Tom is back here as Ethan Hunt. This time he has left the field and is training agents. He's also engaged to be married (Monaghan), but of course he hasn't told his bride-to-be what he really does.
His cover is that he works for the Department of Transportation and studies traffic patterns. Well guess what - he accepts a new assignment to rescue an agent he trained named Lindsey (Russell) who has been captured by the evil, sadistsic, and elusive black marketeer named Owen Davian (Hoffman). The rescue doesn't quite go as planned as Davian remotely kills Lindsey with a remotely detonated charge implanted in her head.
Hunt and his IMF team go to Rome to capture Davian and figure out what he's really up to. They do capture him and find that he's after something called the Rabbit's foot (a McGuffin) although Davian is rescued in a bold and audacious rescue attempt. Next Hunt's new bride is captured, and it's a trade for him to get the Rabbits foot for her life - oh and he has 48 hours, oh and he's been declared a rogue agent and is on the run from his own department.
So first let's stop and ask, what do you really expect going into a Mission Impossible movie? Great stunts, non-stop action, great villain, solid ensemble acting, and a story that holds together. Well 4 out of 5 isn't too bad for this.
The stunts and action are generally very well done, although there were definitely a few places that really exceeded the bounds of plausibility, and I mean really stretched the bounds of plausbility. I thought the Owen Davian character was good and Hoffman executed it well. The ensemble acting was solid although the IMF team mainly consists of Cruise with a bit of Rhames and Meyers and Maggie Q are needed to get the number of team members up to 4.
They didn't have much to do, but did their bits very well. The story actually worked for me at the beginning until a scene near that end where a number of twists are revealed and things aren't what The explanation didn't make much sense to me and the way they were revealed was too hurried and clearly suggests that the details of any story here are just an inconvenient obligation to fulfill along the way to creating adrenaline filled action sequences. Leaving the theater one is left with more memories and thoughts of specific moments or scenes rather than a sense that you've been told some kind of story.
With all the out of work writers in Hollywood you'd think you could find someone who could tell a plausible and interesting story spanning an entire 2 hours. Tom, I'm pretty sure I can come up with something a lot better than this for MI-4, so call me and let's talk. That said I enjoyed the movie.
The action scenes were intense, well executed and generally pretty original and the movie moved along well. If they choose to do an MI4 I would welcome that, although I think a bit more work on the storyline would pay huge dividends. I can definitely recommend the movie as a good fun action movie and not much else.
I didn't expect much else and thus was not disappointed. Before I wrap up here, let's speculate about what could be done for MI-4. What if they put together an IMF (Impossible Movie Force) team to direct it.
I'd like to see a Dream Team of directors/writers put together. My list would be David Mamet, Robert Altman, John Woo, and Steven Soderbergh. Would they accept this mission?
Can they save this movie franchise before it self-destructs? Wouldn't you pay $8.50 just to see what that movie would look like?
Recommended for Adults: Yes. A fun action movie. Recommended for Kids: I think the PG-13 rating is appropriate and would caution parents with children under 13 to use careful judgement as there is some sadistic violence and a (mild) sex scene.
Overall: Well done action movie with solid action and acting, but a weak ending. posted by Loren Larsen at 6/15/2006 11:26:00 PM 0 comments links to this post Movie Review: Tristan and Isolde In the first few minutes of , I thought that it was going to be a poorly-done knock-off of Mel Gibson’s Tom is back here as Ethan Hunt.
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