Hoffman always brought his A-game to his craft, one of those few actors that just stole the show almost every time. He was just so incredibly good, we are lucky to witness such talent.
MI III is criminally underrated. PSH was one of the most terrifying "action movie" villains in recent memory. There was a calm, confident, sincerity to his words that gave greater weight to their malicious and violent nature. I also appreciate how it didn't really matter what the Rabbit's Foot did. It's a bio weapon, it's a nuke, a computer virus... does that really matter? Do we really need to spend time explaining how bad this thing is? No. There was a simplicity to the plot and that made the movie's pace brisk.
@@Aerial_ImagingYes, sadly that is why it was deemed not that good. As the ending was not a good payoff for the time invested. Nonetheless, still a fun watch.
Am I the only one who thinks this villain sucked? PSH is always great but this character is all hate sink. Just made to be as hateable as possible, no real substance. And his death was so meh, you could've missed it.
The first 5 mins of MI3 absolutely blew me away. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's villain follows through with his threats and that lingers with you all throughout the movie
I’ll never forget seeing this in a theatre and during that opening scene, you can hear a pin drop as the tension build! Hoffman was genius in that chilling performance! Kudos to Cruise too.. He held his own!
Fun Fact: At one point during production, Ricky Gervais was cast in the film as an ally to Ethan Hunt, but due to various production and casting changes, Gervais had to pull out of the film and was replaced by Simon Pegg.
@@albertgaspar627lol they did a poor job at it. Both Cage and Travolta completely freestyled their role once they switched characters but still a great movie though
What made him so scary is that even Ethan feared him. Unlike previous villains who have a mastery of some skill set such as fighting or weaponry, PSH is smarter than Ethan. A classic pen is mightier than the sword set up.
Yeah noticed it on my 2nd viewing, you just do feel like Ethan is screwed, even when he is the one doing the questioning you just see how he's totally not in control and loosing his sh*t throughout the movie
Yes, Cruise is low-key awesome in both the scenes where he faces off against Hoffman. The cold open when Hunt goes through every tactic he can think of as Davian counts to ten, and then in the interrogation scene when Hunt is never really in control of the situation and finally erupts.
I remember being at the theatre with zero hopes after MI2, and then being floored with the first 5 minutes of this movie. That scene alone, is responsible for whatever we had after the third movie. And I'm grateful for it.
The scene where hunt tries 10 different approaches to bargaining with him is some of the best acting you will ever see. Tom should have won an Oscar for that scene
Boy can you imagine if Philip Seymour Hoffman played The Penguin like this in a Christopher Nolan Batman movie like this… that would of been Heath Ledger’s Joker levels of awesome
That's just Hoffman for you. You give those lines "I'm gonna find her and I'm gonna hurt her" to another actor and that's not gonna sound as creepy as it did. What a treasure he was!
That scene with him holding the gun to Ethan’s “wife’s” head is so chilling to watch. You can tell that he just wants to see Ethan suffer in that moment, knowing that he can’t do anything to prevent it. It’s one of the only times in the series where Ethan doesn’t have the upper hand, and for sure the only time we hear him beg. It feels so real. Great acting by Tom and PSH in that scene. Can’t wait for Dead Reckoning! Haven’t been this excited for a movie in quite a while. It’s not often that you know an action film will blow your socks off before you even see it.
This was instantly my favorite Mission Impossible movie, and still is - solely because of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance, and the depth of the relationship that Tom Cruise had with his wife… actually bringing her into the plot of the story, and the chemistry between them. It was beautiful.
Moneyball, Love Liza, Capote, Boogie Nights. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was one of the last of his kind. A true chameleon who could disappear into a role, but was spectacular enough to not be labeled a “character” actor.
@@mew10521 An actor best known (or better suited) to playing characters rather than 'star power'. You might recognise their faces from other movies, but you'd be hard-pressed to name them. John Travolta, Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie...they're NOT character actors
The scene with this guy in the introduction of MI3 is like a core memory for me from when I was 9 or 10. My eyes were glued and I mean GLUED to the screen every time dad and I popped this into our DVD player.
