Mission: Impossible 3

Director: JJ Abrams

Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan, Maggie Q

The franchise is back!!! Six years after John Woo set the screen alight with motor bike ballets and martial art mayhem we return to the world of international espionage and the escapades of IMF operative Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team. Now engaged to marry Julia (Monaghan) Hunt is coaxed out of retirement in order to rescue a field agent he trained, from the clutches of international arms dealer Owen Davian (Seymour Hoffman). When this results in failure, Hunt is given another mission by his superiors, to obtain a powerful weapon Davian is attempting to sell on the Black Market, known only as the “rabbit’s foot.” Hunt and his team embark on a world wide pursuit of Davian who turns out to be well connected in the upper echelons of IMF. The mission becomes a personal one for Hunt as he seeks to rescue his fiancée Julia, captured by Davian who begins to use her as a sadistic tool for getting to Hunt.

Abrams, known for his television work in both Alias and Lost, takes the franchise back to the days of its small screen success where the emphasis was very much on the team rather than just Hunt. However, this does not mean that any of the usual thrills that we are used to seeing are missing. We are treated to explosions and gun battles, a kidnapping in the Vatican and identity theft.

This stellar cast excel in every quarter. Cruise, whatever you think of him off screen, is just dynamite on it, giving a typically intense performance that we have come to expect from the world’s number 1 superstar. Seymour Hoffman is brilliant as the sadistic Davian and the high profile names to the smaller roles (Rhames, Rhys-Meyers) means that there is no weak link to ruin this movie experience.

Tom Reed