ROTTEN TOMATOES: Critical Consensus: "Mission" Accomplished

Critical Consensus: "Mission" Accomplished

by Tim Ryan | May 04, 2006

This week at the movies brings spies ("Mission: Impossible III"), spooks ("An American Haunting") and hoots ("Hoot"). What do the critics have to say?

You wouldn't believe how many couch-jumps it took to train for this shot...

Ok, first the bad news: According to critics, the plot of "Mission: Impossible III" makes precious little sense. The good news: Who cares? The third time's a charm for the espionage/explosion series, and the scribes say "Alias"/"Lost" creator J.J. Abrams brings a fresh, loopy energy to the proceedings. Tom Cruise is back once again to save the world, this time from Philip Seymour Hoffman. With absurd-but-exhilarating action sequences and interesting supporting players, "M:I:III" is the best reviewed film of the series, and at 78 percent on the Tomatometer, it's Certified Fresh.

"An American Haunting"...like "Casper," only...not.

Recently, the makers of horror films have found that adding a "based on true events" handle gives their fright-fests an added jolt of heft. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" tried it, and now comes "An American Haunting," a ghost tale set in 1820s Tennessee. The critics say the film has an atmospheric gloominess and some solid performances (particularly from Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland), but its scares are pretty rote. It currently stands at 29 percent on the Tomatometer.

These kids give a "Hoot"...but will audiences?

Despite the deep divisions wrought by divergent political leanings in recent years, I think we can all agree on several things. It's a bad idea to pave the wetlands in order to build a pancake house. Luke Wilson is pretty cool. And "Margaritaville" is darned catchy. Unfortunately, the scribes say "Hoot," a tale of some kids who save the habitat of the wise old owl (which features songs by Jimmy Buffett) is an innocuous, but not particularly rousing, family picture. At 30 percent on the Tomatometer, the scribes just don't, ahem, give a hoot.

Mission: Impossible Movies:
----------------------------------
58% -- Mission: Impossible II (2000)
66% -- Mission: Impossible (1996)

Recent Tom Cruise Movies:
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72% -- War of the Worlds (2005)
85% -- Collateral (2004)
69% -- The Last Samurai (2003)
92% -- Minority Report (2002)
38% -- Vanilla Sky (2001)

Related Items

Movie:	Collateral
	Mission: Impossible III
	War of the Worlds
	Mission: Impossible
	Mission: Impossible II
	The Exorcism of Emily Rose
	Lost - The Complete First Season
	Vanilla Sky
	Alias - The Complete First Season
	Minority Report
	The Last Samurai
	Hoot
Celeb:	Jimmy Buffett
	Sissy Spacek
	Philip Seymour Hoffman
	Luke Wilson
	Tom Cruise
	Jeffrey Abrams
	Donald Sutherland

(1-13 of 13 posts) | Reply

killermonkey82 writes:
on May 04 2006 06:28 PM

i'm hoping to see m:i:3 soon lol how many couch jumps did it take to to this shot good one

(Reply to this)

PrecentorEpsilonXVI writes:
on May 04 2006 07:56 PM

Hey, rediculous action sequences don't bother me none. I liked The Transporter 2 after all...

(Reply to this)

Elixir writes:
on May 04 2006 08:43 PM

and for liking transporter 2 you should kill yourself.

i'll prob see mi3

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sideburnz writes:
on May 04 2006 10:47 PM

punk, transporter 2 was great.

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nosoupforyou writes:
on May 04 2006 11:03 PM

I too am on the Transporter 2 bandwagon.

It's good to like a mindless action flick once in a while. Not everything needs to be "Citizen Kane."

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AlienSeed writes:
on May 05 2006 12:36 AM

M:I-III was awesome. Loud....very loud, fast, and thrilling are the best words to descibe it. I hated the first two installments but this one more than makes up for them. The one thing I didn't like, though, and one critic mentioned it too, is that during the "Langley" equivalent scene in this film, we don't even get to see the heist. Cruise pops in, then suddenly out, but we don't see anything in between. Other than that though, all is great, especially Hoffman, whose character may be one dimensional, but he is as bad as they come.

(Reply to this)

WorldDude writes:
on May 05 2006 03:57 AM

I like good action movies, but Transporter 2 was not one of them. This, however, looks excellent.

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BuckRogers writes:
on May 05 2006 04:30 AM

I can suspend belief for MI:3, as for transporter 2 i would have had more respect for it, had it gone straight to dvd and was titled "Matrix 4.01 Beta"

(Reply to this)

Callpacas writes:
on May 05 2006 08:09 AM

yea...no langley...what a chance wasted. my memory's a bit rusty but i don;t think MI2 did a solo stealth scene either. and why on earth don;t they just snipe those guys on the roof for an easier entry? they're going down anyways.

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Now it's dark writes:
on May 05 2006 08:32 PM

Keeps getting lower on the tomatometer. And after seeing him on BET, I think I'll skip this.

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Marshallmaddnes writes:
on May 06 2006 03:25 AM

[b]Philip Seymour Hoffman[/b]
Where Was He?
He Was In The Movie A Total Of Like 3 Mins.
And The Way He Dies...Extremely Lame
And For A 72%, I Thought This Movie Might Have Been Alittle Better

(Reply to this)

Callpacas writes:
on May 06 2006 08:07 AM

there are plenty of amateurish reviewers out there on the internet...and people whose words are influenced by Cruise's antics outside the screen. villains in this kind of films does not get much screen time usually.

hell...i don;t even feel the mark of JJ in this film. It might had as well been John Woo with another better script... 1 & 2 was distinctive at the very least. Got this gut feeling that JJ going to be one of those just-get-the-job-done directors. Like a good Uwe Boll.

(Reply to this)

lovelykeira writes:
on May 06 2006 12:50 PM

I liked, it's the best film of the year so far that I've seen(A-), just a fun time at the movies, sure it's a little out there at times and I didn't like it as much as the 2nd one but it's a good film. And way better than Transporter 2.

(Reply to this)

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