Adrenaline-pumped Cruise blockbuster is ridiculous and irresistible
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| SEE TOM RUN: Cruise plays super-spy Ethan Hunt, who tries to capture an unscrupulous arms dealer. |
After a year of trying to prove he’s a person, however freaky, Tom Cruise is back to being a product, well packaged and marketed.
After co-creating “Felicity,” “Alias” and “Lost,” director J.J. Abrams could write his own ticket. He’s written an E-ticket adventure tailor-made for adrenaline junkies.
There’s a tense confrontation between Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) before the story unfolds from the beginning. Ethan’s quit fieldwork to train operatives and marry Julia (Michelle Monaghan). But he returns to duty on a mission that takes him to Berlin, the Vatican and Shanghai in pursuit of Davian and a doomsday device.
Abrams frequently doubles the excitement by having two things going on at once, like a helicopter dogfight and an explosive device implanted in someone’s head. There’s also an underlying problem of a mole in IMF.
Though Hoffman’s role is underdeveloped, at times he’s like one of the better James Bond villains.
Luther (Ving Rhames) says, “There’s a point at which bold becomes stupid.”
That point is reached very early in “M:i:III,” and the movie never looks back. But like “24,” even as you laugh at the ridiculousness, you can’t help being caught up in it.
Rating: B
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michelle Monaghan
Opens today in wide release
2 hr., 6 min. PG-13
DRAG BOMB-THROWER VAGINAL DAVIS: “‘CRUISE IS A CLOSET
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In the new Kathy Griffin special, “Proud Black Woman” (Review, Page 46), the standup diva says, “One of the things about the Tom Cruise meltdown is that he’s so crazy, the gays don’t want him anymore.”
And while the “M:i:III” star is notoriously lawsuit happy, Los Angeles drag entertainer Vaginal Davis is testing her mouthy mettle. Last week, during a guest lecture/performance at Ohio University, Davis narrated a film montage called “Tom Cruise Loves Women.”
According to local newspaper The Athens News, Davis mocked Cruise for his pretentious attitude toward psychiatry and prescription drugs (fueled by Scientology), and because, Davis said, Cruise “is a closeted homosexual.”
Does Davis feel threatened that Cruise might take legal action? Maybe not.
Cruise’s famous powerhouse attorney, Bert Fields, is currently entangled in the Anthony case. Pellicano is the suspected kingpin of a wiretapping ring accused in a federal indictment of threats and blackmail while digging up dirt to help clients in legal disputes.
Daniel A. Kusner
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, May 5, 2006.