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This very forced attempt to fuse Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino (who is wildly overrated himself) is neither informative nor entertaining. The character development is arbitrary and unbelievable -- especially in the final scene of the thugs and the little boy, as other reviewers have noted. Also, a couple of humorous moments aside, the film is not as funny (black humor or otherwise) as the director seems to think it is.

First, let's get one thing on the table: I think the first "Mission:Impossible" was superbly crafted by Brian De Palma, who used his balletic camera style to heighten suspense and beautifully frame several stunning set pieces. The plot, unfairly maligned by many with limited attention spans, was intriguing, with surprising twists. I think it was one of the best films of its type.

"M:I 2," on the other hand, is a dull, plodding affair with little suspense. Everything seems recycled and unoriginal -- a bit of "Notorious," a bit of "To Catch a Thief," a bit of James Bond, all mixed in a base of Hong Kong kung fu movies. There is nothing you haven't seen before (and done better). It depresses me that some actually prefer this "dumbed down" version of "Mission:Impossible" to the much-superior first movie in the series.

The camera work is cliched, with John Woo repeating himself (in slow motion, of course). The script, what there is of it, is quite poor, and Woo (who did much better work in "Face/Off") gets performances from his actors to match. Cruise is Cruise, and the rest of actors are either ill-used or turn in hammy performances. Anthony Hopkins tries what he can with his few minutes of screen time, but unfortunately it's all made up of worthless speeches with no interaction to speak of. He's essentially a variation of M in the Bond series and little more.

Although I've never had any problem suspending disbelief at the movies, this one goes too far in having us check our brains at the door. The face mask trick is overdone and entirely unconvincing as used here. The bike chase at the end, which seems to be getting the most praise, is hard to enjoy because it is so wildly unrealistic and not much more than a series of stunts strung together.

All in all, I can only hope that this is a low point in the "Mission:Impossible" series and that the franchise will return to the level established by the first movie in the next one.

Long a fan of French films (Eric Rohmer is my favorite director), I rented "Love, etc." with high hopes. I have often found that even the most superficial of French films have more to say about life and relationships than the best Hollywood product.

"Love, etc." proved to be an exception. It starts off promisingly, successfully capturing the dynamics of a long-term friendship and the awkward dance common at the beginning of relationships. But it soon degenerates into a story of three superficial, unlikable characters with hard-to-fathom motivations. There is little evidence of "love" and much exploration of "etc.". The self-congratulatory "aren't-we-civilized-and-modern" final scene only serves to cap off what is, on the whole, a truly bad French film.