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Mission Impossible 2 Customer Reviews (43 - 45 of 78 Reviews)

Great mix of plot and action in a classic John Woo style
When the first Mission Impossible came out in 1996 it was not only a box office smash, raking in over 180+ dollars domestic alone, but it was also a complex and very well produced spy/espionage/conspiracy film. The downside was with its constant plot twists, double-crosses, and lack of action sequences, watching MI was more like solving a logic puzzle. By the end of the movie, one wasn't sure what happened or who was responsible. And usually the movie required that you watch it 2 or 3 more times in order to understand everything that was going on. However, the new MI 2, Directed by the master of action John Woo, staring Tom Cruise (who acted in and co-produced MI 2), Ving Rhames, and Thandie Newton, has the best parts of the first movie mixed with the great John Woo style action scenes.

In the movie Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called in to investigate an all too unlikely plane crash. In addition he is order to make contact with a civilian jewel thief named Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) and recruit her for this mission. The particulars of the mission aren't revealed Hunt has contacted Nyah and met with his new boss, Swanbeck (Sir Anthony Hopkins).

Before meeting with his boss, a relationship between Nyah and Hunt begins to grow (rather rapidly in fact) and when Hunt finally learns what her part of the mission is, he regrets having taken his work to a personal level. According to INTEL reports, Nyah was the former love interest of ex-IMF agent, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) who has been deemed the primary suspect involved in the crash. Her mission is to infiltrate Ambrose's house, play the sweet love interest role, and find out any information on either the crash or the virus that the doctor, who left a message for Hunt, was carrying.

What she ends up finding discovering was the the doctor was transporting a super Influenza virus, Chimera, named after the Greek mythological beast, as well as the only antidote, Bellerophon, the slayer of Chimera, which is only effective up to 20 hours after initial contact with the virus. Ambrose plans to release the virus in Australia and give the antidote to a single pharmaceutical company. In return, Ambrose will take control of more than half of the company's stock options and make billions off of the sales of the antidote.

What follows is a battle against time in order to save Nyah and the world from Ambrose's Apocalyptic plan that is full of car chases, classic Woo style gunfights, large martial arts scenes, and fast paced action. And on top of that, a romantic sub-plot that allows the movie to take on a warmer characteristic that was nonexistent in the first movie.

MI 2, the joint project of Cruise (who co-produced it) and Woo, has ended up doing what most action sequels usually fail miserably at. Not only does it meet the quality of the first movie, but it surpasses it, not only elaborating on the things that made it great but adding things to MI 2 that were never seen before in the first movie.

In addition, John Woo has proven himself to be a master of his trade, able to take any type of movie and add his great point of view and experience to the set. Not only did he come up with most of the ideas for the action sequences and the choreography for the fight sequences, he was also able to keep the combination of action quantity and acting/plot quality at equal levels (so as not to have one overpower the other). This by any standards is a difficult task and a grand achievement.

Also, Tom Cruse and Thandie Newton shine together. In each of their scenes together they have very good chemistry and their relationship never seems cheesy in conjunction with the plot. It really brings out a side of Ethan's character that, to this point, has not been seen. And of course the movie wouldn't be complete without Ving Rhames, whose return appearance in MI 2 as Stickell, the IMF computer whiz, has him playing a role of someone with both intelligence and wittiness about him. And it would not be right to leave out Sir Anthony Hopkins, whose role, although comparable in size to that of "M" in most Bond films, has much more life to it than that of Jon Voight's role of "Head of IMF" in the first Mission Impossible film. Mr. Hopkins also has one of the best lines in the film.

"It's not Mission: Difficult, Mr. Hunt; it's Mission: Impossible. Difficult should be a walk in the park for you."

Basically, this movie has got it all, action, suspense, drama, romance, comedy, and everything that some of the recent bond films have been lacking...the ability to keep you guessing. Unlike the first one, whose plot was terribly confusing, MI 2's plot has been written so that it is complex enough to be surprising while not being overly complex to the point where it is impossible to keep up with what's going on during the film. All in all they found the right formula and I hope to god they carry it on to MI 3 (which is predicted although not yet confirmed).

Revuman: There's no business like show business...Oh you know how it goes...Peace!

Good action film, good music, average plot, solid acting
This film is quite good if all you are looking for is some rapid fire action scenes, lots of explosions, good chase scenes, and a love story wrapped up into it. I Thandie Newton is a big bright spot, she looks magical on screen, beautiful and mysteriously charming. Tom Cruise does a good job as well, although the object of the film seems to be to get as many closeups on his face as possible. Dougray Scott does alright as a villain, but his Scottish accent somehow sounds fake. There's a lot of tricky spy stuff in this story. People changing faces, masks, lots of deceit, lots of twists, but it is not as unpredictable as you might think. John Woo does a fine job of creating quality action scenes, including slow-mo Matrix type sequences. The story really flows together well, so I would definitely recommend this action thrill-fest. If what you're looking for is a completely serious movie, bound by all kinds of rules and restrictions, this isn't for you, but if you want some fun, a good story in the tradition of the original Mission Impossible series, and great action delivered by the master himself, John Woo, then this is a good film for you. Personally its worth seeing just for some of the acting. Newton and Cruise have great chemistry together, and she seems ready to become a major actress in her own right, she's well worth seeing, and Cruise as usual, delivers an excellent performance.

Better than the first; one of Woo's best
John Woo has brought his over-the-top action film style to America after honing his skills in Hong Kong. I think he's really done his best work with this movie. The plot is simple and straightforward, unlike the somewhat labyrinthine story in MI1, and Woo does a nice job of building up toward a torrent of wild, insane action sequences.

Tom Cruise is impressive in his second bout as spy, Ethan Hunt, heir apparent to the role of Mission Impossible team leader. Most impressive about Cruise is that he performed about 90% of his own stunts in this film, many of them quite dangerous. The motorcycle chase has got to be one of the all-time great chase scenes in movies. The DVD version has a nice bonus feature showing how some of the more wild stunts in the movie were put together. Really fun stuff to watch if you're interested in the process of making movies. The DVD also has commentary and a "Making of MI2" featurette that round out the package.

Ving Rhames returns as computer hacker, Luther, and the beautiful Thandie Newton plays Hunt's femme fatale.

If you like a good, smart action film, MI2 is the ticket. A friend of mine recently said something to the effect that the Mission Impossible movies are what the James Bond franchise *should* be. I think that says it pretty well.

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