Tom Cruise tries to be James Bond, not Ethan Hunt

Rating: 5/10 (29 May 2000)

WHAT A COSMIC LETDOWN! This movie TANKED. All hype, all filler....this wasn't MI2, this was "Tom Cruise wants to be James Bond, or Matt Helm or Derek Flint, but not Ethan Hunt.."
The first movie, ostensibly was centered around Cruise as his team was annihilated and he was the fall guy for the bad guy (Jon Voight). His team before the "hit" and the disavowed one after, had some decent plot complications and character interactions...
This Turkey (and I do Mean TURKEY..dont bother to stick a fork in it, cuz its been burned) was so OVER THE TOP it was unbelievable...change that to "non-believable"....John Woo ought to stick to making movies with Jackie Chan and other "Pacific Rim talent" than trying to reinvent the wheel on this one. And a royal raspberry to Tom Cruise for helping produce this one too...you can tell what parts he wanted to go into the film, if you have seen a decent number of Woo's films....the sequences with the Girl (Nyah?) useless slow motion shots...reminded me of bad arthouse TV Advertising for the Infinti Automobiles in the 90's.... The supporting cast, is unnecessary and wasted. Considering the gratuitous gunshots, martial baloney and hooey, Who needs a IMF force, with Tom? You could probably drop him on the Moon in his Birthday suit, and he would eventually make his way back to earth..... Folks, this is not Titanic. This is RAMBO 3....without the supporting characters. It a "ME" film...Mr. Cruise is a narcissist, plain and simple, and this is the action film that he wanted to play with Mission Impossible. This time he got his wish. There are so many gaffs and goofs (the motorcycle sequence goes from knobby to street to knobby to street tires over and over again...fight scenes last far too long, etc. The packed house that was with me groaned in nearly every scene.
Don't get me wrong. I am a TOM CRUISE fan. I own most of his films, all the way back to TAPS. I want him to continue the Lestat series...if he is willing to do a sequel to that....he can go over the top in that one...Lestat did it in the book....But Mission Impossible is an Ensemble Cast effort, that was completely overlooked and wasted in this movie. See it, only if you love Woo's OVER THE TOP style....cuz this is a signature moment for that classification.
Sorry, Tom....you should have skipped the sequel curse on this film....