Having read many of the reviews for this film it was interesting to see it on video and compare. Many reviews had spoken of it as being disappointing and not credible as opposed to being incredible. Well actually I enjoyed it. It is probably better to watch it without preconceptions and just enjoy it for what it is an enjoyable action movie.
Tom Cruise is not one of my favourite actors I have to say. He always seems a little too good and too clever in the roles he plays. However in this he is quite passable, after all it is a role in which you have to suspend belief anyway so you may as well do it watching Tom Cruise as anybody. Thandie Newton plays the love interest with the inevitable twist in her past. I would not be able to name anything she has ever done before or since but she again fulfilled what was needed.
The film was directed by John Woo who has a penchant for these increasingly action packed films. The films are also dramatic but the direction techniques do not really build tension. As a viewer you marvel at the stunts and the pyrotechnics but you do not really have to engage your brain too much to follow the story. Even if you cannot follow it, it does not really matter as another action sequence will be along soon. In this respect it is a typical American box-office action film. I have been fortunate to watch a film among an American audience and the reaction is very different from an English audience. An American audience lives the film, whooping and whistling and this film would be accepted at its face value.
The plot is a sub-James Bond evil madman (Dougray Scott) intent on destroying the world or at least a bit of localised mayhem by releasing a deadly virus. Having released only he can effect the cure thus giving the opportunity to blackmail the world. Cue : evil laugh. Cruise plays Ethan Hunt as the top agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IM, next task to make the Tories electable) who can stop him. Thandie Newton (daft name, that) falls for Hunt having previously been the evil madmans moll. This is all standard stuff and the skill is then in the telling and for me it was well done. I watched it with my teenage son and he thought it was excellent. There is a slow section in the middle which needed something to relieve it a bit but the climax is suitably exciting.
As you expect like the Bond films there are a few innovative gadgets and some implausible fight sequences but they are no more ridiculous than the Bond efforts. Having had a panning from the British press reviews when it was released I suggest that could be because we prefer our own version or is there a hint of xenophobia in the film press.
The acting is all perfectly adequate. The roles stretch neither the actors or the audience and no one is going for Oscars here. The script too is undemanding and you do not need excessive levels of concentration to understand the gist of it all.
This is pure escapism. Films are not just there to inform, they are there to entertain, thrill and stir the emotions. Mission Impossible 2 does that. It does exactly what it says on the tin. So be an American for a night, get the video (or DVD) get into the film and cheer him on.
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Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1994 - Action/Adventure - Director: Jan De Bont - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Alan Ruck, Carlos Carrasco, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Good op... I loved M:I2.. seen it tonnes of times, I don't know why everyone thinks it's crap, it's a great action film, ok so it doesn't quite have the same feel as the original series, but still, gives you everything you want in an action film.. use of the face masks and the backing music were also brilliant.
charliegould 19.07.2001 01:22
i found the first film ok, but the second i found complete crap. i thought it was too long, and while Jon Woo is an ok director, i just hate the way that no one can fire a gun, without a trench coat, sunglasses, and a cloud of white doves behind them. It was a great opinion though
Visually stunning, and a likely must for John Woo aficionados, the secondMission: ... more
Impossibleouting from megastar Tom Cruise suffers from an inconsistent tone and tired plot devices--not only recycled from other films, but repeated throughout the film. ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt in the sequel to Mission: Impossible. How do you prevent ... more
terrorists from unleashing mayhem on the entire world? You don't. This is a job for IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The world's greatest spy returns in the movie event of t...
Visually stunning, and a likely must for John Woo aficionados, the secondMission: ... more
Impossibleouting from megastar Tom Cruise suffers from an inconsistent tone and tired plot devices--not only recycled from other films, but repeated throughout the film. ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
How do you prevent terrorists from unleashing mayhem on the entire world? You don't. This ... more
is a job for IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The world's greatest spy returns in the movie event of the year M:I-2. Top action director John Woo brings his own brand of ex...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Some great extra’s Disadvantages: Some predictable moments
seagulls-lost-horizon 21.07.2001 (21.07.2001)
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Review of Mission: Impossible 2 (DVD)
Advantages: Some great extra’s Disadvantages: Some predictable moments
seagulls-lost-horizon 21.07.2001 (21.07.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Mission: Impossible 2 (DVD)
![Mission : Impossible 2 [2000] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/76772200.jpg "Mission : Impossible 2 [2000] [DVD]")
Jul 18th, 2001
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