and one that took too long coming to the screen having been dogged by problems
that left the film being delayed by at least a year. With the original director
Brian De Palma no longer in charge, it was up to one of Hollywood's
best-new-friends John Woo to deliver the goods. Has he? Well, not quite.
Whereas the first film had a complex plot, this one tries to at times by
introducing a flashback sequence that never happened and is revealed as such
when it's been and gone, plus there's too much double-crossing and use of
rubber masks to make you think that the person speaking is real when it's
often someone fighting for the other side. Most times this clear combination
of mask and CGI effects works but, as they say, less is more.
A lethal synthetic virus has been created and it can kill within little longer
than a day, but if the antidote can be applied within 20 hours, the life can
be saved.
I don't want to say too much as events begin to kick off after the opening
credits, but in short, when it begins, the man who has this virus is
Dr. Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija) and when he needs to transport it,
the only way to keep it fresh is by injecting it into himself and then treating
it with the antidote when he arrives at the company owned by John C. McCloy
(Brendan Gleeson). The madman who intervenes and wants to seize control
of it is Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).
And here's when we reach familiarity because Ambrose is, we are told, an
ex-IMF member and not one of Ethan Hunt's (Tom Cruise, reprising his
role from the original but this time with a floppy haircut) closest friends.
How many more times are we meant to swallow this colleague-turned-baddie
premise? But I digress...
Anthony Hopkins appears for about five minutes in an unnamed and
uncredited cameo as the "Jim Phelps"-type and tells Ethan that in order to
stop Ambrose, he must take three people with him, one of whom must include
international thief Nyah Nordolf-Hall (Thandie Newton, quite easily
the most gorgeous black woman on the planet) and it's no surprise that a
romantic interest develops between the two. Nyah is selected because she's
an ex-girlfriend of Ambrose and so, by definition, must be able to infiltrate
his operation.
Also along for the ride are the-only-other-one-left-alive-from-the-original,
Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and newcomer John Polson as Billy
Baird. Up for the role of right-hand-man to Ambrose is Richard Roxburgh
as Hugh Stamp.
The film opens with a breathtaking shot of Cruise mountain climbing without a
rope or any kind of safety equipment, bringing into it some incredibly dangerous
moments, but we know he's not really so high up and in danger as
behind-the-scenes footage on Film 2000 showed when Woo was standing
behind him on the rockface as Cruise has his face to camera with arms
outstretched hanging apparently perilously. However, we know Tom Cruise is a
real tough guy as he did 95% of the stunts himself.
So what's the real bug-bear about this sequel? Well, I loved the feel of
De Palma's version, the quick-cuts, slanted visuals, etc. all of which is
eschewed here as Woo behaves lazy and trots out all the same old methods
employed on other Hollywood films such as
Hard Target,
Broken Arrow
- which I liked - and Face/Off which I didn't, such as the pointless
addition of flapping doves at every available misguided opportunity with
surround sound to match.
There are some amazing action scenes to be found, although most turn up in
the second half and are way over the top with things exploding unrealisitcally
as if packed with a million fireworks. Earlier on, the film drags unnecessarily
and could have lost a good twenty minutes to tighten it up.
It feels like a rip-off of Goldeneye at times with Dougray Scott trying
to out-Bean Sean Bean's turn as the pissed-off co-worker and Ving
Rhames just grunts along without stretching any talents. Finally, Thandie
Newton is under-used as the love-interest and isn't given much to work with,
culminating with a scene in which she is forced at gunpoint by Ambrose to
retrieve the world's last container of the virus. If she hands it to him,
she'll probably get shot dead afterwards. If she runs into the arms of Cruise,
she'll get shot anyway. How does she keep the virus safe? Answers on a
postcard please...
No doubt, Nick Fisher in The Sun will rate this film "fin-tastic"
(ho-ho!) and Gail Porter will shed her clothes again in salute, but
for me, it doesn't feel like a "Mission: Impossible" film and if you changed
the title, Cruise's character name and took out the line about things
self-destructing in five seconds, this could be any other action film
directed by Woo.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
