Mission: Impossible III (J.J. Abrahams, 2006) ***

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2006)

It's rare that the third entry in an action-oriented series turn out to be superior to the earlier films, particularly when these had been helmed by people of the caliber of Brian De Palma and John Woo - but it's certainly the case here!
One would have thought that the introduction of a wife (well played by Michelle Monaghan) for the Tom Cruise character would have interfered with the action, but the latter never lets up - featuring multiple elaborately staged and exciting set-pieces, including a kidnapping in the Vatican! - and the former gives the film an undeniable edge (and heart) it wouldn't have had otherwise!!
Besides, the team which aids Cruise (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q and Simon Pegg) is more interesting than usual for this type of film...which also goes for the villain as incarnated by Philip Seymour Hoffman, surely among the more formidable in recent memory and easily blowing most Bond villains out of the water!