Cruise on a mission again
ANAND PARTHASARATHY
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Tom Cruise's `Mission Impossible-III' is likely to reinforce his reputation as one of Hollywood's most bankable actors.
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PACKED WITH ACTION: Mission Impossible-III
It is not always easy to understand the guy behind the gun. The gun-toting heroes of the passing Hollywood moment are not exactly the industry's most cerebral stars.
Tom Cruise is something of an exception and so in a sense is `Mission Impossible-III', which he has co-produced and starred in.
The film, which opens its India run this week, is the third big-screen excursion of a cult American thriller, a television serial that ran for seven seasons from 1966 to 1973. It is subtly different from the first two film versions.
The 1996 one directed by Brian de Palma was stylishly done, but so convoluted, that few cinema-goers could figure out what was happening. The second film in 2000, directed by John Woo, was a showcase for his hyper-kinetic cinematic style, leaving little room for story or character.
Behind the mask
For `Mission Impossible-III,' debut director J.J.Abrams wisely decides to underpin the expected quota of set-piece action sequences with strong human drama. So when the main protagonist, Ethan Hunt, an agent for the undercover Mission Impossible Force (IMF), played for the third time by Tom Cruise, takes off his latex rubber disguise (a tired trick from the first film),we get to see the man behind the mask.
We are told he is now an instructor, semi-retired from active duty and engaged to Julia, a nurse (Michelle Monaghan, a star of the TV serial ``Boston Public").
But when one of his students, Lindsey (Keri Russell), is kidnapped by psychopathic villain Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), `duty calls' once more and Ethan is off on another impossible mission, with his constant sidekick, Luther (Ving Rhames), and a couple of new associates (played by Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers and debuting Hong Kong actress Maggie Q). This takes him to a stunningly staged helicopter duel in Berlin; a swing between skyscrapers in Shanghai and a climactic ambush on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Washington. As always, Cruise does many of his stunts himself.
Like the almost-domesticated James Bond in `On Her Majesty's Secret Service,' Ethan Hunt is a more human persona here, even as Davian joins the cinema's galleries of truly evil villains.
The ever grinning Tom Cruise has less reason to smile this time: his wife is the bait in a trap as they [villains] try and get their hands on a device called the Rabbit's Foot.
Viewers will remain in ignorance about what precisely this is, though some might suspect that it is the modern equivalent of the Hitchcockian `McGuffin,' a plot device of little significance, meant only to deceive.
For Cruise, `Mission Impossible-III' seems slated to add to his reputation as one of the top money-making machines of Hollywood today.
Money-spinners
His last six films, which included Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds' and the offbeat 2003 `The Last Samurai,' all achieved over $200 millions each at the box office. And while he might not have converted any of his three Academy Award nominations into an Oscar, he is considered a valuable adjunct to any movie project.
`Rain Man,' the 1988 film where he plays the reluctant brother of an autistic savant, won Oscars for the film, the director Barry Levinson and co-star Dustin Hoffman. The 1986 `The Color of Money' earned an Oscar for Paul Newman who plays Cruise's snooker game mentor.
Newman advised Cruise to forsake empty (albeit commercially successful) films like `Top Gun' for more meaningful cinema. He took the senior actor's advice and his moving performance as a Vietnam veteran in `Born on the Fourth of July' three years later, earned director Oliver Stone an Oscar.
Cuba Gooding (Jr.) took a supporting actor's Oscar as the football star who sticks by his agent in `Jerry McGuire,' (1996) played by Cruise.
And the other star of that film, Renee Zellweger, who played Cruise's loyal wife, cherished his mentoring sufficiently to spend a large chunk of her 40-second acceptance speech to thank him, when she won a supporting actress Oscar in 2003 for her role in `Cold Mountain.'
Blast, anyway
Cruise's reaction? "Awards are wonderful. I've been nominated many times, and won many awards. But my journey is not towards that. If it happens, it will be a blast. If it doesn't, it's still a blast."
With films like `MI-III,' the blasts are very real, though not the stuff which brings in the Oscars.
Due to marry fellow star Katie Holmes later this month, the actor is said to be the top contender for the role of Ben Wade, the outlaw awaiting justice in a remake of the classic 1957 western `3:10 to Yuma' that is scheduled to begin shooting for a release next year.
He will also appear in `The Few,' (2008), where he will play the true life role of American pilot Billy Fiske, who flew Hurricane fighters against the Germans, even before the U.S. entered World War II.
Co-producing his own films with Paula Wagner for Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise, who will be 44 next month, now has the clout to select his own films.
Free to choose, he may yet attain the critical acclaim that will show the world that the boyish grin has always hidden a talent.
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