6/2/2000
Mission Impossible II stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Dougray Scott as Sean Ambrose, Thandie Newton as Nyah Hall, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Richard Roxburgh as Hugh Stamp, John Polson as Billy Baird, Brendan Gleeson as McCloy, Rade Serbedzija as Dr. Nekhorvich, William Mapother as Wallis, Dominic Purcell as Ulrich, and a non-credited appearance by Anthony Hopkins as Mission Commander Swanbeck. (Do you think he knew something?)
Mission Impossible II is a well acted film with great cinematography. The plot consists of the theft of a vaccine against a deadly virus. The cure is worthless unless the deadly virus is released. Then the BioTech firm that has the cure will make billions. Yes, another display of free enterprise gone mad. Ethan Hunt must destroy the virus, making the vaccine useless.
Mission Impossible II is a John Woo film. He is known for action and never a dull moment. In Mission Impossible II he has found a way to make the beginning of this film rather mundane. The action does not pick up until near the end of the film. The credits should read Tom Cruise is Arnold Schwartzenegger. Once again Mission Impossible II relies on star power and action instead of a good script to make a movie. Although the writer for this film is Bruce Geller, the creator of the TV series, Mission Impossible II does not hold true to the technique the IMF used on television. The only hold over is the peeling off of masks, and a fake hospital scene with no doctors or nurses that lasted about 2 minutes. In the TV series they used to fake entire countries. The redeeming quality of this film is a good motorcycle chase scene. John Woo utilizes slow motion and flicker vision to emphasize the action.
Since I have received some comments regarding my rating, I'll explain it. If this film was titled Terminator III, you would say, "No, this film is not Terminator". If this film was titled Action Jackson II, you would say, "No, this film is not Action Jackson". Well, this film is nothing like any episode of Mission Impossible I've ever seen! That is why I gave the rating.
I give it 2 out of 5 doves: