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The basic plot is thus - Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crack team of intelligence operatives have been tasked to find and retrieve arms dealer Owen Davian, played by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman. So that'll require some big explosions, ridiculously small computers, and a variety of clever disguises. Simple enough, you'd think. But then it all gets needlessly complicated. The film begins at what appears to be the end, but it isn't actually the end. We then flashback to the start, people double-cross each other, then they double-double-cross each other, and then double-double-double cross each other. Plus, there's a distinct lack of espionage in this film. Instead of relying on nifty ideas and quick thinking, there seems to be a tendancy amongst the team to simply blow a large hole in whatever is in their way, be it a Berlin factory, or a large bit of the Vatican City. But then it isn't all bad. Hoffman's performance as the sadistic villain has a dark and psychotic edge, and Simon Pegg's cameo turn as a computer analyst is brilliant, as he slots perfectly into the traditional Holywood "Gibbering and Bumbling Englishman" role. The special effects are top-notch, there's plenty of entertaining action scenes and punch-ups, and any film that features a helicopter chase through a wind farm is at very least decent in my book. Above all else, though, this feels like the Tom Cruise Show. His character gets all the glory in each mission, has by far the most screen time of any actor in the picture, and, to top it off, the film is chock-full of shoehorned visual references to Cruise's films (Top Gun, Born on the Fourth of July, and Cocktail to name just three), which feel as though Cruise is just showing off more than anything. So, M:I-III may not follow in the tradition of the franchise. There might not be much spying, there might not be any spying, the plot's a bit ropey, and there's too much emphasis on blowing stuff up. But as a blockbuster, all big budget, big stars, and big action, it's just what the summer needs to kick it into gear.
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