Woo's magic doesn't quite work here

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2014)

There was a brief period of time when John Woo was considered the most exciting action director in cinema. His over the top style frequently includes balletic gunfights, slow motion and martial arts which are easy on the eye. It can prove quite distracting if you're not prepared for it, but for those willing to go with it, there is a lot of fun to be had.
Unfortunately, in Mission Impossible 2, Woo has seemed to have forgotten that stylistic action is his strongest asset, with a lot of the movie feeling overly long and dragged out. It doesn't help that the plot is a simple case of stopping a virus from destroying the world; not terrible by any stretch, but you would expect more from the guy who brought us Face/Off.
Tom Cruise puts in a decent performance, convincingly pulling off the action hero look, but the same cannot be said for those around him. Dougray Scott, despite his best efforts, is a bland, 2 dimensional villain who really wants to be more diabolical than he is, Ving Rhames doesn't really do anything and Thandie Newton is embarrassingly bad as the love interest. In fact, the entire love story proves to be rather cringe worthy throughout, with a number of corny scenes and absolutely zero chemistry between Cruise and Newton contributing to a sub-plot which doesn't need to be there in the first place.
Thankfully, when the action lands it is every bit as enjoyable as you would hope, with a number of breathtaking stunts on show; the most impressive of which sees Cruise hanging from a cliff face with nothing but his hands preventing a grisly death, and a fantastic motorcycle chase towards the end which showcases Woo at his best before an overly long fist fight dulls the experience again. There is a frustrating tendency to overuse his trademark slow motion, and a few 'twists' stretch the limits of plausibility but if you can overlook these flaws, you will find a fun, but forgettable, action flick.
An enjoyable action romp which tries hard to be much better than it is.