Surfing Thru "M:I:III"

It's certainly not a good movie, but I was marginally more entertained by the third "Mission: Impossible" movie than the first two. It actually had a coherent story and a good villain (though Philip Seymour Hoffman was sorely underused). Keri Russell got to see what it would have been like if she had been cast in "Alias" instead of "Felicity." And the IMF team got absurdly more good-looking with the addition of Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys Myers. When it wasn't sort of fun (the rooftop jumping scene was good) it was enjoyably bad (such as the shot of the IMF team on a speedboat all wearing sunglasses and looking like a Calvin Klein ad). Weak points included an unnecessary flashback to Cruise training Russell and a later image of her appearing onscreen. She seemed more important to Cruise emotionally than his wife, for Pete's sake. Plus, the talented stage actor Billy Crudup remains inert onscreen. (I should apologize to Ron Howard -- he's right about that.) Since Hollywood barely knows how to make summer blockbusters anymore, your lowered expectations will probably be met. Barely.