I wanted to cast the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman in an Indie project i'm making but his agent keep saying he has passed. It's tough when small flim maker have great actors pass up on their script.
Both Hoffman and Cruise deserved Oscar noms for their performances in MI3, it was Cruise's best acting in an MI movie. The chair scene alone hasn't been topped in terms of acting. Underrated.
Still my favorite MI to date. And over half of that is due to Philip Seymour Hoffman. This also being the movie that made me see Ethan Hunt as a fully realized/fleshed out character.
Exactly, Ethan is finally a human being here similarly to Craig’s Bond. But viewers wanted just a spectacle without the baggage and we got MI4, MI5, MI6
@@ChristopherLono - I don't really understand this comment. In MI4, 5 and 6, they continued to humanize Ethan, with a strong focus put on the interactions between the characters and the team chemistry. Compare this to MI1, where Ethan is practically a blank slate (and the reference to his parents feels like it exists in a vacuum).
Mine too. I love MI3, and it's really mostly because of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and non stop GOOD action... I love the middle part of the movie... Great opening BAM, intense scene of saving Lindsey who dies, BAM, intense conversation in the headquarters, Ethan catches Owen Davien and just like that they attack the bridge, release him, he kidnaps his wife and makes him rogue, BAM - what an interesting finale this will be... It's pacing is just incredible, and action scenes are amazing.
This is still my favorite Mission impossible film. I think it’s highly underrated. It has the best opening scene in the franchise and I think has the most emotional/powerful performance from Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt.
Amen! Am I the only one who also thinks Laurence Fishburne's character as the IMF Director in this film was epic with the most iconic line of the franchise: "You can look at me with those judgmental eyes all you want, but I bullshit you not, I will bleed on the American flag to make sure those stripes stay red." Like c'mon. Why was Henry Czerny brought back in Dead Reckoning but not Fishburne!
THAT high octane intro tho. MI3 is one of the greatest action films ever, let alone the best MI! Brilliant acting supports the brilliant action choreography. Fabulous pacing is aided by clean (not simple) storyline.
Another thing that makes his villain stand out against a lot of the others in the franchise, much like Goldfinger or Le Chiffre in the Bond films, is that he isn't a terrorist who's whole character centers around some world ending/society crippling scheme, Solomon Lane works in those later films but I still don't find him massively interesting or unique. From the get-go Owen Davian is established as an arms dealer, plain and simple, from that its easy to comprehend why he does what he does, it makes him feel a lot more real and he isn't bogged down by lofty speeches that can easily come off as generic. That plane scene has such simple and clear dialogue but his delivery makes it so memorable and unsettling, none of the other villains in the franchise have hooked me as much as he did.
This was my first Mission Impossible movie and I vividly remember being so afraid of this man. Later I realized this was the same guy that played a comedic relief character from a Ben Stiller rom com I saw previously and it kind of blew my mind. That was what made kid me start paying closer attention to acting performances and understand the talent behind them. Philip Seymour Hoffman is to this day my favorite actor. RIP to one of the greatest to ever do it
Watched MI3 for the first time as a kid… I remember watching Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s performance made me feel TERRIFIED. Probably the first movie villain that made me feel scared and anxious at the same time.
Going to another Abrams project, I think that Michael Emerson’s Benjamin Linus is one of the greatest screen villains of all time. He also fits the “mystery box” philosophy as you never knew what he was capable of. Characters would beat and torture him and he would bleed and suffer, but never fold. He sent the clear message that there was nothing you could do to him. In a show full of amazing characters, his was a stand out.
He’s such a phenomenal villain because, in any other film, with any other actor in the role, it would be the same one note, forgettable “bad guy” character we’ve seen a thousand times before. It was how Hoffman and the film went in the complete opposite direction of the trope and audience expectation, that made this villains so terrifying and memorable.
