Just a big load of meaningless Summertime pap, nothing more

Rating: 4/10 (19 May 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back-this time on the trail of a merciless arms dealer (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who's implanting deadly devices in people's brains in order to obtain what he needs.
Six years after the last movie, Mission:Impossible III hits the big screen. But from it's opening weekend onwards, it has been performing disappointingly at the box office and causing cynics to question Tom Cruise's reign as the king of the blockbuster. Whether it's just people getting fed up with this type of movie, or whether Cruise's antics in interviews and on TV on behalf of his Scientology medium have just put people off anything to do with him, we don't know but Mission: Impossible III looks set to be both a financial and, from the look of it, critical failure.
Even most of the stunts and special effects on display are strangely unimpressive. Maybe I'm just fazed by movies like this, but they all went right over my head. Even if they themselves had blown me away, although the conclusion is obvious from the off-set, still it doesn't matter how outrageous or spectacular the stunts become, there is never even the slightest element of danger that he will come out from his ordeals dead or even slightly scathed.
Coming from someone who's never actually seen Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut or even Born on the 4th July, some might find this a bit presumptuous, but as I've said before, Cruise has always struck me as more of a 'movie star' (suited to this kind of thing) than an actor and he's rather at his wooden worst here. Hoffman is actually a high-point as the villain, managing a very cold and humourless but ultimately rather empty and cardboard character. Support from Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne and Simon Pegg is standard but does nothing to raise a dead rat script any further out the gutter.
Overall, this is a very empty and unaffecting experience indeed. It's only May and if these are the type of Summer blockbusters we've got to look forward to, I don't hold out much hope for those released in July or August. **