Movie #33 - A Few Good Men

"In the heart of the nation's capital, in a courthouse of the U.S. government, one man will stop at nothing to keep his honor, and one will stop at nothing to find the truth."

Pretty odd tagline. Its not as descript as many of them are and its quite long. However, the movie itself is one of those classics that actually rely heavily on acting and script as opposed to special effects and smut. You gotta love the era of the early 90's, before everything became so easy to "generate."

Jack Nicholson is at his best here. And surprisingly, so is Tom Cruise (before Scientology perhaps?). Nicholson vs. Cruise makes for an interesting conclusion and obviously, the most famous of lines in film:

"I want the truth!"

"You can't handle the truth!"

Overall, this film is stacked from the production team inclusive of Rob Reiner and of course the acting credits of the following names: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack, and J.T. Walsh. There's even a brief cameo from Noah Wyle, but who's paying attention to that much detail.

This movie ensures the success of the board game 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon in that he is linked to everyone here. Also, this movie represents one of the stronger cameos of the quintessential movie villain, graduate of the Donald Sutherland school of movie henchmen, J.T. Walsh. I cannot rave enough about this guy and his contributions to film, he is still missed in many of the action and drama movies of today and if you watch his films closely - you'll see why.

In the end, this movie delivers its dramatic showdown that is known to many movie goers, but is still one of the best sequences on film. A good film to watch in its entirety, but way over exposed due to channels such as TBS.

Movie #23 - Mission Impossible 3

Mission Impossible 3 is a strong action film that invigorates the theater audience. As compared to the poorly done sequel by Hong Kong director, John Woo (MI-2), Mission Impossible 3 actually delves into attempting to create characters and consists of a better cast and plot lines.
MI-3's plot follows a semi-retired Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who is serving as a Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent trainer. But to his fiancee and friends and his "new" life outside of the IMF, Hunt is attempting to live life as a mild mannered Traffic Analyst, somewhat of a Superman / Clark Kent persona. This works well and follows the concept of the spy lifestyle portrayed in other films such as True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

The plot gets kicked into high gear when Hunt is recruited by his previous boss, Musgrave (Billy Crudup) to rescue Hunt's prized pupil, Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell). It was a breath of fresh air seeing Crudup and Russell cast into these roles, as both are not known for their action star resumes and both fit in quite nicely.

Director J.J. Abrams of Lost, Felicity, and Alias fame took a number of casting risks with his team of actors for this film. Phillip Seymour Hoffman portrays the maniacal arms dealer Owen Davian, while Abrams elects to reprise Luther's character played by Ving Rhames. I disliked the casting of Laurence Fishburne, as he seemed somewhat out of place and became the predictable internal villain halfway through the movie - maybe that was the point. However, I did enjoy the casting of Maggie Q (Zhen), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Declan) and Simon Pegg (Benji) for comic relief.

Abrams masterfully attempts to create characters and develop Ethan Hunt's life outside of IMF quite well. This is somewhat overlooked in most action films as explosions, body counts, and weapons are the first priority. Abrams brings life back to the Hunt character and to the villainous secret plots found in the classic spy movies. He enlists a little bit of the "trust no one" attitude in this film as it moves along.

The only thing missing from this film is the reprisal of Henry Czerny, a great Canadian actor, who captured the menacing lead character of Eugene Kittridge in the first Mission Impossible (1996). Czerny was on a role with his evil Washington slash CIA roles in other films such as Clear and Present Danger. As an avid movie fan of the villain, I would have liked to see Czerny in this sequel.

Overall, this movie is not the best action movie ever made, but it sure jump starts the MI genre again, opening the door for future sequels. Abrams should be retained as Director if another film is to be made, but he is quite busy with Lost and the upcoming Star Trek prequel. However, the Hunt character now has some roots and some background, something that the audience craved in the first two films and now knows in this one.

Thank you to J.J. Abrams for doing a solid job in this film and we all look forward to the many projects that you have on the go in the future.

Reference: I originally published this article on Helium.com