MI:3 has the best opening sequence. It is a throwback to the TV series, and done so chillingly well. It sets the stakes for the rest of the movie. None of the other MI movies had a terrifying intro as MI:3. It's a masterclass in acting -- between PSH and TC.
Seeing this as a kid was quite an experience, such an underrated action movie. It was so chaotic and visceral in the best way, and having PSH in there resulted in one of the best and most menacing onscreen movie villains, such a versatile and amazing actor. He passed far too soon, RIP.
Absolute legend. The way he plays this character if perfect. Even when he’s captured you can tell that he still has the upper hand. Drugs stole a true talent from us.
Absolutely one of my favorite villains. My all-time favorite, though, is Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk from the Netflix Daredevil series. Honestly, most of that series plays to me like an origin story arc for Kingpin, though he and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock are really well-balanced foils for one another throughout.
@@jc4jax I was never a fan of Kingpin until the Netflix series. D'Onofrio gave him new life, imo. Really rounded out the character and drove home just how unstable and dangerous he was always supposed to be. Also much scarier as the stakes got higher and he got more unhinged. He's not the "immovable object" he was in the comics, but he's a lot more believable for me. Really drew me in. Sorry you didn't enjoy it
Zod from Man of Steel will always be one of my favorite Villains. Michael Shannon nailed that role. The moment before he's sent to the Phantom Zone, screaming at Lara (Superman's mother) "I will find him!" sent chills down my spine. The dialogue where he sees Superman destroy the terraforming ship, preventing Zod from turning Earth into Krypton 2.0 (thus also preventing Zod from restoringthe Kryptonian civilization), portrays him as so much more than a power-hungry and brutal antagonist. He sees himself as the protector of Krypton and it's people. In his eyes, Superman just murdered an entire race, a race Zod was hell bent on saving.
A race Zod was created to protect. The rage he displays afterwards is not only due to losing his only purpose for living, but also for what Superman did in destroying what was left of Krypton. His performance was amazing in MoS.
That's why i love mi 3, starting from how amazing the villain is, to how it deals with "flaws" from mi2, aka having PSH character recite a weird poem to replicate his voice, to the first continuos shot of tom cruise running, to the little details of him in the beginning of the film noticing what his GF's friends were saying by reading their lips to this coming back in the middle of the film where he gets information in the same way, to the whole section in Italy, specially him measuring how high the wall was for him to drop safely (amazing callback to MI 1)
Green Goblin from the Tobey Maguire Spider-man films stands out to me a lot, he is a psychotic killer but also uses subterfuge and intellect, his line "In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you." stuck in the back of my mind throughout the entire Tobey Maguire Spider-man movies.
Ive been telling and saying this for years, in comments and rankings, MI3 is so underrated, its probably one.if not top 4 all time MI movie... if not for Tom Cruise'z antics that year this movie would have been a much more hit
PSH always blows me away. When I saw this movie as a kid I was terrified. We truly lost one of the greatest of all times in my opinion. I have yet to see a film where he isn't at the top of his class.
Hoffman in this movie, is in my opinion, one of the best movie villians ever. I loved how we knew very little of Davien's past but yet knew he had to have gone thru some fucked up shit early on in his life to be such a cold hearted motherfucker. It left me hoping to find more information on Davien's life, childhood, and mental state in order for me to process the reasons as to why he did the things he did and why there was absolutely no bargaining with the guy whatsoever. Nearly identical to a character that some of you may have heard of in Christopher Nolan's, The Dark Knight.(The character being Joker in case you have lived under a rock for the remainder of the 2000s. If only they could've made a prequel, dedicating a small portion of the movie to touch on his origin without ruining the mystery/interest of the character, or a part 2 of MI3 to help build up the showdown of Davien/Hawk even more. I'm just glad to hear that others have put Hoffmann's performance as Owen Davien, as one of the best. Great performance!!! REST IN PEACE TO PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, A TRUE MASTER OF HIS CRAFT.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw MI3, it was magical! PSH absolutely nailed his character, and you know that he was an A-list villain when his demise was that satisfying. Rest in peace, legend. Thank you for delivering on the film that turned the series around.
