Mission Impossible III is an electrifying addition to the Mission Impossible franchise. In this outing, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, finds himself forced out of retirement from his role as a covert operative for the Impossible Mission Force and deployed on an assignment in Berlin. His mission? To obtain release of an agent he was once responsible for training. 

During that training period, Hunt grew fond of Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), the rookie agent in question and felt she was a natural to one day become a top-level IMF agent. He's also the one person who knows everything about Farris, so he must save her from the hands of the Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).

What Hunt and fellow agents Delcan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), Zhen (Maggie Q) and Luther (Ving Rhames) do not know is that their mission is about to be botched. Having located Farris and taken her aboard their rescue helicopter, they are completely unaware explosives are hidden inside Farris's head. Davian is about to press the button to kill her.

Prior to her capture, Farris managed to record a secret message meant only for Hunt. She hid it on a tiny microchip affixed to the back of a postage stamp sent to Hunt on a postcard. At first, Hunt and Rhames are baffled that the microchip does not appear to have any message contained on it, but they finally realize Farris encrypted the information so it could be intercepted only by Hunt. 

Farris's message leads to a hard drive containing intelligence pinpointing Davian’s exact movements on certain dates. Hunt proceeds to Vatican City using sophisticated voice emulation software, and a latex mold of Davian's face. Imitating Davian while crashing a party the villain is attending, Hunt captures Davian and obtains documents that pertain to an item code named “ The Rabbit’s Foot.”

Davian mocks Hunt rather than tell him anything. He vows to one day stalk, torture, maim and kill Hunt’s wife or girlfriend. He declares that he's just getting warmed up when it comes to murdering people. 

When Davian is about to make a daring escape, a viaduct he and his captors are traveling over partly explodes. A military aircraft swoops in with men in camouflage to airlift Davian out. Finally, Davian abducts Hunt's wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan). He plans to kill her in 48 hours unless Hunt meets his demand to deliver “The Rabbit’s Foot" directly to him.

As Davian, Hoffman is deliciously evil and a pleasure to watch, but I was not impressed with Tom Cruise‘s performance. It comes across like a repetition of every action hero he has portrayed. The direction by J.J.  Abrams is meticulous, and although the screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and  Abrams contains some insipid dialogue, there's more than enough excitement here to keep fans of the series entertained and to convert others to the Mission Impossible fold. 

(Released by Paramount Home Video and rated "PG-13" for intense sequences of frenetic violence and menace, disturbing images and some sexuality.)