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Mission: Impossible 2 [DVD]

Screenplay : Robert Towne (story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga)

MPAA Rating : PG-13

Year of Release : 2000

Stars : Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose), Thandie Newton (Nyah Hall), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Richard Roxburgh (Hugh Stamp), John Polson (Billy Baird), Brendan Gleeson (McCloy), Rade Serbedzija (Dr. Nekhorvich)

There is little doubt during any moment of "Mission: Impossible 2" that this is a John Woo film. Woo's signature visual ballistics and predilection for highly wrought melodrama of the kind Douglas Sirk might be proud are imprinted on virtually every frame, and it is no surprise that a running joke on the set was that the title should be "John Woo's Mission: Impossible."

The best thing producer/star Tom Cruise did was track down and convince the Hong Kong action auteur to helm the sequel to the first "Mission: Impossible," a 1996 blockbuster that was directed by Brian De Palma. De Palma took his own approach to the material, making a calculated and somewhat cold spy thriller. In the sequel, Woo takes the opposite approach, replacing De Palma's precision suspense with highly stylized gun fights and roaring motorcycle chases. Both approaches work in their own ways, and it would be interesting if the series continued with each new entry being helmed by a noted action director with a unique visual style.

If "M:I-2" is superior to the first film in any way, it is because it makes more sense. The original "Mission: Impossible" was a convoluted maze of betrayal and switching sides that, even in the denouement, couldn't make sense of the previous 120 minutes. The screenplay for "M:I-2" was penned by noted screenwriter Robert Towne ("Chinatown") from an original story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga. It has its share of twists and turns and the now-familiar moments of characters peeling off impossibly detailed latex masks to show that good guys were impersonating bad guys and vice versa (an aspect of the "M:I" series that must have appealed to Woo's taste for blurring good and evil). However, the basic narrative always remains followable, so that when the big action sequences arise, there is little question as to what is at stake.

Tom Cruise reprises his role as special agent Ethan Hunt, but this time his character is warmer and more humane. Much of this is due to the fact that this time he has a love interest, a professional thief named Nyah (Thandie Newton, who was so good in "Beloved"). Nyah is brought into Ethan's latest mission because she once had a relationship with Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a renegade special agent who has stolen a killer virus and plans to sell it to a pharmaceutical company for millions of dollars. Of course, for the pharmaceutical company to make money off the virus' antidote, lots of people need to be infected, and the film gives us some ghastly pictures of what the virus does to the human body in just over 20 hours.

Most of the film takes place in Sydney, Australia, which provides a nice backdrop for Woo's signature action sequences. There is a break-in scene that starts off as a lightweight version of the famous CIA break-in from the first film, but Woo's action sensibilities quickly take over, and the next thing you know, Cruise is running through a seemingly endless hail of slow-motion bullets, a gun blazing in each hand. (Of course, this is PG-13 John Woo, so one of his most notable trademarks, the artful slow-motion explosion of hundreds of blood squibs, is absent.) And once Limp Bizkit's thundering heavy metal rendition of Lalo Schifrin's memorable theme from the original TV show stars pounding on the soundtrack, you know you're in all-new territory.

While the movie starts off slow and jerky, lurching clumsily from scene to scene in an awkward attempt to establish the story and characters, it quickly finds its pace and rhythm. The last third of the movie is a nonstop action extravaganza, culminating in a delirious chase sequence on motorcycles that leads to a prolonged fight on the beach that is cross-cut with scenes of Nyah about to kill herself because she is infected with the last strain of the virus. Melodramatic, yes, but in Woo's capable hands it works.

If "Mission: Impossible 2" has a weak spot, it is the villain. Dougray Scott is a fine actor, and he glowers quite well, but he is never truly menacing or diabolical. In fact, he seems a pale shadow next to the striking figure Cruise cuts as Ethan Hunt. Cruise has such incredible screen presence that he absolutely demands someone with equal screen weight opposite him, and Scott just doesn't cut it. This is especially disappointing because one of Woo's most consistent themes is the squaring off of two desperate men who are good/evil mirrors of each other (see 1989's "The Killer" or 1997's "Face/Off").

While "M:I-2" works on its own terms, it won't be mistaken for one of Woo's best films. Still, it is certainly a cut above the majority of action shoot-em-up's released in theaters each year. It may not quite live up to the high expectations that await it, but there are just enough signature elements--slow-motion gunfights, flocking doves, religious imagery--to give true John Woo fans their fix until his next outing.

Copyright © 2000 James Kendrick