Risky Business: IMF Agent Ethan Hunt cruises to a Face/Off with a deadly virus-wielding baddie in M:I-2.

Mission:Impossible -- 2
Universal, 2000
Directed by John Woo

$$$1/2

In Mission:Impossible -- 2 Tom Cruise's mission is clear -- make a sequel that stands out. And it's Mission:Accomplished, thanks to the actor/producer's hiring of Hong Kong Action Master John Woo as the film's director.

On the surface, the addition of Woo means Cruise's IMF Agent Ethan Hunt now fires two guns at once inside of one. It also means that Tom Cruise, Hollywood Mega Star Pretty Boy instantly becomes Tom Cruise, Kung Fu Badass.

But there's more to Woo's style than just slo-mo angles of double-fisted gunplay and ludicrously acrobatic karate moves. The director brings an over-the-top, operatic melodrama to the standard espionage story that justifies the preposterously far-fetched action. Woo's accent marks are all over the film -- from a scene very early on showing one character's split-second vision of apocalyptic doom, to a close-up of a fire reflecting in the villain's tormented eyes, and to -- perhaps most memorably -- a ubiquitous John Woo white dove preceding one of Cruise's most dramatic entrances. The movie is much closer to Woo's classic films (The Killer, Hard Target, Face/Off) than to anything on the old '60s TV show.

Still, most of the franchise elements remain. This time around, the character of Ethan Hunt is a bit more confident and wiser than in the first M:I film -- and in the four years since, he obviously picked-up a few black belts. But, he still gets his assignments in the form of top secret messages from his Impossible Missions Force boss that self-destruct in five seconds. And he and the folks around him still spend a lot of time wearing so-realistic-you-can't-tell-the-difference! rubber masks of each other.

This time, the assignment (delivered by Anthony Hopkins in a fun cameo) sends Hunt Down Under to stop a fellow IMF agent gone bad (yep, another one -- that IMF must be one corrupt agency) who may-or-may not have stolen a super lethal virus for the purpose of global blackmail. One of Cruises other missions this time around was to make a film people could understand (since nobody seemed to be able to follow the last one). The bad news is -- this one doesn't make a whole lot of sense either -- the middle is especially muddled. The blame may lie with the screenwriters, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga. (The pair, who wrote for Star Trek:The Next Generation this time take a swipe at ruining another famous Paramount property.)

What is clear is that in hopes of preventing a global plague, Hunt enlists his old buddy, computer expert Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, the only other returning cast member from the first film) as well as an Australian helicopter pilot. But unlike the TV show, the other IMF team members don't do much -- this is more of a James Bond-style one hero show.

The fourth team member is a jewel thief, Nyah, played by the gorgeous Thandie Newton, for once getting a chance to play a glamourous modern day role that shows off her beauty (as opposed to the one-too-many 18th century slave girls on her resume). The love story between Nyah and Ethan is surprisingly effective. And the drama is heightened when Hunt is forced to send Nyah back into the arms of her former lover for the sole purpose of gathering information. Later, when Hunt finds himself in a desperate race to steal the cure to virus, he's motivated less by saving the world, and more by saving the woman who's stolen his heart. Woo understands that no matter how many bullets are fired, none of his action sequences will really work unless the audience cares about the characters and understands the stakes.

It all comes together in the film's last 45 minutes -- a non-stop, heart-racing ride of a last act that propels the movie toward classic status. The sequence concludes with another standard John Woo feature -- two former allies, turned mortal enemies, in a prolonged mano-a-mano slugfest death match in a remote area, in this case, a rocky cliff over the ocean. It doesn't get more dramatic than that, and movies don't get more thrilling than Mission:Impossible -- 2.

(c) Copyright 2000