Mission Impossible 2 has little
in common with the first film except for Tom
Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames as the
genius hacker Luther. This sequel is more of
a James Bond wannabe. Sadly Cruise does not
cut it as a lethal international spy. He is
reminiscent of a lad who's just left school
and is excited on his first job abroad. (In
Australia incidentally. Why Australia? Because
it is cheap to film there. And you get lots
of gratuitous shots of Sydney Opera House and,
yep, 'roos.)
Normally the seemingly compulsory love-interest
is a real pain in the backside when watching
action movies; but in
Mission Impossible
2 Cruise was so annoying that it was
actually a relief when the delightful Thandy
Newton cropped up. No offence to actresses,
but if you are pleased to see the love-interest
in an action film then something is very,
very
wrong. But all credit to Newton, she seemed
so genuine and sweet, a fresh counterpoint to
Cruise's sparkly cockiness. She was also much
more likeable than all the inaccessible 'I'm-so-trendy-and-glamorous'
type actresses that litter the screen these
days.
Unlike Newton, Cruise doesn't let you suspend
your disbelief, which, to be fair, in
Mission
Impossible 2 would be harder to suspend
than a planet.
The computer gadgets were quite fun. My hearing
aids are totally in the ear, exactly like Newton's
device (except for mike and transmitter - I
hope...), so these movie gadgets are no longer
far fetched. Technology is catching up with
movies. And Luther gets some decent looking
software on his laptop. In MI-One his software
just said "Jamming" in big red letters,
just in case the audience hadn't twigged. LOL.
Luther and the others were just gophers, grovelling
lackeys for Cruise, and there to explain the
plot of
Mission Impossible 2.
"Cruise must get to the virus before the
red dot meets the yellow dot on my computer
screen" says Luther, or words to that effect.
Two hours of undiluted Cruise, agreeable fellow
though he be, is asking a lot. The villains
weren't scary, the plot was simple, (everybody
was chasing a McGuffin, in this case a virus
that kills in 20 hours) and so there was nothing
to keep one's attention from drifting. Oh and
using a rubber mask people can conveniently
masquerade as other people to the point of perfect
resemblance, allowing for cheesy twists that
take away from, rather than add to, the story.
Scooby Doo was ahead of Hollywood
by twenty five years. (
Scooby Do rip-offs:
MI-2, Face-off, Screams 1, 2, 3 etc)
Mission Impossible 2 was directed
by John Woo and, a vague admirer of
Face
Off, I expected some groovy tricks. They
were not delivered. Everything was utterly clichéd
and borrowed. The slow motion shots against
silence other than a woman singing ooh in a
poignant operatic voice didn't work. The fighting
sequences didn't work. Since when do professionally
trained killers just stand there whilst their
opponent takes a run up, jumps in the air, and
delivers a round kick to the bonce. Yawn. The
A-Team fought more convincingly than
these guys. Hulk Hogan would have been pelted
with tomatoes if he had been
this unrealistic
in a campy wrestle staged for kids.
In summary, nice gimmicks but no tension and
no fun.
The
existing ending is tedious. A much better one
would be the bad guy gives Tom a good shoeing
and gets the girl. That would have been a feel-good
turnout for the books and then (the 2 aside)
Mission Impossible 2 would not
have had a fraudulent title.
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| From: |
Carl | Subject: | 2001-06-06 21:24:37 |
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