Mission: Impossible 2.

Review #1100: Mission: Impossible 2.

Cast: 
Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Thandie Newton (Nyah Nordoff-Hall), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose), Brendan Gleeson (John C. McCloy), Richard Roxburgh (Hugh Stamp), John Polson (Billy Baird), Rade Šerbedžija (Dr. Nekhorvich), and William Mapother (Wallis) Directed by John Woo (#030 - Face/Off and #336 - Broken Arrow)

Review: 
The first film was a fairly decent adventure that managed to juggle its spy elements with a decent story and a capable cast to make for a satisfactory experience, for the most part. Four years later, a sequel was created, with Robert Towne returning to do the screenplay (with the story being done by Ronald D. Moore and Brandon Braga) and Cruise and Rhames returning. It's easy to say that the sequel is not as good as the original movie, feeling like a bit of a letdown in terms of its execution. The action sequences certainly seem to be competing with the plot to see which one can go faster in pace, and it would seem that the action sequences win out in terms of effectiveness. The film seems to enjoy having scenes compete with themselves for most ridiculous, such as a rocket containing sunglasses to deliver exposition that explode into the title sequence, a car chase with reckless action and even more reckless hair, doves flying out of nowhere, and a climax complete with a game of chicken and fights in the sand. I can't really give the writing too much guff since the film at least moves moderately well - up to a point, anyway. The motivations make sense roughly 60% of the time, although the plot-line certainly jumbles itself silly at times.

Cruise does a fine job, keeping this character fairly interesting to watch around, having a degree of confidence to him - complete with the opening shot of him doing rock climbing. Newton is fine, although the writing does sometimes let her down. I find that the scenes with Cruise and Newton don't have too much chemistry with each other, not really seeming any better than what you might see in a James Bond movie, for example, although I would note that if you compared it to the three Bond films released in the 1990s, this one would probably fall in the middle in terms of quality, although it certainly wouldn't beat GoldenEye (1995). Apparently, Woo's original cut was three-and-a-half hours long, so it is evident that something was lost in the process to make the final cut 123 minutes long. I do wonder if the longer cut would've made these characters a bit more interesting than they ended up being, particularly with the villain, although I really can't blame Scott for not being up to task for such a thankless role. It sure is nice to see Rhames, albeit in a less role than the first time around, although he certainly seems more interesting than the other member of the "team" in Polson. Gleeson and Roxburgh prove to be fairly watchable as well. Even though the original one was prone to twisting itself a bit too much, I felt that there was something interesting about where it took itself that worked for the moment, but this film doesn't really to work as handily for the moment, making for a movie that is mildly entertaining but not as good as the previous one. It isn't anything to give too much criticism for, but it also isn't anything to really find loving unless one doesn't have much expectations going in.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.