departure from the first (mild spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 2000)

The series was a long way before my time, so when people got all cut about the way the first movie was too far from the series, I didn't pay too much attention, and I loved it. It was a good plot-boiler espionage thriller, with some satisfying action.
This movie however, is completely different, and the people who liked the first movie because of the plot probably won't be to pleased with this installment.
Basically, this is a movie about stunts. There were so many stunts in it I can't even recall them all. Unfortunately for the director, a lot of the stunts just didn't work. A few examples are the fight scenes, where Cruise would spin and flip all over the shop, when a simple kick in the head would have been sufficient. Or when Cruise launches a motorbike over a fence, and it somehow seems to travel just a little bit too far in the horizontal direction... I also found it funny the way that when the bikes were riding on the road, they had full slick tire, and when they were on dirt or sand, a pit crew had somehow swapped the tires to racing knobbies without the camera ever catching it...
The plot wasn't really something I payed too much attention too, it was kinda basic and linear: Some company makes an "antivirus" (?) for all influenza strains, but also creates a super-flu at the same time, planning to make a fortune when off the antivirus when the super-flu gets out. Then a renegade IMF agent steals the antivirus and basically extorts the company, while making plans to steal the super-flu at the same time. Ethan Hunt and co. must destroy the super-flu blah blah blah....
The cast did allright with the little they had to work with. Thandie Newton's character was a let-down: she started the movie as a super-svelte thief and finished as a fragile scared little girl - quite a transformation. Ethan Hunt's IMF backup crew never had anything to do, they just flew around in a chopper and did nothing, the token Aussie character saying "mate" and "bloke" a few to many times for comfort.
Tom Cruise is good as the all-action man, although he does look to be struggling in some of the fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, he was very athletic, but when trying to do a lot of the kung fu moves he looked a little out of place, slow and cumbersome.
Lastly, I think I should say that whoever invented the slow-motion technique should be credited alongside the lead actors: it felt like about half the movie was in slow motion. It was done pretty well though, with a good score in the background so that viewers were getting the effect of it
If you love action and stunts and general mindless mayhem, go see it