Mission Impossible III

Rating: B

Tom Cruise takes a break from jumping on couches, muzzling Katie Holmes, and generally being a tabloid writer's dream to take on the bad dudes in the third installment of the popular Mission Impossible series.

This part not only holds it's own, but in ways, it's better than is predecessors. Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt has retired and married to Michelle Monaghan, a nurse who doesn't know anything about Ethan's agent work. An agent (Kerri Russell) gets captured by a arms dealer (played beautifully by Phillip Seymour Hoofman), so it's back in the field for Ethan to save the day. Fan favorite Ving Rhames is back as Luther Strickwell. Joining the fray this time around are Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Maggie Q, and one time James Bond frontrunner Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Action is the name of the game in this one. That is a good thing because there is absolutly no chemistry between Cruise and Monaghan. There is one especially excruciting rooftop scene that will leave you groaning and praying for something, anything, to blow up. None of missions match the first one's CIA scene, (it's even referenced by Rhames) but they are enjoyable and are easy to get lost in. The intensity kicks up a notch when Hoffman is on screen. His portrayal of a menancing arms dealer really cements his place as one of the best actors in our time.

Hopefully the tabloid funk that's on Cruise won't affect this box office too much, because this really isn't a bad movie. It's a great way to start off the summer movie season.