Mission: Impossible III

Starring: Tom Cruise , Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Simon Pegg
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
My movie score: Painless

I haven't seen a movie in the theaters for over a month! I waited for something worth seeing on the big screen and I found that movie with Mission: Impossible 3. It's a true Hollywood flick with big explosions and tight action that I have always loved from the MI series. The beauty of the action scenes are that they aren't too fast (so you can tell what's going on) and they don't appear to be overly CGI'd. Everything looks real, which probably explains the high budget.

JJ Abrams directs the movie pretty straight, although he can at times go overboard with the shaky camera and spinning when there is dialogue scene. That's a technique best suited for television in my opinion. Still, he is a guru of the action shot, and when you see a helicopter explode it definitely made me say "wow!"

Tom Cruise is very believable again as Ethan Hunt and I have to say he was fun to watch. The supporting cast really shines through and it's refreshing to see a team at work in this film, which is very much like the original Mission: Impossible TV show. I also enjoyed the villain, played by Hoffman, although he isn't in the movie that much. Perhaps this is done to avoid making him a caricature.

And the masks? Oh, they're in there. I always love those masks.

Conclusion: You shouldn't expect to have your mind "blown away" (heh, pun intended) but this film is worth your full admission price.