This instalment, the third movie, in the Mission Impossible series is better than Mission Impossible II although it has to be said that this is not that difficult as far as I am concerned. The movie is more balanced in pace and the stunts and action scenes are not so totally over the top and ludicrous as in the second half of Mission Impossible II. Having said that there are still lots of pretty outrageous action stunts. This movie also has a real bad-ass villain that would not have been out of place in a classical James Bond movie. The plot is as uninspired as one can expect from a Hollywood action movie. Hero crosses bad guys path and acquires something that the bad guy wants. Bad guy gets pissed off and grabs good guys wife to force him to get the stuff the bad guy wants. Big show-down at the end and bad guy bites the dust. Throw in a traitor in the mix just to mess things up at regular intervals. Nothing to write home about in other words. The entertainment value of this film, as of the two previous ones, comes entirely from the various, more or less contrived, stunts, tricks and action sequences in the movie. As one can assume from the movies budget the film delivers well in these areas. What I find annoying is that Ethan, again, finds himself alone and without support from the IMF team as well as having to deal with a traitor within. I find that kind of stuff tiresome to say the least. While I am in ranting mode I can also say that the silly idea of “dying” and then getting kick-started again, especially given that the time between “dying” and being kick-started again suffered from the usual lack of the concept of actual time elapsed so often being shown by Hollywood directors, was pretty silly. As I wrote, it is a decent enough action movie but I would really like to see a “true” Mission Impossible movie where the team gets a mission and executes it with the full force of IMF behind them.

The movie starts with a bang and is a fun ride all the way through. Tom Cruise is doing his thing with some great stunts and some good fake running. Philip Seymour Hoffman really makes this movie so much better, finally a decent villain (even though he isn't written very deep). Not enough Keri Russell. This is the best so far and the franchise only gets better.

This J.J. Abrams directed Mission Impossible entry is the best one of the first three. It watches less like a star vehicle for Tom Cruise and more like a team mission with other characters contributing. Oh sure, Cruise's character Ethan Hunt does a lot of things on his own, but he'd be screwed without his band of spies, primarily Luther played by Ving Rhames. Not all of his cohorts were killed during the mission so there was no predicting who would be dead meat before the movie ended. There are a number of thrilling action sequences and a couple of surprising twists which you'd expect from Abrams, the creator of the "Lost" TV series.

JJ Abrams seems to be the man to call when you want to give your dead in the water franchise a kick up the arse and after the dire M:I-2 it’s just what the doctor ordered. Tom Cruise is back in action with the IMF but this time he’s joined by credible villain Philip Seymour Hoffman. You can feel the menace dripping off of him, especially in the Vatican scenes. Perhaps the hastily done love story with Hunt getting married was surplus to requirements (notice how in the next film it’s quickly axed…) but all in all this was a return to form as a genuinely enjoyable popcorn thriller. http://benoliver999.com/film/2017/05/19/missionimpossible3/

**Fast-paced action thriller** Well, this was straight to the point. Good old Cruise returning as Ethan Hunt is what you will see here. Action consisting of explosions, clever bombs, helicopter chases, flashbacks to True Lies without spoiling too much, evil villains, heartbreaking stunts and a pretty okay script is what you can expect. Some predictable scenes, but the fast paced action made the effort worth it with some very welcome ideas. You also got to love the scenery. Berlin, Vatikan and China is refreshing to see. 007 look out, hard to match this one! Long time since I had such fun at Home. 7/10!