Mission: Impossible III

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      Starring Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Rated 14A.

      Sometimes the third time really is the charm, and, in the case of Mission: Impossible III, even a dreaded roman numeral isn't enough to keep this from being the most satisfying entry in the series.

      Thanks to the sure hand of first-time feature director J.J. Abrams, working with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, his screenwriting partners from Alias, the two-hour film comes roaring out of the box and never loses momentum. The effect isn't wearying, however, because Abrams has stripped down the tale to fewer elements and added a much-needed emotional component to help viewers get beyond the merely visceral.

      After a harsh preamble conveying what will soon be at stake, this edition starts with veteran agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, again producing) retiring from the field to marry sweetheart Julia, played by Michelle Monaghan, who seems a bland Katie Holmes until she comes into her own in the final quarter. The honeymoon is interrupted, however, by an urgent collect call””should he choose to accept it””asking him to stage a daring rescue in Berlin.

      When he finally finds the kidnapped IMFer, a feisty protégé (Keri Russell from Felicity), he learns that the good guys may have been corrupted in collusion with the ominously named Owen Davian, an arms merchant played with insouciant cruelty by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Thus begins a bout of internal struggles between Laurence Fishburne's tough honcho””he's the ultimate gruff black police captain here””and Billy Crudup's earnest lieutenant, Ethan's only advocate on the force when things go wrong in their search for Davian and the potentially world-ending weapon he's after.

      The weapon, referred to as the Rabbit's Foot, is glimpsed but never explained. Actual powers of destruction are only important in their ability to lead to cinematically appealing outbursts in Berlin, the Washington, D.C., area, and, most intriguingly, Shanghai. And they give Ethan a reason to keep up high-speed banter with his crew, consisting of specialists played by Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Hong Kong's glamorous Maggie Q.

      These three could have been used more fully, but making a stronger impression with even less screen time is Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg, as an IMF technician with an amusing phone manner.

      Anchoring the action, of course, is the series star, trotting out all his staring and stammering. Cruise isn't a great actor, but he's a convincing runner, and his physicality has met the perfect enabler in Abrams, whose affection for the material brings more pleasure than you might have thought possible.

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