It couldn't have been better! They nailed it at last!

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2006)

Plain an simple - a superb action film without a doubt. Cruise digs deep and gives his best action role performance ever, while Abrahams behind the camera makes a movie so slick you can smell the smoke from the gun barrels.
The first film was great, to be unfortunately followed by a John Woo disaster-piece. He left the team aspect of the Mission Impossible series in the closet and made the Hunt character an invincible floppy haired ponce, that more or less, people cared nothing for. His set pieces and action sets were lased with slow motion, those stupid doves and over the top moments that left cinema goers cringing at the sight (remember the gun coming out of the sand... Pele couldn't have done it). But they have left enough time go by (be it through filming delays, director problems and cast changes) that MI2 really is only distant memory and doesn't feel like it ever really belonged.
Ethan Hunt is retired from active duty and is now a training op. Happly engaged and enjoying life, the news of one of his graduates gone missing in the field lures him back into the firing line with IMF. Bring on bad guys, deadly weapons, terrorist buyers and a bang load of bullets and we get sucked in right away. The film moves briskly along from action set piece to action set piece with very little lul in between. The Vatican city raid is without doubt the best Team based mission we have seen probably in any film. Voice technology, facial reconstruction of masks and all the gadgets are displayed with great intent, showing us how real these ludicrous gizmo's could be and it is nice to see they didn't over use them unlike Woos' who's who fiasco (the taking off mask after mask thing).
There is little wrong with this movie, with any film of this nature you must suspend reality for one or two sections but Abrahmas doesn't go to far wrong and only ever crosses the line for a few brief moments. The knocks and the falls look like the hurt and Cruise does exceptionally well by doing quite a lot of his own stunt work... falling on car bonnets etc. He also shows off limps and disorientation after explosions and falls unlike other action films and this adds a little more realism to what should be the outlandish.
The supporting cast are excellent to... Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliantly sinister as the evil Owen Davian, he doesn't really get enough screen time but he does well with what he has. Ving Rhames adds nothing new to his role, but is perfect as always with the comic relief at the best of moments. Jonathan Rhys Meyers pops up yet again (rising from the Cork ashes and riding the wave of success) this year and looks the part. It is a shame he uses such a bad Dublin/Irish accent (being Irish himself), it spoils his role for us Irish to hear it (kinda like Cruise himself in Far and Away....to be sure to be sure). The standout star for most male viewers will be Maggie Q as Zehn... who adds WOW to an already great film. That dress! We'll be seeing a lot more of her more or less...
All in all you won't be disappointed or feeling ripped off. Pay the bucks to see it in the cinema, Dolby digital and all; it deserves the big screen treatment. The explosions will rattle your teeth and the camera work is well done. It is just an action film and if that's your buzzthen you can' to go wrong with this. If your not an action junkie and can't stand realism being bent for the sake of a blistering action sequence then don't go or else leave your tutting and "come-on's" for outside the cinema or for the debate in the pub after wards.
Well done all involved, especially after all the problems. This is a polished actioner that will have haters be it those who hate Tom himself ,those who cant leave go of Alias or those who sit back and would rather pick out mistakes and flaws. But if you should really make your own mind up about it. I've not met oner person yet who hates it...I think these people only live online.
Cruise should be thinking of doing a few more of these before he gets too old and he should stick with Abrahams in the chair. It looks like a winning combo!