Is Tom Cruise a weirdo? Yes.

Does that mean that his movies aren’t fun to watch? No.

Should you see “Mission: Impossible III?” That depends.

If you like action movies - movies about American good guys taking down arms and weapons traders and beating up and killing foreign henchmen, and things like the television show “Alias,” then by all means run to see this movie. If you would rather see people talking quietly about their feelings, riding horses in slow motion or something animated making funny noises, then don’t bother with this movie.

I loved “Mission: Impossible III” and think it is easily the best of the series. While Tom Cruise is a fine movie star and certainly brings his talents - among them the ability to run and look good doing it - and smile and warm the cockles of everyone’s heart - to this movie, it is director J.J. Abrams’ talents that shine through and make this a solid entry in the “M:I” canon. Abrams, the creator of “Alias” and “Lost,” has succeeded in television by making his ordinary characters become heroes and by having his heroes balance their super lives with their everyday lives. He doesn’t stray far from the formula here and the film rocks because of it. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has a home and a fiancee’ and friends and all of that is placed in jeopardy when he is pulled back into the espionage business. The viewer also sees why his crew enjoys working with him and why they place their faith in his seemingly impossible schemes.

There are lots of great things in this movie - beautiful locations, truly awesome action sequences and a good actor at every turn, from Laurence Fishburne as a terse higher up in Hunt’s agency, IMF, to a brilliant performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman as a really bad arms trader with a vicious streak. Ving Rhames, Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are all solid in their roles as members of Hunt’s crew, while Billy Crudup gives a good turn as a “is he good or is he bad” IMF suit.

“Mission: Impossible III” is the definition of a summer movie. Its sole purpose is to be entertaining and I feel that it did just that. If the rest of the summer movies are as good as or better than this movie, it will be one heckuva summer.

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