STARRING: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Laurence Fishburne and Simon Pegg. Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and J.J. Abrams. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Originally released in 2006. Budget $150 million. Box office $398.5 million. Running time 126 minutes.
Super-agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), now retired from active service, spends his days training future Impossible Mission agents and his evenings with his super-nurse fiancee Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan). However when one of his favourite agents Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) is abducted by super-baddy Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) while on a mission, Ethan is coxed back into active service by his boss Declan Gormley (Billy Crudup) to lead a rescue mission and bring her back alive.
Sadly Ethan fails and Lindsey is killed remotely by a tiny bomb hidden in her head, which in turns a series of events that will see Ethan run his little socks off across the globe, from Berlin to Rome, South Korea and China, to abduct Davian, capture something called the Rabbit's Foot, rescue his kidnapped super-nurse fiancee and clear his name and avoid Laurence Fishburne (I.M.F boss)'s army of 'not quite as good as Ethan' spies.
After the awfulness of Mission: Impossible II film, which had been directed into the ground by John Woo whose overuse of white doves, ludicrous motor cycle stunts and Dougray Scott really screwed the pouch, even if the film did become the highest grossing film of 2000 with a world wide gross of $546 million.
ANYWAY, I:M2, as it was known was shit and I hated it. This outing, however, I absolutely bloody loved! It's packed with superb stunts, great action beats, a tightly written and gripping script, and most importantly the best villain of the entire series in Owen Davian played with perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman. If I had a quibble, and it's a minor one, then it would be Simon Pegg who sticks out like a dirty great big sore thumb. What bugs me mainly is that he goes on to appear in all of the following I:M outings and he's too much the comedy foil.
There are so many excellent action sequences in this film it's hard to pick a favourite, but the Florida Keys attack is outstanding, as is the brilliant Vatican extraction. Oh, and the attack on the disused Berlin factory is also great. Damn it, the whole film is knock-out!
I was lucky to see it on the big screen a couple of weeks ago but sadly it's gone already so if you didn't see it then maybe it'll come back, if it does go and track it down, it's damn fine!
10/10
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