Movies: Mission: Impossible III

Directed by "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams, the Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible III" takes the spy action flick and puts a made-for-TV spin on it:



It's not that the effects or production values aren't suitably lavish, or that the requisite star power isn't there (Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne), but the script itself lacks...well...it lacks a climax. Most audiences expect these movies to end in some incredible final action scene, complete with the villain dying in some over-the-top fashion (the first "Mission: Impossible" movie followed this formula - a helicopter exploded in the Chunnel, for heaven's sake). This flick, though, doesn't really deliver, and it sort of peters out instead of building to a crescendo.

That's not to say there isn't some good stuff here. Philip Seymour Hoffman is great as the primary villain, and the action scenes are generally well done, if increasingly implausible. There's also plenty of grist for the gun nerds - watch for not one but two instances of an assault rifle being assembled together on screen. And there's also one of the only times I've seen a double-clipped G36 mag being employed in a movie.

Rating: 7/10

(sidenote - it's difficult to see how IMF can function when there's a traitor lurking behind the scenes in literally every film)