One of those rare movies that kicks better butt than it's predecessor

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2000)

I'll admit I was skeptical about this movie at first. And in fact it took until today to finally watch it. I was one of the minority I guess that thought the first one had a great plot. I still like the first one. But the sequel is a wee bit more Bondish than the first. I however did find Anthony Hopkins a bit out of place. I had assumed .... Eugene Kittridge would be the head boss now. But that was not to be.
The first half hour of the movie is rather slow, and it takes about 24 minutes to get to any main characters. One suggestion... don't watch this on video. It would be better on DVD with a stereo hooked up to it.
It has John Woo's unique slow motion shots throughout and does get annoying I suppose, but I liked it. They don't really have the tearjerker type thingy going on like the first. (SPOILER...... to the first one included)
which as everyone knows Emilio gets his rather abruptly as well as everyone else. and Claire as well in the end.
The good guys body count is much better here. Dougray Scott I've seen twice before. First as a rather wimpy camera man in Deep Impact and then as a kewl good guy in Ever After. I will admit, I much prefer Mr. Scott in Ever After than to MI 2 but Woo made him into an excellent villain here.
I am disappointed that the end of the movie contained some rather unoriginal music. I'd heard it in The Rock and my dad was telling me before I watched the movie that it originally came from a Bud commercial. Stick the music where it should be will yah.. Don't recycle it. Other than that I loved the score..... get the DVD 10/10