The original is and will always be far superior to this.

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2004)

M:I-2 is not a good movie. It's corny and melodramatic. An thus so, very irritating. What in the hell happened to the cool Ethan Hunt we saw in the first film? In the original the character was a no-compromising, antiwomanizer. We see the sequel and what do they give us? A playboy. Geez, Thanks a bunch! Here lies the problem of M:I-2 (God, I love writing that).. this movie doesn't take itself seriously enough. Ok, the first film had a stick up it's a**, but quite frankly, that's what I wanted. A cool spy film. And that's certainly what it was.
Also, you can fool yourself all you want, but John Woo is no Brian De Palma. Woo is known to audiences as an action maestro and De Palma still managed to pull of better suspense and action thrills. The bullettrain climax in the original is a hard scene to top. Mission: Impossible II is below average and it's best values lie in the performance of Hopkins' cameo and Newton's drop dead gorgeous looks.
** / *****