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.
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Right now, the betting favours 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 world-wide 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 cinemas 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 (128 million pounds) 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 Grey, 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.
