Scooby Doo revisited

Rating: 2/10 (30 May 2000)

I went into Mission Impossible 2 without too many expectations. I saw the first film and thoroughly enjoyed it. I figured I could expect much of the same from the sequel. Well, I was wrong...very wrong. I was at least expecting a plot, but, alas, there was none. The poor excuse for a plot is that there is an "evil" man ready to set a devastating disease loose on all mankind and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), along with the requisite beautiful partner find the source of the disease and bring a living sample of it back to Anthony Hopkins (he is only in the movie for about 8 minutes total, so I don't remember his character's name). I was turned off by the time the opening credits rolled. The film opens with a man speaking in an indistinguishable accent, so I had no idea what he was saying. But I had many opportunities to try to figure it out since they replayed the monologue 3 times throughout the run of the film (for no real reason). Then we are faced with a plane being hijacked, and then we zoom to Tom Cruise hanging from his fingertips off the egde of a cliff while the opening credits rolled. I truly believe the only real reason behind this movie is to make Tom Cruise look "cool". John Woo was certainly the right director to go to for this, since he is known for his use of slo-mo, and penchant for symbolism in his films. The only real reason to see MI2 is to see Tom Cruise. Period.
MI2 is bound to disappoint many. It's not a real action film, because there is very little action, and it's not a drama, because the characters are not developed at all: Ethan Hunt=good, Sean Ambrose=bad, Nyah=sexy. That's another annoyance. Thandie Newton is a talented actress, but here, she is reduced to basically being a Bond girl, her estrogen used as a plot device. And, finally , speaking of plot devices, the overuse of the mask f/x is extremely tiring. Give us a break Mr. Woo! We all saw FaceOff, it's a cool effect the first 20 times we see it. After that, it's a ridiculous parody of itself, a la Scooby -Doo cartoons, that insults the audience. At one crucial point in the movie, it's obvious to everyone that a mask is being worn by one of the characters because it had been used 7 times prior to that in the movie. Yet, we are supposed to be shocked by the ultimate revelation...sloppy filmmaking, to say the least. All in all, I gave MI2 a 2. It was silly, overwrought, and campy in it's own way. Go see it if you must (and I know most of you must), but take heed...you may have a hankering for Scooby snacks by the time you leave.