Seriously disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2000)

I made the mistake of expecting MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 to be fun and smart. As it turned out, it was neither. Sure, the action sequences are great, but the plot and script are God-awful, the characters shallow and uncompelling, and the film as a whole is just... boring, even with the thirty non-stop minutes of action at its climax. Robert Towne (the screenwriter) has managed to turn the M:I franchise from sleek, cerebral spy thrillers to second-rate James Bond ripoffs. Almost every minute of this film comes off like a bootleg print of any terrible Bond flick; Hunt has, apparently, become a ridiculously soft-hearted sex machine; female characters exist to have one quote-un-quote "strong" characteristic while simultaneously enslaving themselves to a dominant male; and when the action sequences come around, there's no suspense whatsoever, because the idiocy of the plot which provided for them has stunned you into a comatose stupor. I really, really wanted to like this movie, but it simply gave me no reasons to.