Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)May 11th, 2006
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
We're not yet done with spring and already it's the Summer of Sequels. And three proves to be the charmer when it comes to the latest explosive entrant in the "Mission: Impossible" series. Who'd have bet on that?
Part 3, or "M:I-3" to give it its official promotional abbreviation, manages to strike a comfortable balance, something that could not be said of its predecessors. There's plenty of action, of course, but also some restrained downtime, especially between decommissioned Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his bride-to-be Julia (Michele Monaghan). Time out for character development in an "M:I" movie? It's true!
Bruce Geller, creator of the original television series on which these films are based, still gets a hefty credit but the "Mission Impossible" films have long since jettisoned any resemblance to the clever and crafty TV show that starred a peroxide Peter Graves. With fast cars, gorgeous girls, and a plethora of exotic locales (Vatican City, Shanghai and, if you consider it exotic, the Chesapeake Bay) at their disposal, the "M:I" films could pass for a James Bond extravaganza nowadays (and given the last few 007 pictures, could pass for something considerably more entertaining).
"M:I-3"'s intense opening scene, more a foreshadowing than a flashback, sets the tone for what is to come, with Hunt re-teaming with his old friend Luther (Ving Rhames) plus a "transportation expert" (Jonathan Rhys Myers) and a comely background operative (Maggie Q) to rescue a rookie agent. Said agent has been kidnapped by one Owen Davian, a nefarious arms dealer (played with panache by Oscar(r)-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman) who also has designs on some $850 million doomsday device known as the "rabbit's foot." The botched Berlin incident has Hunt's bosses (Billy Crudup and "Akeelah"'s Laurence Fishburne) demanding answers, and Hunt's team responds by smartly kidnapping the reclusive and nasty Davian. But before anything can self-destruct in five seconds, Davian's cronies snatch their leader back (in a nod to James Cameron's "True Lies") and, in turn, nab Hunt's weakest link, the nubile Julia.
There's some neat gadgetry on display amid all the people-napping and the film gets kudos for employing only two rubber mask removals ("M:I-2" had about 38) and just the one use of looping video to foil those all-seeing security cameras. Likewise the performers are all largely adept, with Hoffman making a terrific--and sadistic--bad guy. Cruise, of course, is as fit as a fiddle (watch him run *and* spout Cantonese simultaneously!) but Rhys Myers ("Match Point") seems strangely out of his depth. He's neither buff enough for a tough guy nor nerdy enough for a geek. His Declan falls somewhere between the two, as does the actor's oddly fluctuating Irish/Bronx accent. On the technical side the stunt work is second-to-none, composer Michael Giacchino channels Lalo Schifrin as fluently as he channeled John Barry on "The Incredibles," and director J.J. Abrams (TV's "Alias") manages the mayhem with comfort and flair to spare.
Oh, and the film's not without its funny moments too. Not just the scene in which Hoffman playing Cruise's character playing Hoffman's character (trust me on this) scrambles through a ventilation shaft but also Hunt's homemade defibrillator directions to his panicked fiancée:
"Throw the switch on, then off. Don't forget the off."
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David N. Butterworth
[email protected]
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