Mission: Impossible III (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

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Tom Cruise returns as Special Agent Ethan Hunt, who faces the mission of his life in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III. Director J. J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) brings his unique blend of action and drama to the billion-dollar franchise. The film also stars Or winner Philip Seymour Hoffman Capote), Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne and Keri Russell. For his feature film directorial debut, Abrams brings along his favorite composer, Michael Giacchino, whose scores for the hit T.V. shows Lost and Alias and the blockbuster film The Incredibles have turned him into one of the biggest names in film music today. The composer's thrilling, adrenaline rush of a score for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III's set to continue this string of successes. The biggest release of the year from Para Pictures, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III opens nationwide on over 4000 screens on May 5. .com ---- As anybody with functioning ears can attest, Lalo Schifrin's theme for the original Mission: Impossible TV series remains among the highlights of 1960s scoring: Schifrin proved you could write action themes that oozed cool. His taut, inventive approach has been replaced in recent years by a more bloated orchestral bent--though if you're going to have that, you might as well pick someone with Michael Giacchino's sense of suspenseful dynamics. Overall, Giacchino proves more adept than Hans Zimmer did on the franchise's second installment in 2000, even though symptoms of too-much-itis creep in (the Hollywood Studio Symphony includes 39 violinists, 14 cellists, and 9 percussionists!). Schifrin's presence looms heavily over this CD, and not only because it starts with the original theme and ends with the bonus track "Schifrin and Variations" (which does not appear in the film). Giacchino quotes his predecessor almost constantly throughout: references to the main theme zip in and out of "Factory Rescue," "Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall," "ing Agent," and "See You in the Sewer," for instance. But the younger man holds his own quite well against such a giant shadow, and confirms his credentials as a thrill-a-minute composer. Indeed, this is one of the finest action scores to come out in the past few years. --Elisabeth Vincentelli