Directed by:  John Woo
Written by:  Robert Towne
Starring:  Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, Anthony Hopkins
 

June 1, 2000

         John Woo has a style of setting up action sequences, using slow motion, the hero with two hand guns, and flying doves.  This style, along with a dramatic story, worked well in his Hong Kong action film The Killer.  These devices gave the drawn out action sequences a poetic nature, to coincide with the story.  Woo's new film, Mission: Impossible II, unfortunately falls somewhere in between a dull storyline and poetic action sequences.
         M:I2 is not better than the first one, but the plot is simpler.  The first one though was not all that complicated, and I could never understand the people who said it was confusing.  Let me break the first one down real quick. 
         There's a mole in Ethan Hunt's IMF team.  Since everyone is killed except for him, Kendrick, his boss, thinks Hunt is the mole.  Hunt does some investigating and finds out the leader of team, Jon Voight, who he thought was dead, is still alive.  Of course he ends up being the mole.  A sub story is that Voight wants to get the IMF list which tells who the IMF agents are, which would be detrimental to their operations.
         M:I2 is a lot simpler.  Sean Ambrose (Scott), an ex-IMF agent, wants to get his hands on a deadly virus, and it’s cure, to make money.  Nyah (Newton) is his ex-girlfriend, and Ethan Hunt must persuade her to help him get to Ambrose.  What’s interesting is that Robert Towne, who also wrote the first one, wrote Chinatown and Tequila Sunrise, which all involve love triangles.
         The problem is Woo spends too much time on the set-up.  The whole first hour almost completely lacks any action scenes, unless of course you count the awful car chase/race sequence.  The other problem is that this is more of a film about Ethan, rather than the IMF team, like the first one.  Mission:Impossible is about the team, not just him.  This one seems too much like a Bond movie, when it should be trying to distinguish itself.
         But aside from M:I2’s faults, the jammed packed, pulse pounding action of the last hour is worth it.  From Ethan Hunt sporting the signature two hand guns, to falling from helicopters, to extravagant motorcycle stunts, Woo’s stylized action is reminiscent of The Killer, only now with our Americanized James Bond: Ethan Hunt.  Sure, some of the scenes, like when he uses the motorcycle as a shield, seem impossible...but as Anthony Hopkins most eloquently put it, this isn’t mission:difficult, it’s mission:impossible.

Alternative Recommendations:  Mission:Impossible (s: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames), The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies

-Reviewed in Theater-

Nominated for
1 Fidelio Film Award