In Theaters: XMEN3: The Last Stand

Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1&2) takes the helm for the third and final (?) Men film and delivers, big. As of this writing, the film has already broken records and grossed 100 Million Dollars in three days. The critics have been hard on the film but I think it is well done and worth seeing.
This time a major pharmaceutical company develops a “cure” for the mutant strain in human’s DNA. Some mutants line up to take the “cure” and others see it as the first step in a mutant genocide campaign. Naturally the peaceful Professor Xavier wants peaceful resistance and the separatist Magneto wants to go to war. The XMEN again are caught in the middle of the conflict and have to bring order to civilization.
The pacing of the story is a bit awkward at times but with bold plot twists and an overarching tone of finality, XMEN 3 may be the best of the three films. Ian McKellen is absolutely chilling as Magneto and Halle Berry finally gets an expanded role as Storm, one of the elders of the XMEN. Quick dazzling special effects used to compliment story instead of overwhelm it, adds a touch of reality to what could have been a standard superhero affair. The Last Stand is well worth the effort.

NOTE: Sit through all the credits for a small scene at the end that answers a lot of questions.

Mission Impossible 3

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible series. Directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) MI:3 kicks off the summer with a bang.
This time around, Cruise is retired as a field agent and living in the suburbs planning to live out the American dream. He gets sucked back into fieldwork and assembles his team and the rest is action movie history. While the movie versions bear little if any resemblance to the T.V. series, they are exciting action films that make for good summer entertainment.
The addition of J.J. Abrams to the series is evident from the beginning and remains so throughout the film. The pacing, storyline and character development is exactly like an “Alias” episode. The movie starts with Cruise in a harrowing situation and the rest of the movie brings us up to that point, just like on “Alias”. Even one of Cruise’s supporting cast is an “Alias” rip-off, not in a bad way just an evident way.
It is worth mentioning that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is absolutely chilling as the evil villain. Hard to believe this is the same person that played Truman Capote so well. If they gave out Oscars to action movies he would have one for this role. MI:3 works, see it on the big screen.