We’ll have reviews for Mission: Impossible III for you Friday, but before we get to where we’re going it’s always a good idea to look back where we’ve been. So let’s look back at the first two chapters of the series, shall we? Indeed we shall…
The Mission Begins:
Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) the most loyal and responsible agent in the history of the IMF agency (originally played by Peter Graves) goes crazy for a young wife (Emmanuelle Beart) and decides to kill off all his IMF team, frame Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), and sell the names of every US undercover agent on the black market. Hunt teams up with two other disavoed agents: mercenary Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) and computer wiz Luther Stickwell (Ving Rhames). Highllights include a break-in of Langley and the early death of an uncredited Emilio Estavez in a quite brutal manner. Lowlights involve an incomprehenisble plot that took the focus completely off the team missions of the show by making one of them the bad guy, one the good guy, and killing the rest off in the first ten minutes.
The Mission Continues:
IMF agents Ethan Hunt and Luther Stickell go after rogue agent (Dougray Scott) who has stolen a genetically engineered disease called Chimera. They enlist the of his former girlfriend Nyah, a professional theif (Thandie Newton). John Woo replaces Brian De Palma behind the camera (though you can tell withoutme telling you). The action scenes are crisper (even if you do get Woo’s famous slo-mo scenes and doves) and the story has been scaled back into a much easier to follow plot rather than the many twists and turns of the first film. Highlights include the break-in the the building where Chimera is housed and the fire-fight afterwards, the first meeting between Ethan and Nyah. Lowlights include the over-the-top Woo-ish bike chase and fight on the beach and Scott eating up every inch of scenery he can sink his teeth into. Better than the first,. Again it’s the Ethan Hunt show rather than a true Mission Impossible script but the actions scenes are better and the script makes since.
Well that’s what’s happened so far. You’ll have to wait until Friday for the review of the next chapter in the saga but let me give you these tiny tidbts. J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Felicity) takes a turn behind the camera. Both Cruise and Rhames return and the suped-up supporting cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the baddie. And finally, finally, the script involves an entire team of IMF agents that doesn’t get killed off in the first ten minutes or just sit around watching Cruise do all the work. Hey, it only took ‘em three films to get it done.