Good Summer Action Movie

Rating: Null/10 (24 May 2000)

Of course it's over the top. Of course it's implausible. Of course it's Woo repeating ideas from his other films. Of course, of course, blah-blah.
This is a very good summer action movie. It has so many plot holes, they should have filmed it in Switzerland. Still, it has great action sequences, it is not gratuitously violent, it has a couple of interesting plot twists (usually involving identities), and it's a good travelogue of Australia. Most of all, it does not end with a helicopter chase under the English Channel. Oh, it also civilizes the audience by giving them a little culture about the ancient mythological being, Chimera.
So, I give it good marks for doing exactly what it should, and even Anthony Hopkins is there to remind us what real acting is about.
Oh, there's no way Tom Cruise did all those stunts. I know, John Woo says he did, and his wife is supposed to have been angry at Tom for doing them. Nope. I think when Woo is quoted as saying, "Tom did all his own stunts", it really means, he did all the ones that he did. Nevermind, Tom seems to have a lot more fun in this film than in the first, and he even pokes fun at himself; the evil character complains about the hardest part impersonating Cruise's character once in disguise: it was flashing that silly grin every fifteen minutes.
Sean Connery was good as James Bond, but Dr. No wasn't his best acting performance. By Goldfinger and Thunderball, though, he had hit his own tempo wonderfully. Maybe MI3 and MI4 will do the same for Cruise.