Mission: Impossible II

I just watched this movie for the first time, and I kept having this vague feeling that I'd heard the story before. Then it came to me: Notorious! It's an Aflred Hitchcock film starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant from 1946.

The basic plotline goes: girl comes from questionable background. guy is sent to get girl for top-secret mission. guy falls in love with girl. guy discovers that girl must seduce the enemy. guy is not happy. girl goes. girl seduces the enemy. girl discovers enemy secrets. girl gets sick. guy rescues girl.

Can we say deja vu? The scene that really clinched it for me was the horse racing scene. Ingrid and Cary do the same scene! It's scary. All they did was update the plotline a little (ie, virus instead of gunpowder for the Nazis), throw in some action (well, a lot of action), and bogus technology, and you're set.

Watch Notorious for yourself and see what I mean...

De Palma declined to continue the series. Enter: John Woo. Enter: camp.

Watched this one with the lads, we're slowly going through the series before Part 8 (the final part? Right?). Had to tell them that this is an outlier, it all goes mostly uphill from here.

What a film. I mean, what a film. When it fully commits to John Woo's style, it's glorious. Unfortunately most of it is trying to be like that first movie.

The plot is convoluted. So much was cut for presumably momentum and more bouldering screen-time. There's a few great sequences (with some truly epic music from the Zimmer that don't simmer) but overall it feels like a large misfire. This is not continuing with the strengths of the first movie.

Still, at least it's a fun movie to watch. Most mediocre films are dreary, it's only the truly bad or truly great ones that usually get a rise out of me. This is an exception. Partly because of its high highs, but also because it's a fascinating outlier in a series that took its sweet time finding that sweet spot.

I was really looking forward to this film coming out! When I saw it a while back I was pretty disappointed! John Woo proves once again that action is forte, but MI2 really needed some espionage spy suspense and plot rather than Tom Cruise looking good in front of the camera!

The action sequences were very impressive but that doesn't hold a film together! There just didn't seem to be any conflict going on to really get my blood pumping! Dougray Scott played merely an average villain, although I believe that is due the script and his screen-time! It was very predictable, and Ving Rhames was wasted by being merely just this charity character who had no influence on the story what-so-ever! One reviewer described this film as patronising which is my sentiments exactly, sure I don't expect any action flick to have believability and can be patronising to some degree! But MI2 over-steps the mark by forgetting the original concept of the series and totally relying on slow-mo action shots rather than suspense and plot! A typical average action flick, **1/2 out of *****!

Mission: Impossible was a fast paced espionage thriller that actually made you think, which is what I like in a movie. Since John Woo, who is one of the kings of the action genre, took over for Brian De Palma, you can expect Mission: Impossible II to be an intense action movie with a majorly dumbed down plot. Everything to do with the plot is laid out for us basically right away. Now, all there is to do is sit back and watch those classic John Woo action sequences. In this movie, Ethan Hunt is once again a secret agent, and he is sent on a mission to stop a crooked agent from stealing a deadly virus for his own use.

I liked the first Mission: Impossible better because it had a more advanced plot. This Mission: Impossible is just a bland shoot 'em up action film. Now there's nothing wrong with that. The movie was still immensely entertaining. It just didn't fit in with the first film. Even the character of Ethan Hunt, though still played by Tom Cruise, is different. In this movie he doesn't seem as serious about his job. He's more cocky. However, I do like that the character now has absolutely amazing skills in hand to hand combat.

Overall, if you're looking for a smart spy thriller like the first film, this ain't it. If you're looking for a fun action film with amazing action sequences, this is it.

6.5/10

The first 60 percent of this movie was pretty good; the last 40 percent was mostly action and mostly so hokey, so stupid, it was an insult for any viewer with a brain. Too bad, the first Mission Impossible was excellent and I hear the third film was good. However, this second one was a stinker by comparison.

I except most films to have that "Rambo mentality," as I call it, where hundreds of bullets are fired - and missed- at the hero, while he or she hits everything in sight. That was here but so overly done that is was absurd and downright annoying after awhile.

Tom Cruise, our hero, should have been shot so many times I lost count. This is director John Woo, for you, who always overdoes action and sometimes makes it ridiculous.

The good points are slick photography, interesting characters, good surround sound, low profanity and a very good soundtrack. Thandie Newton is attractive heroine and Dougray Scott is satisfactory as the main villain.

The movie plays more like a James Bond film, although it still has MI touches such as the fake rubber masks we saw in the first film. More realism in that 40 minutes would have made this a far better film than it turned out to be. Oveall, a bit disappointing.