Movie Review: MI-3

Well, we know Tom Cruise likes to recycle.

The plot of this third installment of the Mission: Impossible filmology is this: Ethan Hunt races against the clock to save someone he loves from the bad guy while on the run from his fellow agents. Sound familiar? That's because they used this plot in the first one.

I'm over simplifying, of course; there is more to the story than this. But not much. Forget the characters; by the end of the movie, you wonder what they paid Laurence Fishburne to show up in this since he didn't have much of a role. Unless you have no common sense whatsoever, you'll quickly figure out who the mole is at IMF (there's ALWAYS a mole!). With the exception of the returning Ving Rhames, you won't get to know - or care, really - about the rest of Ethan's IMF team. I don't even recall if we ever heard their name throughout the entire movie, so don't look for a return if there's an MI4 on the horizon.

So why go see it? Because its a fun movie, that's why.

The movie starts on a frantic pace and never lets up. It's a stuntman's dream, with everyone moving at a clip that would make "24"s Jack Bauer stop for breath. Gone are the John Woo "frozen in time" slowdown moments; this movie has a staccato pulse that never stops.

Forget plot, forget story, forget trying to make any logical sense of it. Enjoy Philip Seymour Hoffman's pasty-faced, overweight doughboy of an evil villain; I've seen him in other films (except Capote), but I can fully understand why he deserved the Oscar for that performance.

MI3 is a fun-filled rollercoaster ride that won't strain your brain cells one iota. They don't even try to explain what the latest dangerous weapon is that Ethan and Co. are sent to retrieve; it's given the code name "Rabbit's Foot" and that's where it ends. Is it a bomb? Chemical agent?

Who cares. Go see the movie, and enjoy the explosions.

The Trickster gives it 3-1/2 bananas out of 5, 4 if you don't mind the lack of a story.