Cruising Into The Side Of A Wall

I see that Tom Cruise's MI3 has performed below expectations (reg. req'd). My wife, whenever she sees Tom Cruise, reminds me that he at one time left his pregnant wife for another woman. In her opinion, his latest antics are of a piece with a man who abandons his family and have been so publicized that many women have reached the same conclusion about him that she did many years ago: that he is a callous jerk.

I don't know whether that is sufficient to explain a poor performance for MI3. I suspect that it is also due to the fact that this is the third in a series of films that had a weak story line to begin with. If you have ever seen the original series you would have to agree that no matter how entertaining, the plots are rather simplistic: super agents take on an impossible mission (hence the title), they prepare an intricate plan to effectuate their mission, they struggle against obstacles that no one really believes will thwart them, they live to mission impossible another day. It has become no less predictable in the hands of Tom Cruise. That being the case, I doubt that anyone was too excited to go see this movie.

What is perverse in all of this is that the movie still made over 100 million dollars worldwide. If this is failure, sign me up.