m:i:iii

The mi3 opening weekend box office gross was considered to be a let down.

The movie debuted with $48 millions over the weekend, about 10 million less than the previous Mission Impossible installment. Of the 48 million gross, yours truly contributed $10 of it.

I like the first one, then the 3rd one, the 2nd one is my least favorable one, the slow motion with the flying white doves were just too much for me to handle.

I always think writing amateur film review is easy. If you are willing to part with your $10 and sit through 2 hours, you are set to write a film review. Book review is much harder. First off, you have to read the book, unless you listen to audio book, which in most cases last more than two hours. So almost anyone can be an amateur film reviewer.

JJ Abrams have a lot to live up to. After all, we are talking about the Mission Impossible franchise and Tom fucking Cruise, probably the last mega male star living and breathing. After watching years of movies, I have to say I am getting desensitized, I mean, how can any action movie be exciting any more. Sure, there are lots of explosions and jumpings and kickings, but do they really excite me, not really.

The film makes some references to other films I think. One is True Lies. There are definitely some parts of it that seems very True Lies, just that True Lies is bit more original and better.

The adrenaline shot to the heart is bit Pulp Fiction.

The motocycle ride to meet his team is a bit of Top Gun.

The film flows all right but I can't find any definitive moments. In the first MI, there is the Langley vault scene, the restaurant scene and the helicopter inside the tunnel scene, in my mind they are pretty definitive of the first MI film. And the first MI is better paced and have better character development, more cerebral. And you can see Cruise in dfferent lights, in suit, in tux, in street clothes, in mission attire. On the other hand, mi3 is pretty monotonous when it comes to Cruise, he's just a fighting machine, not a lot of thinking. The opening sequence seems to be pretty good. But only to reveal that it really didn't add anything to the finale except a pure repeat. And what the fuck is the rabbit foot? Even Ethan had to ask what. And JJ Abrams and the team of writers just totally got lazy and didn't bother to come up with anything to it. No, it's not cool, it's just lazy film making.

Overall, the film is good, but not extraordinary like you would expect from screen god, Tom Cruise. Yes, this is a film review, and I am not going to cover my ass to say it's not. It's not good that's all.

P.S.: For an acid-tongued critical review from the real literary type, I suggest you read this piece from the New Yorker.