not Mission much

Rating: 3/10 (28 May 2000)

Can Tom Cruise and John Woo put their respective egos aside and deliver a fun summer spy movie?
Mission: impossible.
The sky is the limit in the 007 genre, but "M:I 2" (ugh, I can't believe I used the acronym) ends up a bloated, retreaded mess. Early proof: Cruise is introduced climbing a cliff, an ooh-it's-really-him-climbing moment a la William Shatner in "Star Trek V," a scary indication of where the movie is headed.
The movie then rolls over and dies, desperately in need of an editor and delivering exposition slower than Woo's patented slo-mos. The villain is yet ANOTHER rogue agent - apparently, psychological testing is not yet part of the IMF training program. There is an attempt at a Dougray Scott-Thandie Newton-Cruise love triangle, but the boys are so deadly dull that it's a wonder that Newton gives them the time of day. Newton is all dreamy-eyed, amazing-cheekboned, smirking sexuality; if one good thing comes from this movie, it's that she'll get more work (in better movies). And remember how imposing and dangerous Ving Rhames was in "Pulp Fiction"? Here, he's behind a laptop again, when he should be mixing it up with the bad guys, right along with Cruise.
A lot of familiar ground is covered. The villian apparently saw the first "Mission: Impossible," as he correctly guesses that Cruise will penetrate a high-security building by lowering himself down on a wire. (If he does it again in "M:I 3," I'm walking out.) Then he's a moving blip on Rhames' screen, sneaks around, and blah, blah, blah.
Stuff gets blowed up real good when we finally get to the last half hour. We're treated to the same high-flying two-gun John Woo Nutcracker that you've already seen a dozen times before. It's entirely inappropriate for the genre, something the 007 movies have been guilty of as late, also. Our spies used to outthink their opponents and ingeniously escape deadly situations; now they just mow the bad guys down with a submachine gun. Thanks to new back-end deals, Hollywood screenwriters are making bigger bucks now than ever before; the studios should demand smarter scripts.
Even so, I'm afraid that even those of you just looking for a summer "popcorn" movie will walk out disappointed. Go see "Gladiator" again instead. I did. Twice.