Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) springs into action for a third time as the mega-budget espionage franchise rolls on. Only here, with JJ Abrams (creator of TV's Lost and Alias) as director, we get to see a more intimate side of the superspy - along with the requisite explosions, gadgets and gunplay. The story unfolds with the newly betrothed Hunt called out of retirement to rescue a former trainee who's been kidnapped by a ruthless arms dealer (a superb but underused Philip Seymour Hoffman). But when the assignment goes wrong, it's Hunt's new wife (Michelle Monaghan) who's the primary target for revenge. The race against time that follows is fast-paced and slick, with some stand-out sequences including a thrilling base-jump from a Shanghai skyscraper. Yet for all the film's visual intensity, the formula itself feels stale and mechanical, with a flimsy plotline and cardboard characters merely compounding the problem.

Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian, an international broker of arms and information, who is as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear -- including the woman Hunt loves.