Mission Accomplished

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2006)

What a way to start the summer season of blockbusters! The opening sequence, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt tied to a chair struggling to fight the bonds on his hands, sets the pace for the next 125 minutes of pure adrenaline. We are transported to the world of beautiful locations - Vatican City, Rome and Shanghai; drones firing missiles into the Chesapeake Bay Bridge; leaps onto and off of skyscrapers; and; of course, a dangling Ethan Hunt. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a standout performance. His performance oozes evil. One complaint I have is that I wish there were more scenes showing off Hoffman's nastiness. Besides Hoffman, the movie has a cast of great actors; including Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup and Ving Rhames, but because of the story were only given a limited time to show their skills. I shouldn't complain, though, too much time spent on characters would have meant too little time spent on blowing something up. One thing J.J. Abrams made sure of was that there were a lot of explosions. A good blockbuster should allow fun, action, and escapism. M:i:III delivers.