2K Replay: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

 by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Best Thriller” at the Empire Awards UK. It lost to The Departed.

• Best Scene/Moment: Tom Cruise running during the climactic action sequence. It’s a special effect all on its own.

• Best Song: “Best of My Love” by The Emotions. I could have been the Kanye West end credits song if that guy wasn’t such an asshole.

• Best Merch: A “Movie Mission Impossible 3 Bag…Rare Special Gift for the Crew” for $200.00. The price is ridiculous, but the bag is cool looking. I used to have a messenger bag like this. I was in college, so I believed I needed something more sophisticated looking than just a backpack. It worked and I was accepted into high society. All I’m saying is, if you buy this the IMF might recruit you, that’s all.

• Director Grade: Mission: Impossible III was directed by J.J. Abrams.
Great Movies: Star Trek (2009), Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Good Movies: Mission: Impossible III, Super 8
OK Movies: Star Trek into Darkness
Bad Movies: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
Unseen By Me: N/A
Overall Grade: B

• Double It with This 2006 Movie: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

• Year 2006 Movies to Trailer Before Them: Final Destination 3, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, X-Men: The Last Stand

• Ella McCay or Mission: Impossible III? Mission: Impossible III

• Mall Movie? No. A Paramount Pictures release starring Tom Cruise is fancy theater all the way.

• Only in 2006: Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q were part of the IMF team.

• Scene Stealer (tie): Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Monaghan.

• I Miss: Philip Seymour Hoffman. I can’t tell if he’s good in this or phoning it in. Maybe a little bit of both.

• I Don’t Miss: The rabbit’s foot. I know it’s just a MacGuffin, but it sounds stupid and beneath a movie with a budget of $150M. Try harder.

• 2006 Crush (tie): Michelle Monaghan and Keri Russell.

• 2026 Crush (tie): Michelle Monaghan and Maggie Q.

• What I Thought in 2006: I really liked it and didn’t understand why people thought it was disappointing, especially coming off the sluggish previous entry. I appreciated that they humanized the Ethan Hunt character, which I think was crucial for audiences giving a damn about him in later films.

• What I Think in 2026: I still like Mission: Impossible III, just not as much as I did twenty years ago. It’s still probably the most underrated in the series in my humble opinion. The action and story are good (root for two people madly in love!) and it feels refreshingly small compared to the lengthier, more set piece-driven later entries. The rabbit’s foot sucks but I’m glad the movie treats it as a nothingburger unlike “the entity” which became WAY too important to the last two Mission: Impossible movies.