WHERE'S THE ACTION?

Rating: 1/10 (15 January 2002)

Don't believe the junk other people say about this one.The great, action-packed previews and the coolness of John Woo practically made me buy a ticket. I came into the theater expecting slam-bang action on par with "The Killer" and "A Better Tomorrow." Instead, I got a lot of fluff best saved for a cheesy Meg Ryan romantic comedy, and action at the level of "The Replacement Killers" (and less of it). Tom Cruise has longer hair but his character is inexplicably stupider. The whole script is predictable and lame, and even more far-fetched than the original (ANOTHER "rogue agent"? With this many traitors, how does the IMF function?). The action scenes are good but painfully brief. They are also fairly derivative (Wow! A motorcycle chase! Two-fisted gunplay! Karate fighting!) The movie takes an hour just getting started. Very flat characters like Luther accentuate the fact that this is Cruise's movie.
See some of John Woo's other films, see Sam Peckinpah, see "True Lies"...
Just avoid this movie.