Mission: Impossible 3

Lets be perfectly clear about this my main reason for even giving this movie the time of day was Keri Russel. The fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman is in it is and added bonus. And once the movie started I got a few other surprise casting bonuses.

Along with Keri and Philip I was also aware of the fact that Michelle Monaghan was in the movie so that was a nice plus as was Laurence Fishburne. Ving Rhames returning was also a nice plus especially since he brings the comedy to the movie. Funny how such a big man with such a deep voice can some how manage to deliver a line just right to make you laugh. Aside from those people I didn't realize that Billy Crudup is in it and while I seem to remember hearing that Jonathan Rhys Meyers was in it but I had forgotten. However, aside from all of them the biggest casting surprise came in the opening few minutes and while only in one scene it was great to see Sasha Alexander making an appearance.

It does amaze me that they managed to get all those good people to be in the movie. I suspect thought that most of them wanting to do it had more to do with J.J. Abrams rather than just being in a summer blockbuster. I know that's how Keri ended up in the movie is because J.J. wanted to work with her again. (For those of you not in the know J.J. is in fact the creator of Felicity.) Although I really can't figure out for the life of me what everyone thinks is so freaking great about J.J. Abrams Felicity was his only good outing.

The movie format does seem to work better for his directing. However, will some please buy the man a steady cam mount for Christmas. The damn carmera was bouncing around like crazy at all the stupidest times.

If you are seeing this movie for any certain cast member (aside from the star) it is definitely worth it. They all deliver perfectly. Of all the people out there that I can't figure out why people don't cast them Keri has to be at or very near the top of that list. My only problem was with Philip's character. Not with Philip or his portrayal of the character but, the character was far more interesting and intimidating the way they cut together the preview than the way he played in the movie.

As for the over all story it was okay but there were far to many stupid moments in the movie. Yes, it's an action film and stupid moments are a given but this one had some exceptionally stupid parts. Which we will get to now.


Spoilers Ahead:

Okay so sadly Keri is killed in the beginning of the movie. A fact that I actually figured out from one of the tv previews (stupid move by the way). However, she was stellar in her limited screen time. Her characters whole purpose was to pull you into the over all story and she did exactly that. Seriously when someone can do so much with so little they deserver more work. She does make a brief appearance later in the film to deliver more information postumously via video and does that quite well also.

The whole rabits foot storyline is interesting. Unfortunately since the story is segmented into more like two stories it never really has the suspense you would hope for. Also since they introduce you to that aspect of the story in the very first scene of the movie it's really annoying that you have to wait until halfway or more through the movie to figure out what the hell was going on when the movie started. They should have just started with the engagement party sequence.

The primary reason they have to stop making these movies is they can't come up with anything original for them. They again used the masks and voice alterers so Ethan could masquerade as Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) so the rest of the team could snatch the real Owen. That was over used in the second one and using it here was just a huge re-hash and reminder of why sequels generally suck.

Also what the hell was up with the weird reminders of Tom's other movies. He rides out to the air field to meet the team on a motorcycle. Hello can you say Top Gun and then when he's at the airport to fly to Hong Kong (or whereever) he looks pretty much exactly like Ron Kovic his character in Born On The 4th of July minus the wheel chair. Give it up Tom your hey day is over an no matter how many reminders you put into your new movies of the good days no one is going to forget what a freak you are now.

On to the stupid action movie things. Lets get the most glaring one out of the way. It's one that I've been thinking since the previews started. He's on that bridge and there's an explosion and he gets blown into that car and then gets up. Come on, the way he hits that car he'd have broken his back. Then after that he gets up gets this big as gun and goes running back down the bridge. He had just come from that direction and ran along the side of this giant whole in the bridge. Only now going back trying to stop the attackers from stealing Owen back he chooses to throw the gun across the whole and try to jump it. Of course he doesn't make it and in the time it takes him to pull himself up they get away with Owen.

Then later when he finally gets the rabits foot and he tries to base jump out of the building it gets really dumb. His shoot doesn't fill and then he crashes through the window of a building and lands on a big old desk. While he's laying on the desk looking at the rabits foot (which is some sort of bio-hazardous material) his shoot fills and he's yanked back out the window only to then begin plummetting towards the ground. Um, excuse me the shoot was full if there's enough wind to fill it and pull him out the window the shoot is going to stay full as he decends.

Shortly after that the masks come into play again when Owen uses one on his assistant to make Ethan think he's killed his wife.

Now for the stupidest moment of all. Owen has implanted some sort of charge in Ethan's head that will kill him instantly when it goes off. (This is how Keri's character was killed.) The only way to stop it is to send a major jolt of electricity through the body. So he makes his wife throw the switch on the main breaker box while he's holding bare wires. She then has to kill off a couple bad guys before she can resucitate him. The best part is she saves him with CPR alone. Sorry but no. That kind of electrical shock through the body he's going to have to be shocked again to have any chance of saving him. It gets even better though. When he comes back to life he sits straight up like he's woken up from a bad dream grabs the gun off the floor (how'd he know where it was) and moves around looking for someone to shoot. Again no. His hands would be so fried there would be no way he could grip the gun like that.



I saw it at a matinee and thanks to the supporting cast it was worth that price. Really though if you have a discount theater wait for it to come there or just wait for dvd.