Tonight's Movies: Mission: Impossible II (2000) and Mission: Impossible III (2006)

This weekend my daughter and I enjoyed catching up with both MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000) and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (2006).

Somehow two years passed between watching the original MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) and the second film, so we watched the third film right away for good measure!

Possible spoiler alert: Please note that in order to discuss the roles of characters in the ongoing series, I've discussed which films they appear in below.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II was my favorite of the two M:I films seen this weekend, particularly due to its somewhat lighter tone. (Everything's relative in a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie...) I especially enjoyed the way the movie simultaneously reaches forward and back, with significant nods to older films in a story which deals with "gain of function" virus research, a concept which has unfortunately become all too familiar over the last 18 months.

In this second film, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked by his boss (Anthony Hopkins) to team with a beautiful lady thief, Nyah (Thandie Newton), to retrieve a deadly manmade virus stolen by former agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott). Nyah and Sean were once an item, so a resumption of their romance will perfectly position Nyah as the inside agent. One problem: Ethan has fallen hard for the lady he must ask to be intimate with her ex.

The screenplay by Robert Towne (CHINATOWN) fairly obviously lifts big sections of NOTORIOUS (1946), right down to a racetrack sequence and the heroine being poisoned, with an envelope serving the same function as the key to the wine cellar in Hitchcock's movie.

The film also has a blatant callback to the "I will find you!" waterfall scene from LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992). Recognizing the inspirations from movies past was rather fun.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II was directed by John Woo and filmed by Jeffrey L. Kimball. The film's score was by Hans Zimmer. Locations included Australia and Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. The running time was 123 minutes.

Rather surprisingly, given the intensity of Ethan and Nyah's romance, she is never mentioned in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, which opens with Ethan being engaged to a nurse named Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Julia herself later disappeared from the series until the sixth film, when she briefly returns for a moving reunion with Ethan.

Julia thinks Ethan works for a transportation company, but instead he's disappearing on missions such as rescuing an agent he trained, Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell), who's been kidnapped by a particularly vicious arms dealer, Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Later Ethan and his team (Ving Rhames, Maggie Q, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) must also kidnap Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), but unfortunately one of Ethan's bosses (Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne) can't be trusted, which ultimately puts Julia's life in jeopardy...

M:I III has some good action set pieces and is also lightened by the presence of Simon Pegg as computer expert Benji, a role he's gone on to play in subsequent films. I also enjoyed Maggie Q as Agent Zhen and wish she appeared in the later movies.

I did feel M:I III was less relaxing to watch than the first film because of the sadism of Hoffman's character and the jeopardy to Ethan's love, but all in all it was worthwhile.

Off the screen Cruise has always struck me as an oddball I'd steer away from, but there are other movie stars I enjoy yet probably wouldn't care for in real life. There's certainly no denying his onscreen magic. He's front and center a vast majority of the time, and his charisma is is hugely important to the success of the films, along with the action set pieces, in which he's known for often doing his own stunts.

Cruise is surrounded with good casts in each of the M:I movies. Along those lines, I'm really looking forward to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7, which will costar Hayley Atwell, Marvel's AGENT CARTER. In the meantime, I look forward to watching the fourth and fifth films in the series.  

A note on both this weekend's M:I films: The use of masks in these movies always feels like a bit of a "gotcha!" cheat. I wish they would skip using this device, as besides being an unfair storytelling crutch, these scenes are even more "impossible" to believe than many of the other goings-on. I had to laugh at a mask of Hoffman's face being 3-D printed right in the middle of a mission!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III was directed by J.J. Abrams, who cowrote the screenplay with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The cinematography was by Dan Mindel, and the score was composed by Michael Giacchino. Locations for this film included Italy and China. Running time was 126 minutes.

Parental Advisories: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III are both rated PG-13. III in particular is pretty dark, as will be immediately apparent from the pre-credits opening sequence. It's definitely not for children.

I own both films on DVD as part of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5-Movie Collection. They are also available in other formats.

Previous MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE reviews: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018).

September 1st, 2021 Update: It was announced today that the release date of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 (2022) is being pushed back from May 2022 to September 2022.  The movie's original May release date will be filled by Cruise's TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022) which was originally scheduled for November 2021.

2022 Update: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 (2023) will now be released in July 2023, with No. 8 coming out in June 2024.

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