Intense, exciting, and very well acted...so under-rated!

Rating: 9/10 (24 August 2012)

Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt in the hugely underrated third Mission: Impossible movie. This is one of the best action movies I have seen a long time, and it's hard for me to believe that it doesn't even reach a 7.0 rating on IMDb..the only reason I can think of for this is that it was released at a time when Tom Cruise was unpopular, to say the least.
Having retired from field work, Ethan Hunt is trying to live a normal life with his sweetheart. But when one of his best trainees is captured during active duty, he agrees to attempt the rescue, and comes into contact with a ruthless, brutal, sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davien, who soon forms a personal vendetta with Hunt. He tracks Ethan down to hurt him in the best way he knows how: by hurting the person Ethan loves best.
Davien gives Ethan 48 hours to recover a mysterious and powerful object code named the 'Rabbit's Foot', and states that if he does not recover it, his wife will die. Falsely accused and wanted back in the United States, he rushes to the Far East in a desperate attempt to save his wife.
M:I:III included the by-now-expected array of guns, gadgets, explosions, and fistfights, but what stuck with me afterwards, was the tense, suspenseful drive of the film, and the spectacular acting. Starting with the ominous, terrifying foreshadowing scene of our hero being helplessly tortured both mentally and physically, this film grabbed me and never let go. Tom Cruise went above and beyond my (high) expectations, Phillip Seymour Hoffman was brilliant, and half a dozen new arrivals not only pulled their weight, but excelled.
Highly recommended...enjoy!