Global multiplex audiences in search of high-calibre, XXXL-scaled action/adventure fare will almost certainly be well satisfied with M:i:III, the latest and best in what has been star Tom Cruise's most reliably moneyspinning franchise. Feature-debutant director (and co-writer) Abrams may not be an established cinematic "name" like his M:I predecessors Brian DePalma or John Woo, but he's clearly learned plenty from his TV work on Alias and Lost: he manages to keep the kettle boiling throughout the nifty two-hour running time (the end titles, accompanied by a surprisingly poor new track by Kanye West, spool on for a good five minutes or so).

Abrams adheres to the tried-and-tested template: continent-hopping locations (with a hefty dollop of decadent glamour); plausibility-straining set-pieces; gadgets galore; an impenetrable plot (here revolving around a McGuffin known as the 'Rabbit's Foot.')The US certification board summed it up pretty well: "This film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of frenetic violence and menace, disturbing images, and brief sensuality."*

The violence is, mostly, of the fantasy variety: faceless cannon-fodder bad guys bloodlessly shot down by our intrepid hero Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team (Ving Rhames, Maggie Q and, slightly incongruously, Jonathan Rhys Meyers). But there's an attempt to inject a bit of believability (in the wake of the genre-transcending Bourne Supremacy) and romance, the latter courtesy of Hunt's wedding to nicey-nicey nurse Michelle Monaghan who, of course (and at first) knows nothing of her partner's intensely dangerous and glamorous profession.

But such lovey-dovey shenanigans are essentially just sentimental window-dressing: the real interest comes when Cruise gets to square off against his old Magnolia co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman, here collecting what one hopes in a nice post-Oscar paycheck for his role as uber-baddie Owen Davian. This stuff isn't exactly a stretch for the illustrious thesp, but he plays it enjoyably implacable-straight and sociopath-cool ('in cold blood,' perhaps): he even gets to briefly act opposite himself at one stage, courtesy of the franchise's hallmark latex-face-identity-switcheroo gimmick. It's a shamelessly audience-hoodwinking technique but, like the picture itself, is executed with such straight-faced, casually snazzy panache that it's very difficult to avoid being barrelled along.

Neil Young
2nd May 2006 (minor rewrite, 11th May)

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III : [7/10] : USA 2006 : J J ABRAMS : 126 mins (BBFC timing)seen at UIP screening room, London (UK), 2nd May 2006

* this rating assessment is cribbed from the press-notes. In said press-notes the MPAA extract is, for some reason, directly followed by this priceless bit of corporate-speak:
Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc., one of the leading global entertainment content companies, with prominent and respected brands in focused demographics across virtually all media.