Should I choose to accept it

Is anyone else kind of pumped to see Mission: Impossible III this weekend, or am I in the minority?

Sure, I'm sick of Tom Cruise too; no celebrity is more annoying or tiresome right now. But I don't usually let that sort of thing influence whether or not I'll see a movie. (Or do I? I still haven't seen War of the Worlds. It keeps inching down my Netflix queue.)

Would you believe me if I said one of the reasons I want to see M:I:III is because of Philip Seymour Hoffman? It's true. He looks like a great villain.

Actually, I'm not sure why I want to see another Mission: Impossible flick. The first one had a plot that I never understood, even after repeated viewings on HBO. (Jon Voight's a good guy. No, wait - he's a bad guy. Hang on, Voight's wife is bad. What? Somebody take off another latex mask!) But Cruise jumping off an exploding helicopter onto a train was cool. Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if I'd taken a drink every time Ethan Hunt said "NOC list."

And the second one - which I also like to call Face/Off 2 - was John Woo at his absolute slow-motion, dove-flying worst. What I remember most about that movie is 1) snickering when Cruise yells "Just stay alive! I'm not going to lose you!" to Thandie Newton, and 2) a woman sitting behind me and Mis Hooz who yelled "Whatever!" when Cruise and Dougray Scott jumped off their motorcycles to tackle each other in mid-air. That was the best part of the movie for me. If I were to ever watch it again, I know I wouldn't be able to keep myself from laughing.

Yet here I am, wanting to subject myself to more. I think I just want some mindless action movie entertainment after seeing United 93 last week. The rumors that the Superman Returns trailer will play beforehand could also be a factor. And that theme song is just so damn catchy!

Or maybe I just want to see Felicity get tortured. Is that sick of me?

▪▪ The New York Times' Manohla Dargis calls it a "seriously strange vanity project."

▪▪ Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post makes a joke that I was going to make, too, but decided against it. Snooze, you lose. ("Is it too soon?")

▪▪ Roger Ebert is apparently trying to determine Ethan Hunt's motivation. I can only imagine what dopily snarky retort Roeper will have for him this weekend.