Mission: Impossible III
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams
Based on: The TV Series
Sequel to: Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible II
Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, Eddie Marsan, Laurence Fishburne, Sasha Alexander, Tracy Middendorf, Aaron Paul, Timothy Omundson
Seen on: 4.8.2015

Plot:
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active field duty. Instead he teaches spy hopefuls and is about to marry Julia (Michelle Monaghan). But then IMF director Musgrave (Billy Crudup) contacts him: his student Lindsey (Keri Russell) was captured by blackmarket dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hunt has to save her. Hunt reluctantly accepts and gets to work together with his team, consisting of Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), Zhen (Maggie Q) and Luther (Ving Rhames). But the recapture goes wrong and Hunt soon finds himself in deeper than he ever expected.

Mission: Impossible III is a definite step up again after the second film (although that is not saying too much – it would have taken serious commitment to be worse than the second film). But depite the awesome cast, especially the antagonists, M:I-3 might be the film of the series that is most easily forgotten.

The first M:I is an iconic piece of cinema that is probably one of the most referenced and spoofed films ever. The second M:I is hard to gouge from your brain once you’ve seen it. Then comes the third and it doesn’t do much wrong, but somehow it feels a little lackluster. I’m saying this even though Philipp Seymour Hoffman is in it and he has done many things in many forms, but lackluster was never one of them. He is not the only cast member who usually makes me sit up in attention either. And I’m saying it despite the fact that we get to meet Benji (Simon Pegg) for the first time – an integral team member and character for this film and the ones after that.

But I noticed that I had barely any memories of the film – even though I know for a fact that I had already seen it – and that my attention started drifting pretty soon in the action scenes because they just didn’t manage to create much tension there. The closer the film gets toward the showdown, the more i drifted away from it.

I had also forgotten (or maybe never realized?) that the film was directed by J.J. Abrams, although the lens flares are a dead give-away for that (it is kinda nice when somebody has such a distinct trademark.

The most entertaining thing, though, was at the beginning of the film when Ethan Hunt was introduced as the perfect boyfriend(TM). That shit was hilarious because it felt so much like what men think that women want without ever actually talking to a single woman about it. And that is not the only instance where M:I-3 continues the series tradition of being a little bit or a big bit sexist.

The film is entertaining enough, but it never quite reaches the heights that one would expect with such a star-studded cast.

Summarizing: Okay.