Mission: Impossible III

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's as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear – including the woman Hunt loves.

The third Mission: Impossible lands as a competent, energetic action film that most critics found enjoyable enough on its own terms, though rarely more than that. J.J. Abrams brings tighter plotting than either predecessor, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's villain earns consistent praise, but detractors found the film hollow, unpleasantly brutal, and saddled with a romance that drags it down. Audience enthusiasm ran warmer than critical opinion, and the divide between 'perfectly satisfying summer entertainment' and 'forgettable franchise filler' is where most of the real disagreement sits.