Disappointed, but still COOL...

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2000)

Well, the long-awaited John Woo's Mission Impossible 2 opened on Wed, so I went to see it, and as you may have already guessed, I was let down by a sequel again. There has been only two sequels that I really enjoyed more or equal to the first ones, and they were TOY STORY and THE GODFATHER.

Well, anyway, the story, first of all, was typical and corny. There's a virus(i mean of course, how original is that?), and a psychotic tries to make money off of it by killing people with it and whatever. And of course, there's a love interest for Cruise and it gets personal, yadee yadeea... NOW, then there were the action sequences which I must say again, JOHN WOO RULES!!! Even though some of the sequences were EXTREMELY over-the-top and unrealistic,(how the bad guys empty an entire automatic clip at Cruise but they only hit the ground as Cruise drives his motorcycle by and Cruise shots off just a couple of shots with his pistol and still is able to kill all the bad guys), but still, it was one of those movies you want to just leave your brain before you go in, enjoy the ride, and then pick up your brain on your way out.
The unbelievable stunts with COOL slo-mo worked its magic as usual as in any other John Woo. John Woo attempted to tell a love story almost, but it did not seem to actually work. I was bored for about half an hour or so when the supposed "story" was unfolding, but was on the edge of my seats as I saw the fights and the FAST chase motorcycle scene that blew me away. It was a very different type of film than the first one, obviously, and obviously by the very very different directors.
John Woo made more of a new stylish-hip-cool-summer-blockbuster whereas Brian De Palma made more of the revival of the old TV show to the big screen with a touch of Hitchcockish suspense in it, rather than Woo's gun fights. Both I must say were good in different aspects. If you like Woo or just mindless action, you've got to see this on the big screen. If you're tired of mindless-no-brainer-action, stay away from this movie.