Mission: Impossible III - Film Review

Mission: Impossithon Day 3

Mission: Impossible III is directed by J. J. Abrams and stars Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell, and Lawrence Fishburne.

Plot
IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, of course) comes into conflict with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who threatens his life and his fiancee in response.

Review
I wasn't expecting my 100th review to be Mission: Impossible III.

Well this was a major improvement over Mission: Impossible 2 and I think I like this movie a little more than the first Mission: Impossible.

This film is also way more exciting than Mission: Impossible 2. That movie was just boring, but this movie, it's almost action from start to finish, and it's actually interesting.

There's an action scene on a bridge where people who work for Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) rescue him after he was kidnapped by IMF, and it's some really good action. There's also a scene where Ethan is in the streets of Shanghai and he's trying to get the Rabbit's Foot, which is the main MacGuffin of the movie.

It's weird that we're three movies in and people are still falling for the latex mask trick.

The beginning of the movie shows Ethan handcuffed to a chair, his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) is tied up, and Davian is threatening to shoot her if Ethan doesn't tell her where the Rabbit's foot is. When he shoots her, the movie flashes back to the events leading up to this scene, where it plays again, and he movie goes on from there. I liked how they did that. When Davian leaves, John Musgrave (Billy Crudup), the IMF Operations Director, reveals he was the mole and was working with Davian the whole time, and that wasn't really Julia that Davian killed. He dies later in the movie when the real Julia kills him.

Now let's talk about the characters, Tom Cruise is great again as Ethan Hunt. They actually made him Ethan Hunt again instead of the Bond wannabe they tried to make him in Mission: Impossible 2. He's given up IMF, he's settled down, and about to lead a normal life, but IMF contacts him again when one of there agents goes missing.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is great as Owen Davian. He's probaby my favorite villain of the movie's so far. I like how we really don't know much about him. He's also one of the most sociopathic villains of the series, he's ruthless, but calm, he enjoys antagonizing Ethan and his wife. He gets run over by a truck and dies though.

Billy Crudup isn't bad as Musgrave, the IMF Operations Director who actually works for Davian. I already talked about him.

Ving Rhames is back as Luther and this movie made him cool again.

Lawrence Fishburne is really good as the head of the IMF, but Lawrence Fishburn is great in everything he's in.

This is the first appearance of Simon Pegg in the Mission: Impossible series, and there isn't much to him in this one, but I'm sure we'll get more of him in here.

And all the other cast is fine.

Overall, Mission: Impossible III is a huge improvement over Mission: Impossible 2 and I think I enjoy it more than the first Mission: Impossible.

Mission: Impossible III gets a 9/10.

I'll be back tomorrow with a review of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

Previous review - Mission: Impossible 2
Next review - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol