Cruise’s appeal put to test as “M:i III” debuts

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When widely hyped action flick
“Mission: Impossible III” opens in the United States on Friday,
Hollywood will be looking for clues to a billion-dollar
question: Is Tom Cruise still one of cinema’s biggest draws?

If so, Cruise might earn a new nickname, “Teflon Tom,” for
his seemingly innate ability to bounce back from bad or
eyebrow-raising publicity about his involvement with
Scientology, romance with actress Katie Holmes, preparations
for fatherhood and public outbursts against psychiatry.

But if he can’t, the ruggedly handsome 43-year-old actor
whose films have generated hundreds of millions of dollars at
box offices may see his star descend from the Hollywood sky
like many an action hero before him, such as Sylvester
Stallone.

Right now, the betting favors Teflon.

“For kids who like him, he is still a handsome action man.
They don’t care if he sounded off against psychiatry … If he
and Katie Holmes are happy, no one is going to begrudge that,”
said veteran film critic and historian David Thomson.

But Thomson added that if “M:i III” becomes just another
movie in “a pretty stale franchise” and a poorer version of its
predecessors at that, the star may be cruising for trouble.

In interviews to promote the movie, Cruise’s co-stars
fended off questions about the box office or countered that
director J.J. Abrams has introduced several new elements into
“M:i III” to lure fans despite any potential backlash against
the star.

Abrams brings his own brand of modern-day suspense to “M:i
III” which he mastered in two worldwide TV hits he created,
“Alias” and “Lost.” Moreover, to give the film a tug at
audience heartstrings, the hero played by Cruise, secret agent
Ethan Hunt, falls head-over-heels in love and gets married.

LOVE & ROCKETS

“He’s created two wonderful shows full of suspense. They
are thrillers, but there’s a lot of drama as well, and he’s
been able to take that and incorporate it into this film,” said
Michelle Monaghan, who plays Hunt’s wife, Julia, in the film.

Cruise, of course, was in the middle of his sofa-jumping
proclamations of love and his Eiffel Tower engagement to Holmes
during the preparation and shooting of “M:i III,” and it shows
in the movie. Holmes gave birth to their daughter Suri days
ago.

“As an actor, your life always affects your work,” said
co-star Keri Russell, “He was definitely falling in love.”

The film still has plenty of rocket explosions, gun
battles, helicopter chases and Hollywood whodunit intrigue.

Hunt, who in this film has become a trainer for the secret
“Impossible Mission Force” government agency, is lured back
into action when a star agent (Russell) is kidnapped by villain
Owen Davian, played by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Davian plans to steal a weapon of mass destruction from the
Chinese and deliver it to terrorists. Hunt must save his
colleague, get the weapon and capture Davian. Complicating his
mission is a mole who has infiltrated the government.

CRUISE CONTROL

But can the love, rockets and evil-doing be enough to lure
moviegoers to theaters and redeem Cruise in his fans’ minds —
if they ever doubted him at all?

“I don’t get a sense that a significant percentage of
Americans are really saying, ‘I wanted to see ‘M:i III, but now
that he’s gotten so weird, I won’t go see him,”‘ said Robert
Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at
Syracuse University in New York.

Paramount Pictures is pulling out its big promotional guns
to hype the film. Cruise flew to Europe for premieres in Rome,
Paris and London, and red carpet-style debuts are planned this
week for New York and Los Angeles.

Beyond the hype, box office watchers point out that
Cruise’s science fiction adventure “War of the Worlds” debuted
last year amid the hoopla following his TV show and psychiatry
outbursts. That film generated ticket sales of $234 million in
the United States and Canada and another $357 million overseas.

Its opening weekend haul in the United States and Canada
was $65 million, and Brandon Gray, who heads boxofficemojo.com,
reckons “M:i III” has to fetch about $70 million in the United
States and Canada over its opening weekend to be considered a
break-out success.