JOHN WOO TRIES TO MAKE A HITCHCOCK MOVIE FOR SOME REASON BUT ITS STILL A LOT OF FUN

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2019)

I Actually love this movie. Part of that is nostalgia and because I grew up with it but I also just unashamedly love it and the style of it. You will never see another Mission Impossible like this. With Limp Bizkit doing the theme song, this version of Ethan hunt, this dramatic, this style of action...True it Is the least like a classic mission impossible but it does feature an impossible mission and Tom Cruise is in it so that's good enough for me....and it's a hell of an entertaining and stylish spy action film....I never really looked at this as lacking action, I always thought of it as the most action packed, but the more I look at it it really doesn't start unleashing full on action scenes until the third act...and boy does it deliver. But the rest of the film is so stylish and fun that I don't care...Whereas in Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, it kicks off with action, peaks in the middle, and slightly loses momentum coming into the third act...or in Mission 1 where it isn't even really a full on action film per say, and has only a few distinct set pieces amidst a lot of suspense and mystery...MI2 kicks off with a big bang, and then becomes a NOTORIOUS style love story and has some heist and mission impossibly stuff going on through out, but it really bottles up all the big action and stunts, saving it for the end, and then just unleashes it it all for the last 30 minutes or so....and its a great payoff. Best third act (Fallout comes close) of any Mission film and right up there with The Matrix as one of the best third acts of any action movie. Ethan Hunt jumping from that building, blatantly ripping off Last of the Mohicans (not to mention GoldenEye earlier in the film) and then building eventually into The motorcycle chase and the martial arts battle on the beach....John Woo is the Hitchcock of action films. He directs action with ease and grace and elevates it to an almost poetry. His style really elevates the material. The slow mo, the doves.... Its so great...Tom Cruise adapts perfectly to this style of action with his long hair and convincing stunt work with the guns, motorcycles, and kung fu stuff...its a movie of its time that people like to hate on. And they all raise good points. But for the style they're going for, I think this movie more than succeeds. Its entertaining and fun and cool.