What was impossible about this movie?

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2000)

Well, the ending was exciting. That was about the only thing a person can say about the otherwise dull "Mission: Impossible 2." John Woo does an admirable job, and Tom Cruise does a good job with his new set of martial arts moves, but otherwise this is a rather vapid film. In comparison to the original, which had far too much plot, this time around there's far too little.
At no point in this film is there any sense of mystery, of deception. It's straight-forward, bubble-gum entertainment, wrapped around a marketable star and a director who really only gets to show his stuff in the last third of the film.
The movie also suffers from a dreadful lack of character development, with Ving Rhames being woefully underused. Similarly, the Australian pilot who's also part of Ethan's team is introduced and then... well, he faded so fast from the plot that I can't even remember the character's name.
The action towards the end is quite entertaining, but it's too contained at the end of the film. It almost manages to save this movie... but not quite. "Gladiator" still reigns as the top summer action movie, at least until "The Patriot" and "X-Men" show up in July. "M:I-2's" biggest highlight is the soundtrack, and that's not saying too much. Go see it for a matinee, but skip the full price.