Review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) by Lewis E — 04 Sep 2013

3rd time's the charm as this instalment finally brings an acceptable level of entertainment to the spy infiltration action saga. The main action sequences are better, they come up with creative methods of accomplishing their missions and the little flickers of humour are well suited to the genre, doing well never to venture into the land of corniness.

There are times when the slow motion seemed unnecessary but at least they do not abuse it like they did in the second movie. Laurence Fishburne is a good addition to the series, playing the strong, fast talking authority figure.

My main issue was that Phillip Seymour Hoffman did not feature as much as I would have preferred. He was interesting as the heartless weapons dealer and the film would have prospered with more of his presence on screen.

Story also seemed a bit slap dash, nothing about the special 'rabbit's foot' weapon was revealed in the end and I feel the main substance of the film actually came from Cruise's character balancing the love for his job with its potential effect on his marriage.

I am not a fan of your standard, dumb popcorn flicks and I think there is nothing distinctive here to separate it from that category, but I still had fun nonetheless so it deserves to be placed nearer the top end of that scale.