Movie Review: MI:3

On the rare occasions that my wife and I get a chance to go see a movie, we try very hard to go see something good. We have made the mistake of using our date night on movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" which was terrible. So in planning on seeing MI:3 we had high hopes.

We saw the movie at the Orpheum Theater in Hillsboro, IL. If you have not seen a movie here, you should. The price is right at $5 a ticket and with that ticket you not only get your movie, but you also get a soda and a bag of popcorn. They even have a wide selection of flavor powder to add your popcorn (this stuff) mmmmm. To add to the viewing enjoyment, the back row of the theater is a row of nice comfy couches. I gotta say, a great place to see a movie! Now as a bit of disclosure, I am friends with the owners of the place and have to say they are some of the nicest people you will meet and they know how to run a theater.

So on to the movie. There were 4 previews beforehand

• XMen 3
• Superman Returns
• The Pirates of the Caribbean 2
• Nacho Libre

The first 3 are on my to-see list and would like to at least see the first 2 in the theater. Nacho Libre might be better suited for a rental on Blockbuster Online when my queue is empty.

Now MI:3... I had not seen many previews of this one, I only knew it was coming out. I really liked the first one and the second one was good, but a little over-the-top (John Woo-wise),but I still like them both and would watch either of the first 2 any time. When my wife told me that this was a JJ Abrams movie, I was very happy. We are both big Alias and Lost fans, so I was interested to see what he could do in a movie. Now I got to say after seeing most of Alias and All of Lost, There were lots of times in MI:3 that I saw JJ's touch. Especially with the whole "see a later part of the movie early on" technique. Very Effective. The movie starts off high intensity and really doesn't let up much. There are a few breaths, but they are short. You can tell that JJ has been writing and directing for a time limited format for a while, because he is always pushing the story forward with every frame of this film. You never feel like "ok, enough of this scene already" it is just, bam bam bam. As for Tom Cruise, I would say his acting is good as usual in this film and the supporting roles are a good compliment to his. As always I enjoyed Ving Rhames return as Luther Strickell. There is enough playful banter between him and Cruise to keep things light and make it seem that these 2 guys know each other well. Philip Seymour Hoffman was freaky, he creeped me out in this one. Very well done. Also Laurence Fishburne's part was small but well played. Of course anymore I expect him to say something about Kung Fu, and "The One", but I digress. Of course it is enjoyable to see some JJ Abrams usuals like Keri Russell (Felicity) and Greg Grunberg (Alias, Lost (he was the pilot of the plane who gets killed by the monster in the pilot episode)). The storyline is well written and relatively simple with enough mystery to keep you guessing, but not as twisted as the first one.

So, overall a great night out at the movies. I would recommend it if you liked the other MI movies or are a fan of JJ Abrams.

Also, if you are within driving distance (to see a movie) of Hillsboro, Illinois, check out the Orpheum Theater, it will be worth your while.

Johnny