Mission Impossible 3

This post is several days overdue, but last Friday, I went with a friend to see Mission Impossible 3. I went to see it in spite of, not because of, the first two movies. The first was decent but unremarkable. The second was forgettable. But, I was a big fan of the TV series growing up, plus hearing that Alias and Lost creator J.J. Abrams wrote and directed the movie gave me enough hope that I was willing to give the movie a chance.

And, while the movie is not going to be listed among the great spy movies of all time, it's definitely a fun watch and a huge step up from the first two editions. Besides Abrams' directing, this movie had two significant things going in its favor. First, the superb acting of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who can do the understated, cold-blooded bad guy role masterfully. And second, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Not the acting of Meyers, which is not spectacularly good or bad, but just the fact that we get to look at him throughout the movie.

The movie is not a mental exercise by any means, but it keeps you entertained throughout with good pacing and the kind of fun special effects you would expect from such a movie. My main complaint is the tired use of the spy-genre cliche of the formerly-great agent who has retired from field operations to settle down and start a family coming back for one last mission. Also, while I'm not particularly prudish about sex in movies, the scene where Tom Cruise and his newlywed wife have sex in the hospital storage room contributes to the plot just about as much as the sex scene in the second Matrix movie--not at all. For someone as creative as Abrams (whose work on Alias and Lost is absolutely brilliant and nearly unparalleled), he could have done better.

So, fun movie, good weekend relaxation, but not worth buying the DVD.