I saw this last night and thought it was horrible. Hackneyed plot, ludicrous stunts, worthless characters, no suspense. There were a couple of idiotic plot points about people posing as other people with rubber Scooby Doo masks that looked like something out of “Get Smart” (these latex masks apparently have facial muscles which allow the wearer to mimic the most subtle facial expressions of those whom they are impersonating).
Every second of this movie is an insult to taste and intelligence. At times it borders on offensive. I didn’t like it when they broke into the vatican and were destroying walls and stuff. Who do they think they are? For people who supposedly work for a secret government agency, these idiots are incredibly un-subtle. The way to dispose of a car is to blow it up on a public street? Isn’t the idea to not attract attention? Doesn’t any thought go into the possibility of injuring civilians on the street. There’s also about a billion fire fights on the street, with airplanes and rockets and car crashes and not a single emergency vehicle.
The girlfriend in the movie couldn’t act and there was a ridiculous scene in the movie where she suddenly morphs into a trained killing machine who can take on multiple baddies at once.
It also seemed like a lot of the movie was all about making Tom Cruise look like such a masculine, he-man, manly-man that no one could possibly think he was gay. They try so hard to make him heroic that he comes off as head-patting and patronizing to the women he rescues.
The only glimmer of watchability in the movie comes from Philip Seymour Hoffman who can hold the screen in anything and provides the fillm with the only remotely interesting character. Unfortunately, he’s woefully underused and only appears in a handful of scenes (but he owns the scenes he’s in).
I tried to entertain myself by rooting for the bad guy but this is one of those movies where you never feel for a second that the lead characters are in a moment of genuine danger. This thing sucks.
Just got back from MI:III, and I wish to God I’d seen either of the other movies you mention instead.
It looked great, Hoffman was brilliant (There was a scene where he credibly beat the crap out of Cruise), Cruise was in good form, and the story was devoid of theme. Movies used to be about stuff. When did we settle for amusement park rides?
The chase scenes and break-ins were pretty cool, though.
I like silly, summer blockbuster, popcorn films and I like to see them on a wide screen in a real movie theater.
The reviews say it is exactly that.
I will go to a weekday matinee when it is half price and the theater mostly empty.
I am sure I will stll think Tom Cruise is an idiot dickhead when I leave the theater, but he isn’t the first actor I have hated but still seen the film.
I share your opinions of the movies completely!
The first one had a plot and tense sequences, often against the clock (just like the TV series).
The second one had a lot of pointless slooooow-mo shots.
I will go to the third, because I’m taking a bunch of pupils. I expect they’ll enjoy it whatever happens.
Not really interested in seeing it for two reasons, Tom Cruise and what they did to the original Mission: Impossible team in the first movie. I grew up watching that series, to me that was unforgiveable.
I may have seen the second one in the theatre but only because the boyfriend dragged me to it. The boyfriend wanted to see this one but I said I wouldn’t see it so he went with his mom. If I see this one it will be on TV or I’ll use a free rental coupon.
I agree. Hoffman was great, Cruise looked pretty psycho and had some fun stunts and fights, and all the women were hot. When he dressed as a priest and walked into the Vatican, I told my friend Kevin “Any minute he will burst into flames.” It was brainlessly entertaining. Tom really should play a villian at some point, I think he’d be good at it. And not just from his portrayal in this film, I just think he’d pull it off.
I still wanted Lawrence Fishburn to kick his ass, though.
Hmm, I thought although it was a perfectly serviceable action flick, it needed to slow down. Dramatic action scene after dramatic action scene, I soon felt out of breath from watching Tom Cruise grunt and gurn his way through yet another daring escape. Could we have had just a little character development or dialogue please, to make us care a little more about the characters -ok, Hunt and his wife were developed brilliantly in an astonishingly short time, but otherwise- we’ve got wisecracking black guy (three lines to develop character), mysterious oriental chick (two lines to develop character) and devilish Irish rogue (one- and I do mean ONE line to develop character). It seems like, in this of all the films, we could have had Ethan going it alone, pitted against the rest of the IMF without help.
Mind you, Hoffman was great. And I respect an action film that feels no need to label its MacGuffins.
I would never (intentionally) put a penny in Tom Cruise’s pocket, but since my husband works at Paramount, we get to see movies on the lot’s theater for free. We decided to catch this one this afternoon and I am loathe to admit that I actually liked it. A lot. Sure, it’s thin on plot, but it was a perfect, mindless suspense thriller to kill an afternoon with.
[aside] We got there pretty early so we walked around the lot for a while and Thomas pointed out the buildings and area that were used to stage the warehouse scene in Germany when they rescued Kerri Russel’s character. Not only was he there when they sprayed the buildings down with dirt and mud to make them look like dirty warehouses, and filled the lot with all the junk in that scene, but he was also on the “hot set” when they were filming the scene in the clinic at the end where he knocked over all the bottles. He was installing a wireless access point so they could have wireless ethernet on the sound stage and was up on the catwalk for about 45 minutes, during which time they did about 5 takes of that scene. If you look reeeeeeally carefully, you can sense my husband high above Tom Cruise’s head.
Oh, and Lost fans should stay through all the credits for an interesting one right at the very end. The last company credited (I think it was 2 after Cisco), was The Hanso Foundation!
The only thing nuttier than Tom Cruise is refusing to see a movie because you disagree with the star’s personal viewpoints. Tom Cruise is a whack-job, but he’s a great actor. Sure War of the Worlds sucked, but it wasn’t because of him. His Hit-to-Bomb ratio is about the same as the average big-name actor.
To quote Khadaji: “I am more likely to rent it. But that speaks more to my viewing habits than anything else.”
OK, now I’m in.
Disclaimer: I’m the one Doper that thinks that **Underworld **is a great movie.
