Mission: Impossible II
Mission Impossible 2 (or M:i-2 – if you like maths!). Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney by the IMF to find and destroy the mysterious “Chrimera”. This film totally reeks of John Woo’s direction: there’s at least one slow-mo shot in most scenes, sparks everywhere, superhuman sliding, birds, white dove… and some crazy, crazy action. Unfortunately, there’s a ridiculous level of focus on the love story / personal angle – which is riddled with clichés and makes you doubt how professional a spy Mr Hunt really is – not to mention it feels forced and cheesy. Despite a fairly average spy story clunking along for the most part, the final half hour is absolutely beautiful (other than the love interest and random shots of the sea), and undoubtedly the best part of the film. There’s a few bizarre lines in the script such as “This is not missions difficult, it’s mission impossible; difficult should be a walk in the park” (Hopkins) – and the seemingly accidentally left in “put a sock in it”, a Scottish-ism by Dougray. Other than a stupid emo haircut, lots of face masks and flamenco guitar (so you know you’re in Spain) there’s not a lot to write home about. Mission Impossible II has plenty of stand-alone memorable and ‘cool’ bits to enjoy, but as a whole film, it’s average at best.
5.5/10
Paragraph Film Reviews 
Funny, I thought you’d disappeared from WordPress. Glad I was wrong! :O)
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I’ve been meaning to see M:I:2, but I just haven’t gotten around to it, even though I saw the first M:I back in August of last year and the most recent shortly after it came out. I haven’t seen M:I:III either. People keep telling me to skip this one, but there’s some voice inside me that seems to not want me to skip any part of any series. It’s like leaving a huge gap, even if it’s a bad film, and hey, I love reviewing bad movies. It unleashes my (as well as any critic’s) God-given right to rant! :D Great review, as always: succint, yet utterly complete. I truly dig your blog.
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Definitely worth HUNTing down the other two movies: as an average score per movie, they’d probably clock in above the Bond films (which have a few rotters in the mix). I wouldn’t skip this either, with a different (capable) director behind each film it gives them all a different style, take and emphasis on certain aspects – I love John Woo’s films usually, this one’s just a bit hammier than his usual output.
And thanks for the kudos, haven’t had much time lately to do the rounds, but it’s my summer resolution :)
Cheers.
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Spot on with the review. Great last half hour and one of my favourite scores. It’s just got too much John Woo in it.
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Agree all around. The film just drags and drags. The last half-hour is pretty awesome, but not good enough to make amends for the rest of the movie.
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Great minds, eh?! I know Woo’s usually style over substance – just don’t understand why he tried so hard to give a spy a massive love sub-plot (although she is pretty tasty!)
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