MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3
US, 2006, 126 minutes, Colour.
Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keri Russell, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg.
Directed by J.J. Abrams.
Exactly what the fans have been expecting since the last Mission Impossible – six years ago. Perhaps it’s even a bit more than fans were hoping for. There are plenty of effects and stunts but this time hero, Ethan Hunt, has a wife. The writers are trying to ‘personalise’ this successful movie franchise.
In reviewing Mission Impossible, we can’t help reviewing Tom Cruise. Without him, the film would not be nearly so popular. One of the first observations is that he has been making films for twenty five years. He began as a teenager in Franco Zeffirelli’s Endless Love in 1981. By the time he was twenty one, he had made an impression in Risky Business. Twenty years ago he starred in the top grossing film of 1986, Top Gun. He hasn’t looked back.
Yet, despite his popularity with the public, he is frequently the subject of ridicule and slander. The fact that he became a Scientologist, and an earnestly proselytising one at that, has not endeared him to many Christians. He spent a year of his schooling at a Franciscan juniorate. His religious beliefs and outspoken statements on all kinds of topics incur the ire of many sceptical and secularist commentators. His over-enthusiasm and television antics on the Oprah Winfrey Show for Katie Holmes and the recent birth of their child has lead to a mockery and some heavy satire on War of the Worlds and the Oprah show in Scary Movie 4.
Yet, he survives this criticism and has toplined popular films for two decades.
Many of the reviews of Mission Impossible III tend to stay with some of the observations made here and let them influence the judgment on the film. However, if we are more objective and look at the film as a film, we have to say that this is audience-satisfying action spectacle.
Once Lalo Schifrin’s well-known and distinctive score begins, we know what we are in for. Fans of the old television series will welcome the return of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. He is the straight-arrow American hero. He is fitter than most people – and so is Cruise himself who does his own stunts and can be seen scaling buildings or leaping from them, hurtling across bombed bridges and even a long take of Cruise fast- sprinting along a riverside road. He is a great stimulus for making resolutions to exercise!
Ethan Hunt is also ingeniously intelligent and can plan what the publicity calls ‘mind-bending’ missions for rescuing imprisoned agents in deserted Berlin warehouses or abducting the arch-villain from a high-flyers reception in the Vatican. His car is subject to bombardment on the Chesapeake Bay bridge. At the end, he confronts the enemy to rescue his wife in Shanghai. The locations give an exhilaratingly international flavour to the film.
The Vatican sequence, however, needs better technical advice than the producers got. Our hero scales the Roman wall and disguises himself as a priest in the Vatican gardens – except that wardrobe has inexplicably given him a black skullcap that no one wears in the Vatican. Instead of being unobtrusive as intended, he would stand out as quite different. But, as the producers of The Da Vinci Code keep reminding us, ‘it’s only a fiction’.
One of the puzzling aspects of the Mission Impossible films is how all the required equipment simply turns up as needs be. In the first film, the fact that Ethan Hunt happened to have a mask of Jon Voight in his pocket strained credibility. At least we see the mechanics of making the masks here – though how Tom Cruise gained the villain’s height and weight in a split second defies suspension of disbelief.
Cruise has always surrounded himself with distinguished cast members. The ruthless villain this time is Philip Seymour Hoffman who has just won his Oscar for Capote. Ving Rhames is back on the team and is joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a reckless Irishman. Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup are the Washington officials and Michelle Monaghan adds some glamour as Mrs Ethan Hunt.
Mission Impossible III is also a comment on today’s audience. Millions of us really go for big, noisy, colourful, explosive action.
1.The popularity of the series? Memories of the television series? The popularity of Tom Cruise? The previous Mission Impossible films? A ten-year distance between the first and the third?
2.The audience for this kind of escape adventure, enjoyment of missions, heroes and heroics? Impossible missions?
3.The American locations, the family home, Washington, the Chesapeake Bay? The warehouses in Berlin, Vatican City, the buildings in China, the ordinary streets and houses? The exotic flavour?
4.The musical score, the popularity of the theme, the rap versions?
5.The opening, Owen Davian and his threatening Julie, his counting one to ten, Ethan Hunt and his being trapped? The flashback, the building-up of tension throughout the film leading back to this scene? The irony of the face mask and the getting out of the problem?
6.The attempt of the screenwriters to humanise Ethan Hunt, opening with him bound, helpless, wanting to save his wife? The flashback to the party, seeing him with Julia’s family, his cover that he was involved in traffic supervision? The phone call from Musgrave, going to the supermarket? The plans for the wedding, Julia’s brother? Julia, nice, a nurse? The proposal and the marriage sequence? The return to her abduction, the audience knowing about Davian’s threats? Themes of love, rescue, the issue of her trust in him, the revelation of the truth?
7.Ethan Hunt as a Tom Cruise type, clean-cut, physical prowess, doing his own stunts, intelligent, the planning of the missions, courage? The cover of the issues with Brassel? Musgrave and his supervision of the team? His work with the team, the discussions with Luther Stickell? The friendship with the others?
8.Lindsay, her training and the flashbacks, Hunt’s praise of her? Her mission, Berlin, the bomb in her brain, the explosions and the rescue, the tension, the helicopters, the pursuit? Brassel’s reaction?
9.Musgrave, his place in the IMF? The phone call, the discussions with Ethan in the supermarket, giving him the camera, the message, it exploding in five seconds? His being present in the discussions and debriefing with Brassel? The irony of the truth, his motivation, enabling Ethan to escape, guiding him to Shanghai, the final confrontation? His explanation of his patriotic motivations, right-wing pro-America? The irony of Julia shooting him?
10.The anti-gung-ho attitude of the film towards American government, Americans trying to solve everything and impose democracy? The irony of the gung-ho nature of the screenplay?
11.Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian, the opening and his ruthlessness in threatening Julia, in imprisoning Ethan? The background of his dealings and moneymaking? His being in the Vatican, at the reception, the wine on his shirt, going to the washroom to change? The abduction plan, its execution, the making of the mask, Ethan Hunt wearing the Davian mask and impersonating him? The tension with Declan holding the real Davian behind the door while the bodyguard made enquiries? Ethan’s treatment of him on the plane, facing him to the ground, the torture? The group restraining Ethan? The bombardment on the bridge, the rescue? His taking Julia, his deadline on the phone, the clashes in Shanghai, the final counting of one to ten, the escape, the fight – and his death on the street?
12.The Vatican episode, the wall, getting into the Vatican through the river, the complex plan for the abduction of Davian, Zhen and her glamour, her part in the plan, Declan and his impersonation of the delivery, the gridlock? His being a Roman policeman? His versatility, driving the car?
13.The stunt work on the Chesapeake bridge, the bombardment, the explosions, rescuing the case? The rescue of Davian?
14.China, Musgrave and his freeing Ethan? Ethan and his being gagged, the rebukes? Brassel and his seeming to be the villain, his ticking off of Ethan? Musgrave and his true colours?
15.The planning of the stunt in Shanghai, swinging from building to building, the dangers? His recovering the rabbit’s foot?
16.Ethan being taken, the counting of one to ten, the false Julia and the mask, his escape, running, contacting Washington, his being guided along the road by the surveillance, the rescue of Julia, the confrontation with Davian, the fight and his death?
17.Brassel, in charge, the humour of his lines – being interrupted while asking rhetorical questions…?
18.The members of the team, their loyalty, Stickell and the old friendship, the discussions about his marriage, the support of Julia? Declan and his Irish recklessness? Zhen and her martial arts skills, glamour?
19.The happy ending – and the prospect of more films?
