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If Mission: Impossible III doesn't provide enough excitement for you, try strapping yourself to the front of a runaway roller coaster and see if that doesn't get the ol' heart pumping. M:I III features some of the most preposterous yet thrilling stunts ever filmed, which seem less absurd when you consider that the film's couch-jumping star, Tom Cruise, might actually attempt some of these crazy feats.

Once again, Cruise plays secret agent Ethan Hunt, who jets across the globe from Washington, D.C., to Berlin to Rome to Shanghai, China. Because of these Bond-esque locations, M:I III is much more exotic than the first two films in the series. This third adaptation of the 1960s-70s TV show distinguishes itself in other ways, particularly with a highly emotional romance and a spectacular villain played by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote).

As the movie begins, Ethan is preparing to take a bride (Michelle Monaghan) and act as if he has a normal life. He has cut down on the spy operations and is working as a trainer, though he tells his fiancée that he works for the Department of Transportation. But when one of his trainees (Keri Russell) is reportedly kidnapped, Ethan sets off to Berlin to rescue her. For the next 30 minutes, the film breathlessly follows the rescue attempt, climaxing with a frenzied helicopter chase.

When Ethan returns to Washington, his bosses (Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup) summon him to identify kidnapper Owen Davian, an extremely unpleasant man and insipid villain who monopolizes the movie's opening minutes and makes subtle yet dire threats. Davian, a dreadfully important black-market arms dealer who sells rogue countries whatever deadly object they desire, personifies the banality of evil.

When Ethan's superiors decide to kidnap Davian, they send Ethan and his team (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Hong Kong actress Maggie Q) to Rome to snatch him from -- of all places -- the Vatican. What better place to stage a highly covert operation than the home of the pope?

Whereas the first two installments of this franchise were directed by big-screen veterans Brian De Palma and John Woo, M:I III is helmed by J.J. Abrams, the creator of the popular TV series Lost and Alias. While those shows are known for their complex plots, the screenplay for M:I III, co-written by Abrams and Alias vets Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is fairly straightforward. Yet Abrams' inexperience as a feature-film director is irritatingly evident in M:I III's frenetic editing and cinematography. The movie looks as if a hyperactive child edited it.

Flaws aside, M:I III delivers blockbuster thrills of gigantic proportions, which are about all that can be asked of an action movie. It's a good start to a potentially fun summer.