Review: Mission: Impossible III

A tightly tense, exhilarating movie from start to finish, J.J. Abrams's Mission: Impossible III is a finely wrought film that proves that action movies don't have to be stupid and without substance. Granted, the plot of M:I-3 isn't necessarily the smartest you'll be seeing for some time, but the slight lapses in logic are to be forgotten amidst the heart-stopping action (with a particular highlight being the whole Vatican sequence) and intense encounters between Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman's Owen Davian, one of the most chilling and deliciously realized villains in recent cinema. Cold does not begin to describe him. The movie could have worked even better with more action from Hunt's IMF groupmates Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (the exotically beautiful Maggie Q), but this is still the first real Mission: Impossible movie in that Hunt's team actually works and matters. And in her short appearance, Keri Russell kicks serious ass. She's never been this beautiful or cool. Neither has this franchise. Grade: B+

Image taken from IMDb