Men of action

Hoffman creepy foil for Cruise in high-voltage 'Mission'

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, May 5, 2006

It's time to light the fuse again.

Mission: Impossible: III hits the nation's screens today, which means that summer at the movies officially has begun. Let's just say, it's not slipping into town quietly.

Going in, we knew that at least one thing about M:i:III couldn't miss: Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman had signed on to become this edition's villain. The good news about the bad guy: Hoffman doesn't disappoint.

In a movie that relishes outsized effects, Hoffman reins himself in to play super-sleaze Owen Davian, a creep who sells everything from arms to toxins - and to all the wrong people. Although many things explode in M:i:III, nothing proves as menacing as listening to Hoffman tell IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) that he's going to hurt Hunt's wife, and then kill him in front of her. It'll be fun. He seems to mean it.

Yes, I mentioned Cruise in passing. Why? A confession is in order: I'm a little sick of Cruise and his sofa-leaping antics. For me, the beaming smile that lights up movie screens when the tabloids aren't splashing it in our faces projects as much glare as luster.

I don't think any of that stopped me from appreciating what's good about M:i:III, but, like you, I live in a world full of inescapable entertainment "journalism."

As for the movie's director, J.J. Abrams - who has produced such hit television series as Lost and Alias - the guy can put together an action sequence; he assembles the movie's set pieces with the kind of butt-kicking energy fans expect. There are explosion (on a bridge), death-defying falls (in Shanghai) and even some Vatican-based action as the series tries to give Cruise's Hunt a bit of soul.

Actually, Mission: Impossible isn't so much a movie as a series of set pieces with a modest plot. If you really want to boil M:i:III down to essentials, you can do it in terms of three locations: Berlin, Rome and Shanghai, each of which plays host to a major hunk of action.

If I had to grade the set pieces, I'd do it like this: Berlin would receive a C+; too much gunplay and frantic editing. I'd award Rome an A for achieving the best mix of suspense and Mission-like action; Shanghai would get a B for stunts that try for (and often attain) a spectacular scale, notably Cruise leaping off the top of one skyscraper and swinging to the top of another.

You get the idea. M:i:III is a movie that could just as easily be measured in frequent flyer miles as dramatic impact, this despite the fact that an attempt has been made to add a human dimension to the proceedings.

Here's how it goes: At the beginning of the movie, Hunt has opted out of IMF active duty. He's teaching others to become IMF agents. Not only that, he's engaged to be married to the lovely Julia (Michelle Monaghan).

Hunt wants to live normally, which is about as likely a prospect as seeing M:i:III at your local art house. Just when Hunt thinks he's out, they pull him back. I know. That's another movie, but you get the idea.

Hunt's not alone when he returns to action. His support system includes Ving Rhames as a techie, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the guy with the British accent. Maggie Q plays Zhen, a woman who's tough, but who sometimes makes a fashion statement, like when she wears a revealing red dress to a reception at the Vatican.

Of these secondary characters, Rhames probably has the most to do. He's constantly trying to convince Hunt that he's being naive about getting married: "A normal relationship isn't viable for people like us," he says.

The action kicks off in Berlin when Hunt is asked to rescue Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell), an agent he trained. The outcome causes Hunt to fret, but the attempt to turn him into the Hamlet of action doesn't qualify as the most impressive of the movie's stunts.

Did I say stunts? We all know that's the point of the Mission: Impossible movies, and Abrams doesn't cheat when it comes to globe-hopping pyrotechnics. The characters move around so much, you know that no one's checking their expense accounts back at IMF headquarters. There, you'll meet Laurence Fishburne, who's rapidly turning himself into a supporting sphinx, large and imposing. He portrays an agency bigwig; Billy Crudup signs on as an IMF underling.

For all the attempts at adding depth, it's likely that audiences will come away remembering the fireworks. A sequence set on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge finds attackers trying to liberate Hoffman's Davian, who has been taken prisoner. And for every bit of emotional nuance, an equally propulsive plot device can be found.

Once the dust of action settles, you may find some deficiencies. Hoffman should have been in more of the movie. The film's plot twists often feel arbitrary. And Abrams allows the movie to go about 10 minutes too long. Fans will live with such flaws or won't care at all.

Why not? At some point, Rhames tells Hunt that there's a point at which bold becomes stupid. Fortunately, you won't find too many such points in this edition.

I haven't said much about Cruise. What's to say? He's still Cruise, alternating here between tormented Tom and smiling Tom. He bothers you or he doesn't. He certainly knows how to hold the screen, sometimes to the exclusion of everyone else.

