Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Directed by: JJ Abrams | 125 minutes | action, thriller | Actors: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bahar Soomekh, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Sasha Alexander, Greg Grunberg, Michael Berry Jr., Jeff Chase , Barney Cheng, Antonio Del Prete, Jonathan Dixon, Sally Elphick, Kathryn Fiore, Jillian Fontaine, Diane Gaeta, Michael Kehoe, Eddie Marsan, Brandon Molale, Kwame Rakes, James Shanklin, John H. Tobin, Sabra Williams, Bellamy Young, José Zuniga, Jasmine Brooke White, Ty Williams

Third time lucky? The arrival of ‘Mission: Impossible III’ in a period when Tom Cruise is on television almost every day breaks the long silence surrounding the adventures of Ethan Hunt. The mission that Hunt gets this time looks quite simple, but takes us through Germany, Vatican City, Virginia and Shanghai in no time. All the MI icons are subtly reintroduced that characterize the work of the Impossible Mission Force in both the old television series and the first two films: the music, the masks, the cables, the ingenious gadgets and of course the ‘message that will. be self-destructed within 5 seconds’. Poof! Nothing but smoke. And a new mission for Ethan Hunt. Where Brian De Palma and John Woo gave ‘M: I 1’ and ‘M: I II’ their own style, this time again the director has had a clear influence on the appearance of the film. Because JJ Abrams, the man behind the success of the television series ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost’, makes the impossible possible in ‘M:I III’: helicopters whizzing through windmills, parachute jumps between the highest office buildings and planes flying from a bridge over the water are brought down: the camerawork and special effects make it so realistic that, knowing it can’t be done, we still believe it. Or maybe you want to believe.

This raw but tightly planned action is also the most special thing about ‘M:I III’. Because the intrigue at the IMF, with an incredibly bossy and tight Laurence Fishburne as head of the organization, the love affair between Ethan and Julia and the development of the plot are not of the highest level. What does work is the strong bond between Hunt, the old acquaintance Luther, and the newbies Declan and Zhen who show a strong piece of teamwork to achieve their goal. And, of course, the thousand-and-one ways they bypass surveillance cameras, kidnap people undetected, blow up Ferraris and use disguises as part of a plan that rivals the casino heist in Ocean’s Eleven.

As in the first two films, the roles are cast very strongly again: in addition to Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames, the only two left from ‘M: I 1’ and ‘M: I II’, Philip Seymour shines in part 3. Hoffman, as a terrible bastard and criminal Owen Davian, and Simon Pegg, as a British computer geek who time and again manages to put things into perspective with a dry or cynical remark. Those who have looked closely will even be able to extract some nice details from the film. An admittedly hidden message to US politics: ‘and let our country do what she does best: take over, clean up. Democracy wins.”, and a CPR scene that appears to be an exact copy of the scene in “Lost” where Doctor Jack tries to bring Charlie back to life. It doesn’t matter that much, because it is precisely through this unique fusion of action and tranquility that JJ Abrams manages to leave his mark on ‘Mission: Impossible III’.

Leaving Ethan Hunt aside for a moment, producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner themselves may have a fun but impossible mission: give those movies their own title, and make as many as in the James Bond series. Because although there is always something to criticize, we can’t get enough of it.