Mission: Impossible II (2000)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  5 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: The second Mission: Impossible movie sees John Woo take the wheel from Brian De Palma, and on the one hand that means we get a very different visual style and some cheesy attempts at character development. Really though, it's still a very similar movie at its core - a bare-bones escapism spy-thriller were the mission takes centre-stage and the extreme action and Tom Cruise's engaging performance bind the whole thing together.
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The issue is that Woo's approach is just extremely un-sophisticated, and whilst that's hardly unsurprising when compared to De Palma, there's no smart engineering of tension here and even the action lacks all of the tangibility and is instead shot like a rubbish video game. Also, now that the talented David Koepp is gone from the writing crew, the dialogue lacks panache or impact as well, and as a result it's harder to take so seriously even though the film seems to deliver everything fairly flatly. In the end then it all becomes a fairly dull and lifeless movie experience when compared to the suspense-ridden first installment, and it undoubtedly marks the lowest point that its franchise has reached thus far.
  VERDICT: Another Mission: Impossible joint that follows in the footsteps of Brian De Palma's first installment, 'Mission: Impossible 2,' sadly just lacks the sophistication to pull it all off.

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