Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Mission: Impossible III (2006) - Cruise steers Abrams' flawed MacGuffin debut

9/06/2020

Mission: Impossible III (2006) - Cruise steers Abrams' flawed MacGuffin debut

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Tom Cruise's name, the title in short form and a matchstick getting lid are the few elements on this franchise-reliant poster for J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III

IMF agent Ethan Hunt's wife gets shot in the head, as he winds up in a new debacle, but how did it get to that? Hunt was withdrawn from early retiring and put back into the field to stop an arm's dealer who had kidnapped a colleague ...

Mission: Impossible III is written by Alex Kurtzman (Hawai Five-O (2010-20)), Roberto Orci (Xena: Warrior Princess (2000, TV-series)) and great New-Yorker filmmaker, co-writer/director J.J. Abrams (Alias (2001-05)).
The opening scene is not really suspense-building in the way it should be, and over-all the whoa-moments that the M:I franchise is famous for aren't as strong as they should be in M:I 3. The plot revolves around a MacGuffin, - a hunted-for object that's never really explained, - in this case an object referred to as the 'rabbit foot', and it comes off a bit as a tongue-in-cheek tease; something which Simon Pegg's (Cuban Fury (2014)) not yet fully situated Benji IMF helper character attempts to concretize a bit.
But the action thunders away in handsome, international locations, and Tom Cruise (Minority Report (2002)) leads the film without hesitation, making Mission: Impossible III still a good jolt of entertainment.
SPOILER The worst flaw of the film, though, is its ending, which takes the franchise into a dead-end of blatant sentimentality, as Hunt's wife spills all the secret beans and clowns around with colleagues. Michelle Monaghan (Saint Judy (2018)) is good in the part, but this is the wrong part of the store for a Mission: Impossible film to wind up in.

Related posts:

J.J. Abrams: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker/Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) - An insanely awesome saga ending
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Abrams scores big time, makes beautiful space opera blockbuster
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) or, Star Trek It Before You Wreck It
Star Trek (2009) - Abrams' imperfect but awesome reboot
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser
Cloverfield (2008) or, It Tore Her Head Off! (co-producer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 398.4 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.65 times its cost)
[Mission: Impossible III premiered 24 April (Rome) and runs 126 minutes. Development of the film was troubled, with directors David Fincher and Joe Carnahan having creative differences that made them leave the film, as well as stars Kenneth Branagh, Scarlett Johansson and Carrie-Anne Moss departing due to delays. Cruise hired Abrams after binge-watching the first two seasons of Alias and took a pay cut to get production going: His gross participation deal of 30 % for Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) was decreased to 22.5 %. This would come to 89.64 mil. $, but his pay is listed on IMDb as 75 mil. $, - in any case still a fortune. Shooting took place in Berlin, Germany, China, including Shanghai, Virginia, Italy, including Rome, the Vatican, California including Los Angeles, and in Washington D.C. from July - November 2005. The film opened #1 to a 47.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, slightly over the 2000 M:I 2 but less than the first film's 57.8 mil. $ opening. It remained #1 the next weekend and in the top 5 for another 4 weeks, grossing 134 mil. $ (33.6 % of the total gross), significantly less than the two preceding films. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 44.3 mil. $ (11.1 %) and the UK with 29 mil. $ (7.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, in line with this one. Cruise returned as Hunt in Brad Bird's great Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and another two sequels, with two more currently in production. Abrams returned with The Office (2007, TV-series) and theatrically with Star Trek (2009). Cruise returned first in Lions for Lambs (2007). Mission: Impossible III is fresh at 71 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Mission: Impossible III?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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9/06/2020

Mission: Impossible III (2006) - Cruise steers Abrams' flawed MacGuffin debut

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