Director: John Woo
Starring: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins
Running Time: 124 minutes
Synopsis: Impossible Missions Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with locating rogue ex-agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who has stolen a priceless pharmaceutical product. Ethan teams up with professional thief and Sean's ex-girlfriend Nyah (Thandie Newton). They fall in love before locating Sean in Sydney, where he is arranging to profit from villainy.
What Works Well: A series of set-pieces in search of a purpose, the first sequel is an intentional exercise in excessive style subjugating any attempts at substance. Director John Woo prolongs every action scene towards inflated operatic grandeur, with dramatic slow-motion and hair-in-the-wind close-ups used as punctuation marks to add more for the sake of more. Car chases, motorcycle duels, hand-to-hand combat, and fierce firefights are all elevated to feats of death-defying mythology.
What Does Not Work As Well: When it's not convoluted, the plot is inane. Both the antagonists and the love interest are of the instantly forgettable plastic variety, not helped by an underpowered supporting cast. The self-deprecating wit and careful but faulty planning hallmarks of the series are notably absent in favour of unnecessarily serious James Bond derivations, and the face mask trick achieves tiresome irrelevance through overuse.
Key Quote:
Ethan Hunt: We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now lets see what chance it has.
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