Robert Towne wanted credit for this?

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2000)

Towne's downward arc from Chinatown continues. At least Days of Thunder generated some interesting characters and realistic conflict.
The conventional wisdom is that people don't go to action movies to have to think. The people that believe that will be more than happy with M:I-2. Nothing challenging about it, except for caring one whit about the characters. Batman cartoons have deeper characters--and plots, for that matter--than this. Was it fun? Oh...yeah. It's flashy, and got some cool stunts and whatnot. It's decent matinee entertainment.
But that's not what I expect from this kind of talent. I expect sharp dialogue, layers of story, depth of character, texture. It is possible for an action movie; anyone recall a movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark? It's extra disappointing for something like this to be what it is. I shouldn't have to consider whether it was fun or not with talents the likes of Cruise and Towne attached. This could have been--*should* have been--so much better. I'd like to be able to put all the blame on John Woo, since all his movies suffer from the same malady to varying degrees, but Cruise, nice as he is, deserves a hardy head-smack as co-producer. In the end he had to sign off on it.
Tom, Tom, Tom. You coulda been a contendah.