MI-2 John Woo Style....

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2000)

Tom Cruise has now proven that he can do what Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee have done. That is, star in a movie made by a Hong-Kong film-maker. Clearly, the plot is not so relevant in MI-2. Rather, what is important is the action and pace. In this addition (in my opinion better than De Palma's Mission Impossible) Woo wows us with motorcycle and car chases. Gun fights, and the inevitable kung-fu showdown on a cliff. Most of the action in the film takes place in Australia, and what the distributors are indicating with this edition, is that the films will end up being very James Bondish. In other words, they will feature the cars, the gadgets and the hot girls. This edition's hot girl is Thandie Newton (Flirting, Beloved, Besieged) She is hot. She is a great actress, but I don't buy her as a cat-burglar. (I didn't buy Catherine Zeta Jones as a cat-burglar in Entrapment either) But she's good to look at, now that her afro is gone, and her accent is normal (she is Australian, but has played Africans and American slaves recently) The main weakness in MI-2 is the villain. He is unconvincing, and not scary. He is too similar to Tom Cruise which makes the whole mask thing work. (They use lots of masks, fooling people into thinking they are someone else ... ie. Face-Off) But, it doesn't make the story work. Anthony Hopkins is terrible. He shows up to the set to get his paycheck, but he didn't add anything to this film, except for his knighthood. The score is better than the first, it features a cool guitar lick by Limp Bizkit, some cool trancy stuff by BT and the usual genius score by Hans Zimmer. Check this movie out on the big-screen, but don't expect T-2 or Titanic, just a good laugh, and some cool action sequences. 2 fishies out of 5.