blockbuster movies Cruise has starred in sincethe ’80s. Not very modest of the star, but fun for Cruise fans to watch.
- Trailers: for Transformers, World Trade Center and “The Tom Cruise Collection” roundoutthe disc, but if you invest in the 2-Disc Collector’s Edition you’ll alsohave access to 7 additional featurettes, theatrical trailers, TV spots, anda photo gallery.
This is a great release of King Kong, with a fantastic audio/visualexperience, and some very entertaining extra features. Although, despitebeing a Special Edition, I’m sure a better version is on its way with moreextensive special features, but for now this first release should pleasemost fans.
The menu screens are slick, although not as memorable as you’d perhapsexpect, but the packaging art is first-rate. This is an essential purchasefor any fan of escapist action-adventure cinema.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.