Tommy's Next Big Paycheck

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2000)

The Main Thing by nicardo@bigfoot.com Review of Mission: Impossible-2
The most impossible mission in Hollywood, if you choose to accept it, is very clear. There seems to be no way, even spending many millions of dollars, to create an action/adventure movie that is actually believable. Can't seem to be done. I know movies are fiction, but how come when they push that envelope, it ends up bursting at the seams? Do they think we won't go see it unless it's a comic book on celluloid? Super-humans with powers far above those of mortal men battle brains and brawn for the safety of mankind. Give me a break.
One of the things you have to admire about the old TV series was that no matter how difficult the situation or how impossible the odds, the IM Force always stayed within the bounds of reason. They used brains, skill and luck to accomplish their goal, often with last second timing, but they never caused this viewer to remark, `Uh, yeah, right...'
This movie not only provokes such comments, it seems to encourage them. `You think that was impossible? Watch this!' Scene after scene we get subjected to things that would not and could not ever happen. Who asked them to take the title so literally??? Yeah, it's escapism. Just suspend your disbelief and sit back and `enjoy' if you can.
Tom Cruise, actor/producer had to make a sequel to the confusing previous effort because it made more money than any movie he's ever done. He must have been in a hurry, too. He replays Ethan Hunt the super spy, and master of disguise, and master of weapons, and hand-to-hand combat, and computers, and motorcycles, and mountain-climbing, and master figuring out everything the bad guy is going to do before he does it.
The team? He only needs a couple of guys in the background (Ving Rhames and John Polson) and one female to serve as bait (Thandie Newton) in order to thwart the plans of a vicious ex-agent (Dougray Scott) his right hand man (Richard Roxburgh), and AN ARMY of henchmen. Newton's character is also the ex-girlfriend of the bad guy. Clever, huh? (yawn) She's some kind of professional thief. Just perfect for a save-the-world-type mission, huh? Since Ethan doesn't get out much, and most of the women he meets end up dead before the last reel, he quickly falls in LOVE with Nyah (Newton). Maybe because it's rated PG-13, but does this falling in love so quickly bother anybody besides me? I saw the same thing happen in `The World is Not Enough,' where Pierce Brosnan fell for Sophie Marceau in a matter of minutes. Then later, he falls for Denise Richards in a matter of seconds. Lust? Okay. Happily Ever After? Please...
If you want senseless, pointless, violent, comic book style action, then this is your cup of TNT. Cruise joins Arnold and Bruce in the realm of action, noise and indestructibility, seeking only big box office totals, rather than excellent, intelligent, admirable film-making. Just as long as you know what you're in for. That's the main thing. Comments and e-mail welcome.