This was my fav villian in movies for a long time. He was such a great bad guy I wish we got to see more of him playing the heel. One of the best actors of my generation and i was very saddened by his passing. His talent was huge. Let's be honest he wassnt the typical Hollywood actor, not in the stereotypical sense ...but his talent bought him upto the highest levels of the industry. Was a great loss of a great artist.
While I don’t think Davian is quite as interesting as Solomon Lane, Hoffman might be the best performer. No disrespect to Sean Harris. Hoffman just knew when to dial it up and when to dial it down. He’s not in it much, but in a way that causes him to have maybe a greater impact.
It's so funny... When people ask which MI movie is my favorite, it has always been (and will always be) PSH in MI3. His character was just so menacing. Literally no matter what, that dude's demeanor was just so calm, and I always thought he was BRILLIANT in this. RIP
This review is spot-on, imo. Even the split-second hesitation that Hoffman employs before deciding to remove his jacket in the hotel's bathroom scene is wonderfully nuanced, realistic, and highly relatable. He was a tremendous actor, a rare gift, and greatly missed.
That short scene where PSH is acting as Tom Cruise whose acting as Ethan Hunt whose acting as Davian... is so good!!! The way he subtly shifts his tone, cadence, movements... chefs kiss. So masterful
This is why MI3 was the peak of the franchise. Hoffman's performance was incredible both as the villain, and when they were impersonating him with the masks.
I have been saying this for years, he is in my top 10 THEATRICAL villains. OMG you got a sub for this, you literally saved me the trouble of creating this on my channel myself.
Am I the only one who thinks this villain sucked? PSH is always great but this character is all hate sink. Just made to be as hateable as possible, no real substance. And his death was so meh, you could've missed it.
Seymour-Hoffman has two of the most tense "tied to a chair" scenes ever, one as the bad guy in Mission Impossible III, and one as the victim in Red Dragon.
When Philip Seymour Hoffman clocks in for work HE CLOCKS IN! There is no villain in the mission impossible franchise that brought the intensity of impending doom. MI3 the film overall doesn't get enough flowers.
too right. re-watching the third film i forgot how dark it was and how deeply unpleasant Davian was. I think it's helped by the fact Hoffman doesn't 'look like' a bad guy
I find him overrated and k like overstaying his welcome kinda way. The scene where He's had Ethan's wife hostess, Tom Cruise's acting was better, if you don't think so you're biased against Tom Cruise. Is Hoffman an outstanding actor? Yes Is he better actor than Tom Cruise? No coz He can't play an eccentric madman or a Sex guru like Cruise did in Magnolia.
Oh lord Jar Jar with his mystery box. “Ok so actually telling a coherent story to me, I’m not interested. But if I can get the audience suckered into trying to figure out what’s inside my mystery box? That’s what I’m after. It doesn’t matter if it’s anti climatic or makes no sense when they open it, as long as I get them to go on the ride” JJ storytelling in a nutshell.
Mission: Impossible III is the most darkest movie in the franchise and I love it, definitely an underrated movie, and his villain is the best one in the whole franchise
that script was brilliant. Hoffman ran with that role and should have had an Oscar if there was one for best bad ass villain in an action flick. his character didn't boast about how powerful he was. He just did. in that franchise there has never been a character that uncaring about your life and others.
I’m glad someone else has said this. Also not only was he the best villain in the series but I think Mission Impossible 3 is the best so far out of all of them. Hoffman being so drastically different from Twister was crazy.
PSH was an astounding actor, one who could do screwball comedy all the way to nuanced character drama. It's no surprise that MI3 was elevated by his presence.
I saw MI3 when I was a kid and the interogation scene(which is the first scene) scared the shit out of me and begged my parents to get out of the theatre. Man what an absolute performance he did.
Hoffman always had such powerful nuance in every character he played. He could say so much with just a look. You could grasp how his character felt just by the way he delivered a small line. He was a brilliant, rare talent.
