The Butchering John Woo accomplished

Rating: 6/10 (20 April 2006)

I might be speaking blasphemy here and probably get a horde of angry emails but I don't care it has to be said...I don't believe director John Woo is much different than Hollywood hated Uwe Boll...complete with a host of video game licenses to their name. While it's true I've never seen any of Woo's work from his early days which is touted as action art but I have seen Windtalkers, Paycheck, Face/Off, Broken Arrow and of course Mission Impossible 2. Woo brings to the table an incredible unique style...TOO unique. He has to make everything with John Woo stamped all over it and tries to make action...art and it's not!! Action is action...it's adrenalin pumping, edge of your seat, holler for the hero...you don't care whether their movements and choreography is beautiful and in the process of making this unique piece of art John Woo lost the magic that was Mission Impossible.
Tom Cruise returns as nice guy secret agent, with a bit more of an edge, Ethan Hunt. Hunt definitely is tougher, grittier and yet falls deeply in love in this Mission. He still plays the role well and no one fulfills the screen presence like Cruise. The hair was wild!! Almost unexplainable?? The long, greasy locks was not very becoming and certainly cut back on the clean cut Ethan Hunt we knew from the original. Although tougher and grittier it just felt like his character wasn't as smart and throughout all the wild stunts and fights which are practically 100% done in slow motion, he loses something in his character. Dougray Scott takes the helm as the bad guy, Sean Ambrose. Instead of being Ethan's mentor, this time he is his stand in for many missions and he's tired of being in the shadow. Scott is decent and plays the bad guy well but in all honestly he doesn't stand a chance against Cruise. He never poses a viable threat and you just sit back and wait for him to get his butt kicked. Thandie Newton plays the Mission Impossible girl, Nyah Nordoff-Hall. Ethan falls madly in love with her at first sight, completely out of the blue and then must protect her as she goes deep undercover with her former lover Sean Ambrose. Despite horrible reviews Newton is not AWFUL...she's a million miles from great but she's okay. Her and Cruise have some strong sexual tension but otherwise the romantic chemistry is fleeting. She's kind of whiny and annoying for someone who is supposed to be a strong female and a brilliant thief. Ving Rhames returns as Hunt's partner Luther Stickell and his role is a little bigger this time around which is a welcome addition. He adds to the cast nicely. Richard Roxburgh plays Hench man and bad guy Hugh Stamp. His role is pretty quiet but effective and in fact he might have made a better major villain than Dougray Scott. His suspicious nature and his brutal facial expressions are fun to watch and even though Scott does get the better of him several times it's not believable and you keep waiting for Roxburgh to take him out. And finally giving Mission Impossible that touch of experience and class that Jon Voight and Vanessa Redgrave did to the original is Anthony Hopkins as Hunt's boss. Despite being a relatively small role he has some very effective and memorable lines. "To lie to a man and sleep with him, she's a woman, she has all the training she needs." "This is not Mission Difficult Mr. Hunt, it's Mission Impossible, difficult should be a walk in the park for you." It's unfortunate he didn't have a bigger role.
Parts of Mission Impossible were kept in tact in order to make it as good as the original but in my humble movie going opinion it was the decision of bringing director John Woo on board that made the film nearly a joke. Fortunately with such strong actors, and some decent action scenes the film was pulled from obscurity but just barely. What should have and could have been one of the best fights in action film history between Ethan Hunt and Sean Ambrose in the end turned into some sort of choreographed dance routine done in slow motion with flowing clothing and hair and some sort of half-assed wrestling maneuvers that looked like it hurt them more than the other guy they were doing it too. The idea of a virus being stole was good and also opened up the window for a near replay of Hunt's daring theft in the original and although it wasn't bad as Hunt narrowly dives down into fan shafts, it just didn't come across as well. Mission Impossible II is okay and it's worth seeing if not just because the first was so incredible and hopefully the third will put this series back on track but so far number II definitely falls short of what the original was. The action is less, the romance is overwhelming and a little hokey, the fight scenes are far too dance like and the plot is still a little muddled and you wonder often what's going on. Add into that the cast just wasn't as strong as the original and you have a sub par sequel. Good luck next time!! 6.5/10