Where is the MI team Tom? (Mission Impossible 2 (DVD))

Member Name: johnpaul

Product:	Mission Impossible 2 (DVD)
Date:	17/07/00 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: First twenty minutes

Disadvantages: Waste of a format, Tom Cruise lacks true charm

Tom Cruise enters the fray once again as 'Ethan Hawke' with the Mission Impossible franchise, now seemingly all his own.
The first film was a classic case of rabid Hollywood producers thinking "Hey, wouldn't it be great to kill off the Mission Impossible team, cos, gee, that never happened in the TV series did it?", once again a great format bit the dust due to the ridiculous assumption that you've got to do something 'different' with it on the big screen.

Anyone can see that the Mission Impossible format is a gift to any scriptwriter. It instantly calls for an ensemble cast and large, baroque, orchestrated scenes of teamwork and espionage. Killing of the entire team, bar our Tom, within the first reel, smacks of desperation.

So, given a second chance, is there an attempt to resurrect the formula that was so stupidly pissed away at the beginning of the first film?

No.

This is, of course, a Tom Cruise vehicle, and even John Woo can't save the first hour and a half of tedium, as we are dragged through Ethan's affair with professional thief Thandie Newton (who is a very attractive woman, but was evidently told to pout in a very unattractive manner for two hours, either by Mr Cruise or Woo - my money's on Cruise).

To be fair, the first twenty minutes are ok- almost promising, but be prepared to wait more than an hour to see Woo's trademark OTT action sequences finally find their way to the screen, and even then, they don't look quite the part. Something to do with the dull, cinematography, or even the backdrop of Australia itself, with it's brown grass, and a vaguely seventies feel, that leaves the look of the film sorely lacking.

Ethan does have a MI team, a token two members, who are only there to fly the helicopter, or occasionally pass him things, in between which we see the camera's love affair with Nicole Kidman's husband, but this in
no way makes any use of the format. The improbable face masks make an appearance, and there is one deception scene taken directly from the original series, but this is merely a limp apology for such a blatantly wasted opportunity.

Summary: