Mission: Impossible III

I've been exceptionally long-winded with my posts lately, so I'll keep this one short and do my best to make it sweet. Tom Cruise is, last few years aside, arguably one of the biggest movie stars of the past twenty years or so. Yet, remarkably, I had never anything that he had done (aside from The Outsiders) until late 2007. Consider this: in the past two years, I have finally gotten around to seeing (for the first time) Rain Man, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, and all three Mission: Impossible movies. (I still have yet to see Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, War of the Worlds, and believe it or not, Top Gun.) So I've gone from being a Tom Cruise novice to someone quite familiar with his body of work. And do you know what? The Mission: Impossible trilogy is definitely the weakest part of his resume. This shouldn't be the case; any bona fide action star is best remembered by his defining trilogy. For example, Bruce Willis may have saved the planet from an asteroid, but first and foremost we think of him as John McClane; Arnold (I'm not even going to attempt to spell his last name) may have played Conan, Kimble, a pregnant man, and a father attempting to secure a popular Christmas present for his son, but he is, above all, the Terminator. (Hell, even his current role - Governor of the largest state - pales in comparison.) Matt Damon is Jason Bourne. Harrison Ford starred in two classic trilogies, and as such, is both Han Solo and Indiana Jones. But when you think of Tom Cruise, do you immediately recall... Ethan Hunt? I doubt it. And that's really all I'm getting at here; despite being a quintessential big-budget action-thriller trilogy, it's absolutely forgettable. The first one was too slow and convoluted. The second one was ridiculously over the top and convoluted. This last one? To my great surprise, not so convoluted! I popped this DVD in earlier tonight with low expectations, and half an hour in, I was already bored out of my mind. But things picked up. In this movie, for the first time, it wasn't just all about Tom Cruise - his supporting team played a much larger role this time around, and that gave it more of a feel-good vibe not unlike that from the Clooney-Pitt-Damon Ocean's movies. I liked this movie just enough to say I didn't hate it. And that's more than I liked either of the first two. Especially the second one. I think my biggest problem with the second one, in hindsight, may have been Tom Cruise's long and shaggy hair. He looked like such a douche! I mean, seriously, a grade-A asshole. Mission: Impossible III is the type of movie that you should definitely not hesitate to check out if you find it on TV one night. The best part is, you don't have to have any familiarity with the first two flicks - seriously, knowledge of Ethan Hunt's previous endeavors in no way enhances this movie. Alright. I hope I was short and sweet enough to live up to my promise. But you know what's getting really short? My movie backlog. Just ten films remain now. Ten! I've made it down to ten! Christmas presents pending, I see no reason why I can't have an empty movie backlog entering 2010. Amazing. Anything is possible!