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Spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has no hope of retiring, not when a baddie (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has a devastating WMD for sale to an unnamed Mid-East country. Crash, boom, bang … there’s the requisite improbable stunts, nifty gadgets and eye-popping explosions, plus Cruise’s steely determination, but what makes this third outing of the M:I franchise rock is Hoffman. Sure, the arthouse darling is slumming here, but his restrained, cold-blooded performance tops any Snidely Whiplash histrionics. TV kingpin J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) is at the helm, and he dares to start the adventure in the middle (and with a bit of trickery you really should have seen coming). Hunt’s supporting crew (Ving Rhames, Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is underutilized, even as M:I III creaks over the two-hour mark. But your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be enjoying an over-the-top but mostly entertaining summer actioner. (AH) 
This article appears in May 11-17, 2006.