One more thing: The movie has been masterfully engineered when it comes to sound design and music editing. These are not normally things I mention in reviews, but I bring them up this time because without some stellar work in these areas, Mission III really would have been impossible.

Keeping track of the missions

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

• Director: Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables, )

• Premise: Someone has killed all but two members of Ethan Hunt's IMF team, and the super spy must go deep undercover to find out who did it and clear his own name.

• Budget: $80 million

• U.S. box office: $180,981,886

• Signature scene: Cruise's Hunt is lowered into a high-security chamber at CIA's Langley, Va. headquarters via cables and a pulley system. He acrobatically hovers inches from the floor and the chamber's alarm system. (The scene is later spoofed in Shrek 2, with Pinocchio in Cruise's role).

• Fast fact: Peter Graves, who originally played Jim Phelps in the TV series, reportedly turned down the role in the film after he learned the character is killed.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II

• Director: John Woo (Face/Off, Broken Arrow)

• Premise: Hunt must find a genetically created disease called Chimera before a rogue IMF agent gets his hands on it and infects millions.

• Budget: $125 million

• U.S. box office: $215,409,889

• Signature scene: At the outset, Cruise's Hunt is vacationing on the side of a vertical wall of rock while making a tetherless ascent near Moab. While Iko Iko plays in the background, he leaps from one grip to the next - only to find the IMF waiting for him at the top with a new mission.

• Fast fact: The script was allegedly written specifically to accommodate a handful of stunts and scenes that Woo was already set on filming.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

• Director: J.J. Abrams (creator of TV's Lost, Alias)

• Premise: Hunt comes out of semi-retirement to handle a sadistic arms dealer and rescue his girlfriend.

• Budget: $150 million

• Signature scene: In one of M:i:III's most spectacular stunts, Cruise's Hunt dives from the top of a Shanghai skyscraper. When Hunt reaches the end of his tether, a "pendulum effect" kicks him in the other direction and he lands on the roof of another skyscraper. The same Shanghai building is involved in another of the movie's stunts, this one bringing Hunt face to face with a jackknifed semi-truck.

• Fast fact: The $150 million price tag is believed to be the biggest budget ever given a first-time director (Abrams).Budget And Box Office Numbers According To Boxofficemojo.Com.

Here come the blockbusters

Forget this nonsense about something called a "solstice"; Tom Cruise in a $150 million action flick signals the start of summer at the multiplexes. Nine movies that'll be battling for box-office superiority this season:

• Poseidon

Why should we care about a remake of Shelly Winters' cinematic zenith circa 1972? Maybe because Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) is directing, and he had $175 million to play with. Bottoms up! In theaters May 12.

• The DaVinci Code

Perhaps you've heard of this book-turned-film . . . Ron Howard directs and Tom Hanks stars as the globe-trotting professor trying to untangle a Vatican conspiracy involving the possible coupling of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. In theaters May 19.

• Over the Hedge

Garry Shandling, Wanda Sykes and Steve Carell are the voices behind forest critters who awaken from hibernation to find they're surrounded by suburbia. Bruce Willis' raccoon convinces them to go over the hedge in pursuit of food and mayhem. In theaters May 19.

• X-Men: The Last Stand

What's summer without a few mutants? Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Rebecca Romijn return for the search for a cure to the genetic anomalies that make them superheroes. Sound like an X-Men swan song? Don't count on it. In theaters May 26.

• Cars

Pixar animation and NASCAR? That's box-office gold, baby! And we're fairly confident this is the only movie that will ever feature Paul Newman and Larry The Cable Guy working together. Owen Wilson also lends his voice for the story about race cars that break down on a sleepy highway on their way to a championship race. In theaters June 9.

• Superman Returns

Don't worry, we've never heard of Brandon Routh, either. But the latest Man of Steel can lean on director Bryan Singer, who comes to the table with some superhero credentials of his own after helming the last two X-Men movies. In theaters June 30.

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Johnny Depp returns for not one but two more chances to do his best Keith Richards impersonation as pirate Jack Sparrow. Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Bill Nighy are also back on board. Dead Man's Chest comes out July 7. The third installment, which has already been filmed, is out in 2007.

• World Trade Center

Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena play two Port Authority policemen, the last two survivors extracted from ground zero. Oliver Stone directs in the season's second film about Sept. 11 after last week's United 93. Opens Aug. 9.

• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Will Ferrell and NASCAR? That's box-office gold, baby! Ferrell plays a driver whose dominance is threatened by a French Formula 1 star (Sacha Baron Cohen). In theaters Aug. 4.

Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5424