Reviews by Matt

Mission: Impossible III

Hard to believe, but it has been ten years since the very first Mission: Impossible movie. This third installment, as the “III” in the title suggests, in the Mission: Impossible franchise and Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt. Hunt has retired from active duty to trains new agents. When one of his trainees, Lindsey, Keri Russell, is kidnapped while on a surveillance detail of and man named Owen Davian, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. In the process he discovers that Lindsey had information that reveals double agents within the agency. Through tough assignments, double crosses, and the kidnapping of his wife, Hunt must stop at nothing to bring Davian down once and for all.

Ignoring the fact that I think Tom Cruise is a complete nut case, I still think he is a good actor and always manages to make some interesting films. He does it again here. I’m a fan of the first Mission Impossible, and didn’t hate the second (which I guess is a complement,) so it was inevitable that I would see this one. It was a good movie, there was nothing special about it, nothing revolutionary in special effects, it was just a well done action flick.

The one performance I feel obligated to mention is Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was born and raised in Fairport NY, one of the suburbs of Rochester, went to high school around here and he won an Oscar for “Capote.” So around here, we have to gloat about him, he’s a great actor that is finally making it big. And it’s well deserved. In this movie, he plays one of the best bad guys I have ever seen. He is cold, calculating and most importantly unflappable. Nothing shakes him, not even being dangled out of a plane at 20,000 feet. Hoffman plays this character to perfection and pulls off a bad guy very well.

There have been three Mission Impossible movie, and three different directors who have brought three very different styles and stories. This time around it was directed and written by J.J Abrams (creator of the television shows Alias and Lost.) The defining feature of his television shows, not including the strange and unexpected twists, is Abrams ability to make these amazing characters and develop them so that the audience has a connection to them. He brings that to this movie. It’s easy to establish characters like Hunt, because they have already been established and we know what drives him. Julia, Hunts wife is where we see a great example of new character development. When she is kidnapped, the audience wants her to get rescued just as much as Ethan Hunt does.

If your up for a mindless, special effects laden movie with plenty of explosions and gun play, then go see this movie. You will not be disappointed that you had to pay $8.75 (my how times have changed) for a ticket.

7 out of 10

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of frenetic violence and menace, disturbing images and some sensuality.