I really enjoyed Mission: Impossible III. I knew I would. For some reason, though, I never managed to see it in the cinema. Suddenly, however, the clouds cleared in the last few days and I managed to rent and watch it. Philip Seymour Hoffman is as good as you imagine, perhaps better. He's the first character in a film for a long time that I've been genuinely afraid of. I was dreading the minute we met him, and everything Tom Cruise did to perpetuate that meeting. Such presence when you're not even on camera is quite remarkable. I'm going to ruin the film a little (not much) so skip to the next paragraph if you haven't seen it. I am always annoyed when directors start at the end, as this film does. However, this is the first film for me where this method has worked, and imbued the whole plot with tension throughout. I'm not sure, though, whether this tension would remain on a second viewing...
Overall, this is a good, good blockbusting popcorn movie. I wish I'd seen it on the big screen now. Some really thrilling moments, and exciting, dramatic situations. The action sequences didn't really drag on that long, as is my usual complaint, and the bits in-between weren't too slow, which is everyone else's. As I said yesterday, one of the better films of the year.
