Movie review: 'M:I' WHEE!

How do you overcome the more-of-the-same feel when making a spy movie with a story line that's been regurgitated dozens of times before?

Start with impeccable craftsmanship and big-screen production values. Prune away most of the world-domination conspiracies and super-gadgets. Add blistering action; a well-conceived screenplay that is light on espionage-movie clichés; a cast that is strong top to bottom, and a guiding conviction that the appeal of these films isn't what they do but how they do it. Then race ahead at breakneck velocity and dare the audience to keep up with you.

That's the recipe for "Mission: Impossible III," a smart, tightly directed thriller that could serve as the template for film schools teaching Summertime Escapism 101.

Ten years into the franchise, the story repositions Tom Cruise's agent Ethan Hunt as a would-be family man who has pulled back from field duty to train new recruits. His fiancée, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), is a nurse with enough friends and relations to fill Hunt's house for their engagement party. Hiding in his cover job as a Virginia Department of Transportation traffic analyst, Hunt is ready to construct a safe and sane 9-to-5 life. The past is never fully past for spooks, however, and when a friend at the agency appeals to him to rescue one of his trainees, he accepts the assignment.

His return to service puts him on a collision course with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an arms dealer in possession of an Armageddon device known as the Rabbit's Foot. He's a sublime villain: taunting, unnervingly intelligent, a killer with the casual sadism of a child frying ants under a magnifying glass.

Hunt's spy agency wants Davian neutralized, but in the Byzantine world of espionage, presumed friend and assumed foe can always trade places. Laurence Fishburne makes an excellent foil as a glowering spymaster suspicious of Hunt's loyalties as his duel with Davian becomes a vendetta.

The film has the scope and Byzantine plotting of a novel, yet remains tightly focused on Hunt, creating a sturdy acting vehicle for Cruise, who cycles through romance, Tom Terrific stunts, anguish, fury and even a touch of humor. While Monaghan is a perfunctory love interest, he interacts engagingly with colorful fellow agents Ving Rhames, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and comic-relief desk jockey Simon Pegg.

If you tire of characters interacting, there are plenty of weapons interacting, automobiles interacting and aircraft interacting. Director J.J. Abrams (creator of TV's "Alias" and "Lost") realizes that action-film audiences are a hungry beast and must be fed frequently. His giddy, brutal battle scenes bring viewers right into the combat, pounding their fight-or-flight response. His attention to detail is remarkable right down to the level of the sound design. There's a tense parachute drop where the frantic rustling of fabric magnifies the scene's intensity enormously. He gives the film a tone of heightened realism that helps us accept the Everest-sized cliffhangers.

It's only after the headlong chase to the climax that you mull over the story's absurdities. Hunt seems to go to pieces quite easily when someone on his side dies. Wouldn't a man with so many corpses in his past be a bit more callous? The ending shamelessly cops out on his irreconcilable desires for domesticity and danger, with no sense that he suffers any guilt for pulling his fiancée into his dangerous world.

Cruise's off-screen notoriety also colors the story in unintended ways. With its emphasis on married life and protecting the womenfolk, the film is so insistent about its star's virility that it's almost shrill. Compared with the headache-inducing blur of most action thrillers, however, it's daredevil escapism of a high order.

The setup: This time it's personal, as special agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) battles a ruthless arms merchant (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who threatens Hunt's fiancée.

What works: The movie is smartly acted and as technically refined a thrill machine as Hollywood has released in years.

What doesn't: Hoffman's unnervingly chilly villain deserves more screen time, while Cruise's off-screen high jinks give an unintentionally ironic spin to some of the film's plotting and dialogue.

Great scene: A missile attack on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is only slightly less explosive than the Big Bang.

Rating: PG-13 for intense action violence.

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186