Style Over Substance

Rating: 6/10 (8 October 2017)

Mission Impossible 2 (2000)
Plot In A Paragraph: Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is sent to Sydney, to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera".
The first movie, whilst criticised for being too confusing was a really good action/thriller. Sadly Mission Impossible 2 is all style over substance. It's just a lot of stunts, stunts and more stunts. Who cares about such things as plot and character development when the actors look cool doing cool stuff. According to Robert Towne, his script was written around action scenes that John Woo had already planned. And sadly it shows in the movie. It's full of plot holes. The mask thing became tiresome too!!
Doing this movie (his first sequel, not counting Colour Of Money) did gave Cruise the freedom to experiment with more offbeat choices like Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia. So when they don't perform at the box office, the damage was minimal and it was not career threatening.
Mission Impossible 2 grossed $215 million at the domestic box office to end 2000 the 3rd highest grossing movie of the year. The highest grossing Tom Cruise movie at that point.