Missão: Impossível 3

Easily not the best mission, but thanks to JJ Abrams direction and an absolute menacing performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman this movie is more than deserving of repeat viewings.

Phillip seymour hoffman is the best villain in this series too.

Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt and this time he's battling a sadistic arms dealer (Philip Seymour Hoffman). This is without question the best in the series and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the previous two films. I thought the first film was way too confusing for its own good while the second one was way too much action and not enough brains. This third film hits on all the right notes and delivers some terrific action scenes mixed with a pretty smart script that doesn't go over the top on brains. The real key to the film is the terrific performance by Hoffman. He's been known for years as a great character actor but when I heard he was playing the villain I honestly didn't think he could pull it off but he comes off quite menacing in the role. He doesn't have any funny lines, which is a great thing because it makes him all the more threatening. Then there's Cruise who delivers another all-star performance. I think, in real life, Cruise is a jackass but he still manages to be the greatest movie star out there. The supporting cast including Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne all do fine work as well. The action scenes are also some of the best I've seen including the wonderful attack on the bridge.

Not bad at all. After the John Woo craptastic crapfest that was MI2, Lost creator JJ Abrams takes over and makes a flick that is at least as good as the first one, possibly better in some respects. Some real surprises early in the flick start things off fast, and it keeps up the pace pretty well from there on. Sure, it's mostly same-old same-old, but it was fun and action-packed. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was fine as a villain, but was really not even in the movie that much. Tom Cruise was just Tom Cruise as usual, but for two hours I was able to forget about all his offscreen stupidity. You know what this really felt like? 24: The Movie. ...which they are apparently going to make. It should end up being much like MI3, and I think that'd be just fine.

Again I'm writing about a movie genre that I like very much. This is the first from the new generation of mission impossible movies. Differently from the second one Ethan appears to be more connected an dependent on his friends and his team. In a good way. The character is more realistic and emotional, he's afraid for his wife and you can see he's emotionally disturbed in the appropriate parts, but even then his skills are more than enough to solve the problems. But it's again more realistic than the second one in this aspect too. Footage is improved and there's a nice combination of fast cars, beautiful women and nice clothes and landscapes. But in a certain way, they seem to give less importance to that than they do in 007's movies. Action is the main goal here.