Mission: Impossible 3 (2006) – movie review

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Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger

Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup

Director: J J Abrams

Wow! If you are looking for a big budget action adventure movie that is great fun and really well done then this is it. Without a doubt Tom Cruise and director J J Abrams have successfully put together the third instalment in this excellent movie franchise. MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE III has all the right ingredients and Abrams knows how mix it all up just right to produce a great looking movie that delivers the goods from start to finish.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) now supposedly having left the agency is asked to go back to rescue a friend and agent who has gone missing whilst on assignment. Even though he’s about to commit himself to the girl he loves and who knows nothing about the spy business, he goes back in – full force and guns blazing! But things don’t go quite to plan and when a prisoner is broken free from custody swearing revenge on anyone Ethan cares about, you know the action, superb though it’s been to this point, is still to peak. And peak it does when the tables turn on Ethan Hunt who has to turn rogue agent, but not on his own as his IMF team back him all the way.

Tom Cruise has now totally made Ethan Hunt into his own super-spy that could match any Bond, and J J Abrams knowing that his also superb TV series ALIAS is coming to an end has made M:I III almost into a big screen version of ALIAS, right down to the brainy tech guy, or was ALIAS always actually a reworking of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE? Who cares because I love them both!

M:I III is it’s own film, in as much as it does have a different feel to it from the last IMF outing M:I 2. That had John Woo’s fingerprints all over it and in itself was a fantastic action movie. I’ve already pointed out how M:I III is like a big screen version of ALIAS and this just goes to show how a different director’s unique style and vision comes across so strongly on screen.

I’ve always loved MISSION IMPOSSIBLE from the TV version through to film and this latest instalment only adds to the excitement. I’ll certainly be watching M:I III a few times whilst waiting for M:I 4 and all the while humming one of the best theme tunes ever written.

6 out of 6 stars