M:I-3 is starkly different from the other two Mission Impossible films, primarily for the 3 different directors.  Number 3 is directed by J.J. Abrams, making his first full length feature debut after pal Tom Cruise offered him the job, impressed with an episode Abram’s creation, ALIAS.  Though I love the films of Brian De Palma (the first M:I) and dislike most the films of John Woo (M:I-2), I have to say that M:I-3 is the best of the three. 

The plot of the MI films, like the ones in most of the James Bond flicks, is immaterial.  But writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Abrams have concocted a simple but believable story around the rabbit’s foot.  Villain Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Oscar winner from CAPOTE in his nastiest) is after it and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to return it or his newly-wed bride, Julia (Michelle Monaghan) will be disposed of.  That is the beginning scene of M:I-3 (villain threatening death to the two tied up) before the credits roll.  The brilliant thing about the script is that though the same scene is re-visited 20 minutes towards the end, the scene then takes a different meaning.

Cruise is Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt.  The supporting cast is pretty good though a few like Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q (as Ethan’s sidekicks) have nothing much to do but wear shades and look good.  Shakespearean actor Laurence Fishburne is the best as Ethan’s boss, a scowling John Brassel, even speaking in 19th century prose at times: “I bullshit you not!” Fishburne has the film’s best line: “I got where I am being thick skinned.” His only smile, at the end of the film works wonders.

What makes M:I-3 works is the film’s play with emotions.  The first scene has villain Owen counting to 10 while threatening Ethan.  There are lessons to be learnt here on how to create tension while counting - count with long pauses; display anger on both parties mid-count; then flashback to the events leading to this scene.  M:I-3 contains the familiar stuff like Lalo Schifrin’s theme score and the 3-second self destructing message.  But Michael Giacchino’s original score is just as impressive as is the catchy theme song heard during the end credits.  (The audience should stay behind to hear it.) The script offers quite the few variations on the action movie.  The punch lines are uttered by the supporting cast rather than the main character.  Ving Rhames (as Luther Strickell) delivers most of them.  When Ethan falls from his parachute on to traffic, the huge tracker-trailer brakes and swerves to the side.  But there is no explosion.  Ethan’s wife, Julia is not a useless screaming female.  Despite being kept in the dark of his activities, she has an effective shoot-out, even killing one of the key villains.

Director Abrams storyboards his scenes carefully. The camera captures a shot of the gun on the floor, then moves to the face of Julia, then to Ethan’s body on the floor.  Much like what Hitchcock used to do before the execution of an action sequence.  Whether intentional or not, Abram’s film has a surprising number of similarities to Hitchcock’s films.  For one, there is often a tussle with villain and hero rolling on the ground (Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST).  Here, it occurs with Ethan and Owen in a climatic fight.  In NORTH BY NORTHWEST, a truck drives over Cary Grant from front to back but he merges unscathed.  Same occurs in a scene with Tom Cruise.  And in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, the bad guys are after Grant, mistaking him for Mr. Thornhill.  But what deeds the villains are up to are never revealed not are they important to the story.  The MacGuffin here is the rabbit’s foot.  Though the film centers on the foot, what it actually is – does not affect the film.  It is curious that at one point, the foot is described as a plan involving black market trafficking but in another scene, the object is shown as a canister looking much like a fire extinguisher.  But the most brilliant scene has John Musgrave (Billy Crudup) speaking to a tied up Ethan Hunt.  Knowing that the room is video monitored, Musgrave speaks silently with his back to the camera (so that Ethan lip reads) and speaks aloud when facing the camera.  Subtitles are used to convey the lip reading to the audience.

M:I-3 is the first major Hollywood blockbuster signaling the start of summer.  And it is an intelligent, power-packed film in which the exciting action sequences take more meaning because the scenes leading to them are carefully planned and executed.  M:I-3 is surprisingly entertaining and with good reason.