Mission: Impossible II (2000)

John Woo was already a highly acclaimed director by the time he transferred his trade to Hollywood. With the likes of A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled, produced in his native Hong Kong, he had earned his reputation as an action maestro, one capable of delivering a gun-fight with balletic grace, almost like watching poetry in motion. His Hollywood career started off okay with Hard Target and Broken Arrow, two forgettable if sufficiently entertaining vehicles for Jean-Claude Van Damme and John Travolta. He went up a couple of gears in 1997 with Face/Off, an outrageous thriller with two off-the-leash central performances, and it felt like Woo had finally worked out the formula of translating his chaotic brand of action and humour for American audiences. That was all before Tom Cruise suggested him for the follow-up to Brian De Palma's nifty thriller Mission: Impossible. M:I-2, as the posters branded it, not only manages to be completely hollow, but incredibly boring.While De Palma made some controversial changes to the formula of the original TV series, the first Mission: Impossible still embraced much of what was loved about it. It was grounded in a world of espionage and secret government departments, with Tom Cruise's relatively inexperienced Ethan Hunt at the centre of the unravelling plot. Woo throws the majority of this out of the window in favour of something more flashy and violent, changing Hunt from an opportunistic rookie to a leather-jacket wearing superhero capable of gravity-defying kicks and physics-defying driving. When we first meet him, he's free-climbing in Utah, in what is the movie's only heart-pounding moment. It establishes this new Hunt as a fearless adrenaline-junkie, and when he finally makes it to the top, he is handed his next mission, should he choose to accept it, via a pair of soon-to-be self-destructed sunglasses. The mission is to track down and retrieve a deadly virus stolen by rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott). To assist him, Hunt must also recruit professional thief Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), who also happens to be a former flame of Ambrose.After the baffling plot of the first Mission: Impossible, it's something of a relief that Woo chose to keep things as simple as they are here. With films like this, the story only really serves as a way to get us to the next set-piece. The major issue is that Woo and writer Robert Towne (of The Last Detail and Chinatown fame) fail to inject any life into their characters, or at least give us anyone to root for. I like Tom Cruise and have nothing but respect for his desire to do all of his own stunts, but this smirking, floppy-haired version of Ethan Hunt comes across as a bargain-bin James Bond. Dougray Scott, who is one of the blandest actors around anyway, isn't helped by his one-note villain. Ambrose is simply an evil version of Hunt, only without the hero's plot armour. By the time Ving Rhames and John Polson are brought in for the final showdown, it's all too little, too late. By this time, Mission: Impossible II has already established Hunt as a one-man army, who naturally finds the time to romance his prettiest recruit when she's not busy trying to run him off a cliff. All of this could be forgiven if the action was on point. Guns are pointed dramatically and the camera swirls in slow-motion, but not even the obligatory flying doves can save M:I-2 from yawn-inducing mediocrity. It was a smash-hit at the box-office, but it's reputation meant that it would take six years for J.J. Abrams to save the franchise from an early demise.

The second installment in the MI series is actually better than the first one . The stunts are mind blowing , the story is great too .

"Mission: Impossible II" follows tried to come up with something totally different from the first, but it failed to impress.-Analysis of Notable Work- *Writing/Directing: The plot feels forced with twists once again, and they are not that clever. The story feels rather uninteresting. John Woo directs seemed to not be sure what he was doing with this film. It feels messy all the way through. *Cinematography/Editing: Jeffrey L. Kimball does some disappointing work in this film. Much like the previous film, it feels like a home video throughout most of it. The editing is also poor. It was not as exciting as it should have been. It was hard to get drawn into the film. *Dialogue/Acting: The dialogue is a minor improvement from the first film, but is still corny at times. The acting improves. Tom Cruise does his job again. Thandie Newton does well, but the direction makes her seem less impressive than she really is. The minor role of Anthony Hopkins is well performed. The villains are a bit more frightening than in the first film. *Music/Sound Design: The music makes this film seem a lot better than it really is. It does not match well, because the music is more intense than the events on camera, but it does make the whole production seem a bit more professional. The sound design is about the same as the first film, which means it is slightly disappointing. *Production Design/Special Effects: The sets feel too much like studio sets. They are not immersive or real feeling. The wardrobe choices are still strange, but better than the first film. The special effects improve on what the first film began, but they have a long way to go.*Conclusion: "Mission: Impossible II" makes some improvements from the first film, but it is still a disappointment and feels too unprofessional in a lot of ways.

The plot of this film is "borrowed" from Notorious which was one of Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant films. But John Woo took that story and made a really mediocre action film. Mission Impossible, TV and Movie, is a brain oriented franchise. But this film is filled with doves, love triangles, music video style shots and weird Gladiator soundtrack. Maybe if it was named "That Action Movie", it would've been success.