Mission Impossible 2
There are two things that come to mind about Tom Cruise's latest action flick....noise
and masks. I can't remember seeing such a noisy movie in a long time.
What's the story? A scientist created a vaccine and a virus. He is murdered attempting
to deliver it to Ethan Hunt, IMF agent. Ethan is ordered to take two operatives,
and recruit a professional thief, Nyah (played by Thandie Newton) to recover the
virus. He recruits Nyah and promptly falls in love with her.
Nyah is the former girlfriend of the murderer, Ambrose (Dougray Scott). Ethan asks
her to take up with her ex again and get some information from him. She finds out
about the virus and the race is on to try to stop the spread of the Chimera virus.
The story makes about as much sense as the first movie did. I enjoyed the first movie
more however. Don't get me wrong, I like Tom Cruise, I like John Woo, but I found
this movie to be a bit misogynistic and repetitive. The villain and the IMF boss
made several anti-women comments that were out of place and unnecessary. I also noticed
that many of the moves that Cruise used were identical to those that Jean Claude
Van Damme used in his John Woo movie. There are a lot of car chases, motorcycle chases
and shootouts, as well as explosions. It is just very loud.
The other point of contention I have with this film is the masks. It's an interesting
trick the first and even second time you see it, but after five or six times it isn't
a surprise anymore. It gets stale quickly.
I'd also like to know what happened to Henry Czerny, the IMF chief from the first
movie. He's replaced by Anthony Hopkins..it's nice to see him, but I liked Czerny
better.
The acting is okay in this movie, Thandie Newton is beautiful, Ving Rhames is cool,
Dougray Scott is smoldering with a very cute Scottish accent and Tom Cruise can glower
with the best of them, but no-one really stands out.
Is this a movie to see? Well, yeah, sort of. It's one of those summer blockbusters.
It's not great, but it is fun. You might want to take ear plugs though!
I give Mission Impossible 2 **1/2 stars out of 5. It's a lukewarm recommendation
from me.
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