Entertain me: Mission Impossible?

So this weekend I went to the movies. Originally, my friend and I were debating whether to see The DaVinci Code or Mission Impossible III.

We were both quite curious about The DaVinci Code, but decided to go with the summer escapism flick instead - that, and The DaVinci Code was sold out.

I gotta tell ya, we got our money's worth - well, no, not really, considering a flick is $13, but you get my meaning.

Mission Impossible was, if nothing else, entertaining. I had been telling friends that the first MI movie was better than the second because it had a supporting cast - it wasn't all about Tom. Well, the third instalment went back to its roots. I had no idea going in that the movie had such a great cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Johnathan Rhys Meyers, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, Simon Pegg (Shawn of the Dead) and Michelle Monaghan. When actors who are normally stars of a movie are mere afterthoughts, you know the screen is packed.

Sure, there's a healthy amount of cheese in this flick but that's to be expected. All in all, I'm surprised that MI:III is sitting as low as 70% on rottentomatoes. What did these people expect?

Which brings us to The DaVinci Code. WTF? What's going on there? It's sitting at 21% on rottentomatoes, including an abysmal 9% from the "cream of the crop". That's worse than Van Helsing, The Tuxedo and Alien Vs. Predator!

Of course, that didn't prevent it from making $77M at the box office...

Maybe Opie ain't so dopey.