Mission: Impossible-III

Specializing in absurd bravado. Arguably, no one but Tom Cruise could pull off the combination of cheeky fun and audacious action that is the hallmark of the M:I series. This is highly professional blockbuster moviemaking, and regardless of who the director is—de Palma, or Woo, or in this case J.J. Abrams—the credit for the quality of this franchise must largely go to Cruise (who is both star and above the title producer throughout this series). It’s almost impossible not to enjoy these flicks, even considering their sometimes silly story lines or out of left field plot points or even an almost total lack of continuity between episodes (Ving Rhames is about the only commonality in the series besides Cruise himself). This is all about the spectacle, and Tom and his team never fail to deliver the goods, whether it’s jaw-dropping stunt work or moments of laugh out loud humor mixed into the mayhem. Don’t make the mistake I originally did in dismissing these films as lowest common denominator multiplex fodder; this is really the state of the art in movie-for-the-masses filmmaking. Accept the mission and give this and the rest of the series a look.