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Mission Impossible 2

Mission Impossible 2

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Taking a turn to action.
Review: In an effort to make up for the lags of the first Mission Impossible, MI:2 goes for the action. The first one was cerebral and bizarre at times, succeeding at not making itself clear in some scenes, typical of Brian De Palma. I guess when Tom Cruise, who served as producer on the first and second film, realized the lack of excitement in the first one, he wanted to make sure the action scenes in the second would be spectacular. He succeeded by hiring John Woo for the director. Woo's claim to fame is action movies, doing such adrenlized hits as Face/Off, Broken Arrow and several high energy Hong Kong actions flicks. Unfortunately, the story was made much simpler in order to counter the fear that people might this one confusing too. The MI TV series was always like a bad dream, you never knew what could happen next or who you could you trust and although the first MI followed that pattern, the second one throws it out the window. The villain is made clear from the beginning. This is typical Spy thriller stuff. Mega virus is stolen. Secret government agents go after the man who has it, wackiness ensues in the form of killer actions scenes and the hero saves the day. No one is called on to do any kind of stretch of their acting chops. The movie is simple and the action scenes are awesome if not bordering on absurd. Give Cruise credit for beefing up and doing almost all of his own stunt work and fight scenes, it's quite convincing. The DVD is packed with extra stuff, so if you like John Woo actioners, this movie is worth buying on DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better Than The First
Review: I was not a big fan of the first Mission Impossible but when I Saw Part 2 I thought it was better than it. Tom Cruise had a lot more to work with more stunts,action and a better looking love interest than in the first. Also Ving Rhames was better. I recommend this film for anyone who likes good action and an all in all great piece of cinema.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: PIECE OF GARBAGE
Review: MI2 is a piece of garbage. Even watching it with your brain turned off, you can't enjoy this lame "action" movie, where TOm Cruise destroyed Ethan Hunt's character forever, where the bad guy is a joke, where there's no chemistry between Cruise and the female main character, where the action sequence are all in slow motion; where the face-mask device is repeated thousand times; whre everything smells "money!!". This is the lowest point in Cruise's career, but apparently he did it for the doubtful pleasure of working with "genius" director John Woo...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MI 2
Review: 100 times better than MI 1. This one is a fun, fast, and enjoyable thriller with all the action needed to get no break at all. Its still very vague on plot line, but that didn't bother me. A very enjoyable watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great rendition of MI
Review: I absolutely loved this movie. The action is non-stop and the acting is great. I must admit that I've grown fonder of it after watching the special features on the disk. That Tom Cruise did his own stunts -- WOW!

I liked the first MI but this one has more of the formula that worked in the original series. Whereas in the first one Ethan kind of caves in when his team gets destroyed (which is something an agent would never do in the series -- they always kept their cool even in the gravest of situations) this one keeps to the original's portrayal of the agents -- calm, cool and collected no matter what.

If the action/love interest doesn't get you then the special effects surely will. One of my favorites is the making of the knife up to Tom Cruise's eye -- very intense...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Woo's best but MILES BETTER THEN MOST HOLLYWOOD ACTION!
Review: I must admit i am a huge John Woo fan, very biased. But in order to be objective i will say this is probably one of his worst movies. However to quote Sam Raimi "Woo at 70 percent is still going to blow away most action directors at 100 percent". I personally think he blows away all action directors. Now for my review. This movie has problems. The romance thing really (angered me). I know Woo wanted Romance but it did not work and has no real place for this type of movie. The romance should have been tacked on, not been a primary driving force. The car-chase thing togeter made even the die-hard woo fan in me gag. Totally silly. But with DVD magic you can fast-forward the scene. THe movie also takes too long to get the the first shoot-out in the lab. Way to long and should have been edited down. However besides the romance most non-action scenes work quite well as Woo with the help of great cinematography makes them more interesting then they are. Other good points are a good pair of bad guys, Dougray Scott and his henchmen. The movie does do a good job of setting up a believable rivalry between Hunt/Ambrose. The score was also excellent. And of course its John Woo. Yes his penhant for romance (isn't good) but his other trademarks like trenchcoats, sunglasses, two guns, explosions slow-mo etc. are always awesome when unleashed. It seems the slow-motion bothered many but not me, i think his timing for it is amazing and i was never bored except during the car-chase btw Ethen and Nya. His use of symbolism like doves and the firewalk bothered people too but me being a John Woo fan its just part of the fun of seeing his movies. Then of course there is the last 45 minutes of action with some great sequences. Personally my favorite stunt was the whole jousting scene between hunt and ambrose. Not realistic but no Woo movies are. Finally most hollywood action movies are pretty bad compared to this. MTV generation directors try to rip Woo's style but end up with action sequences that are very weak. I will take a Woo movie even when its not his best over bad hollywoodaction any day.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: M:I 2 (Great Sequel better than the Original)
Review: Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt. IMF agent chosen to recover a stolen virus. It is a threat to Australia and must be destroyed immediately. Only way to do that is to find a cure for it. Agent Hunt goes on several missions trying to settle with this problem. The closest he comes to is when he breaks into a lab and manages to destroy all the viruses except one. His girlfriend, Nyah (played by Thandie Newton) infects herself with it just to keep it out of the hands of the bad guys. But Ethan still needs to find the cure for it within 20 hours and get it to her before it kills her dead. Fantastic Action Movie. Most definitely much better than M:I. Original movie was terrible.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Action
Review: I have read other reviews on this film I really like it for Its action and thrills, and Tom was not bad to look at. He surely was my eye candy. I know it did not stay with the orig. but this is a new day and time. The only thing I would have like to see would been more agents with him like in the orig. But I guess we can't have everything. But boy, was he fine fine .... I would take a car ride with him.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Suffers by comparison
Review: I liked this movie, but it didnt live up to the first Mission Impossible. The action was good, with a great motorcycle chase scene towards the end. The villian was good and despicable. The effects were good. But it lost the magic that we expected after seeing the first MI.

The thing that I liked the least was the totally unbelieveable relationship between Ethan (Tom Cruise) and the main woman (I forget her name which should tell you something). They just went from flirting to "in love" way to easily for my tastes. It seemed laughable.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Mission: Tom Cruise's Ego
Review: This movie was made for two reasons and two people only: Tom Cruise and his ego. From the opening unrealistic scene of Tom Cruise mountain climbing and jumping from rock to rock in the arizona desert you knew this movie was all about Cruise. Jump to Cruise chasing after some beautiful woman in a fast car (completely ripped off from James Bond) and he of course he falls in love with her 5 minutes after he gets her in the sack. And shock shock his boss needs Cruise to 'use' her to get his man. Now we get to see the anguished Cruise, followed by the superhero action Cruise.

Why even bother naming this movie Mission Impossible? It was cocktail/top gun/days of thunder with high tech gadgets. Last I checked the actual series and even the first movie was supposed to be about a team. There were at least three requisite pulling off the fake face routine and by the third time not only was there no suspense it was obvious for even a third grader to figure out.

As far as the directing is concerned, yes John Woo is a great director, but he must have shot half the movie in slow motion which made the movie seem ponderous and self indulgent. It's incredible that off all the movies John Woo made this is the only one that is obviously controlled by the star, and the funny thing is I like a lot of Tom Cruise movies. The one star is for the music but even that got on my nerves by the end. For Tom Cruise fans only.


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