Mission Impossible 2
A John Woo movie, nuff said.
By Christopher Welch

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John Woo is the Man! With films such exquisite pieces of cinematic poetry as The Killer, Hard Boiled, and Face Off under his belt he has combined wonderfully complex character plays with mind blowing action sequences second to none. While not as good as some of his other movies M:I2 helps to prove that even though encumbered by the Hollywood system, he can still turn out a heck of an action flick.

This film makes no bones about it. M:I2 is a total guy flick. Tom Cruise spends the entire movie, driving awesome cars, doing death defying stunts, sleeping with gorgeous women, and generally just kicking butt, and taking names. While most women will enjoy the film just because they get to see Tom Cruise looking better than he's probably ever looked before. They won't understand the subtle intricacies of him hanging from a shear cliff, or spinning his motorcycle on one wheel, like most guys will.

If you go to this movie to see a bunch of kick butt action you will not be disappointed. The film does a great job of doing just that. While the beginning doesn't have a whole lot of action. The last third of the film or so starting at an incident at a chemical plant on, is basically just one huge testosterone soaked orgy of action and violence. What else would you expect from John Woo?

While I really liked the first Mission: Impossible film as well, many people complained that it was too confusing, and hard to follow. This is definitely not the case in this film, and unfortunately one of its down falls. The plot is fairly straight forward. Dougray Scott a rogue secret agent steals a deadly virus that he plans to unleash on the world if he doesn't get X amount of money. Its up to Ethan Hunt, and his team to stop him. Its pretty simple, in fact its a little too simple. Along these same lines the relationship that develops between Cruise and Thandie Newton happens a little too quickly, and seems a bit forced. However admittedly with a film of this kind you're not really looking for some deep mind tease, or a long and involving love story.. You're really just looking for an excuse to blow things up.

Aside from the film's simplicity it also suffers what I can only imagine what must have been some fairly tight studio controls placed on Woo the film's director. While he does a truly great job with the movie, one can't help but notice that the film doesn't have quite the same depth as some of his other works, and that it also a bit more timid when it comes to violence. If you're expecting any classic ten thousand bullet shoot outs that have become a staple of Woo's films, you won't find any. Mind you there is a scene in a drug lab involving lots of guns, and ammunition, that while is really cool compared to almost any other movie shoot out, isn't quite up to par to Woo's normal standard. This doesn't mean that Woo doesn't try though. While not everyone may agree with me, I think Woo gave it his best, and tried to sneak in as much depth as he could without being to brazen.

One of the cooler emotional aspects of the film in my opinion is the lament, and guilt Cruise feels for having to force his love into a dangerous situation. In fact it is this guilt, and what happens to her because of this that drives his actions in the last part of the film. Admittedly we're not talking the same spiritual deepness that many of his characters have displayed in his other films, but its at least something. I also feel that he tries to throw a little bit of subtext into the film as well regarding this issue. While Tom Cruise makes it through the entire movie in almost pristine condition in a fight to the death at the end of the movie, the right side of his face (in psychological terms his good, side as opposed to the left side, which represents evil) gets permanently scarred. Showing that while he may have won the day. He has forever scarred a part of himself because of this, and can never truly do anything to take that away.

Okay I know I probably just got way to deep, but don't worry you don't have to think about that if you don't want. M:I2 is a great summer flick to just sit back relax, and enjoy. If you like John Woo movies you'll like it, and even though its not classic Woo it still has enough signature elements (such as the doves) to keep you from forgetting that it is one of his movies. If you're not a John Woo fan, but just like rocking action you'll like it too. In fact this movie may even make you a fan, because this film still proves that John Woo is the Man!