Mission: Impossible 2

Director: John Woo
Screenplay: Robert Towne
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dugray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Anthony Hopkins

John's Review

Well, at least, unlike the first film, this had a plot that was at least coherent. Tom Cruise, reprises his role as James Bond..er no, Ethan Hunt, in this remake of the 60's television show. Actually, this really isn't a darn thing like the 60's television show. If it wasn't for the title and the fact that they actually say, "Mission: Impossible" several times in the film, then you wouldn't even know it was related to that show.

In this episode, we have Hunt chasing down ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Scott) with the help of a beautiful, but gullible thief, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Newton). Ambrose has a deadly ebola like virus and the only known antidote. He figures he'll make millions selling it to a pharmeceutical company or by releasing the virus and selling the antidote. If you've seen Goldeneye, then you already know the plot. John Woo (Face Off, Broken Arrow, Hard Target) has decided to try and imitate the Wachoski brothers who were in a small way, imitating him. There's a shooting scene straight out of The Matrix, there's his trademark slow motion, doves and double pistol shooting fights.

The action scenes are ridiculous although fun to watch, they are totally unbelievable. Apparently in all of Woo's pictures whenever a person brings his or her gun out, they have to do the long sweeping movement with their arms, as if they are about to throw a discus. This film is no different. There is a fight scene at the end, which not only lasts waaaaay to long, it is very poorly choreographed. As I said before, it's as if Woo was trying to make his own Matrix.

Cruise, it seems, is trying so hard to be Bond. Ambrose's character says, "Hunt would rather try a little mis-direction, rather than confrontation." James Bond would do it which ever way works. There's even a car chase scene straight out of Goldeneye. Unlike Bond, though, Hunt shows that he's nervous and a little worried about this chase. Bond would never be that way, he's calm and cool under pressure. Hunt doesn't appear to be that way at all. Another thing, it seems that Hunt has every gadget known to man in this movie and it's a darn good thing all the good guys and bad guys have extra masks to carry around, because they need to use them so many times.

John Woo's direction was lackluster. The action was incredibly improbable and unbelievable. The photography was nice, and for once, Woo didn't over use the slo-mo shots. I think this is because Cruise edited a lot of it out. But because of that, we see an awful lot of Cruise and very little of everyone else, except for Scott and Newton. The music by Hans Zimmer was simply awful. Except for his retake on the Mission: Impossible theme, the rest of the music is just a cacphony of noise that is at times too loud and other times not even noticeable. This is the second film of Zimmer's that I have seen recently that was just poorly orchestrated.

This is probably the best "American" film that John Woo has made, a lot like Armeggedon it's mindless. I'll recommend this as nothing other than Summer Popcorn fare. Other than that, avoid this, unless you are a huge Tom Cruise or John Woo fan.

Grade: C+