 Mission Impossible: II, 2000My alternate title for this film is:Mission Impossible II: Tom Cruise in Slow Motion My wife and I tried to come up with a number of different things that Tom Cruise fans would enjoy him doing, while in slow motion. Tom Cruise, going to the bathroom, in slow motion. Tom Cruise, eating chili, in slow motion. Tom Cruise, washing his hands, in slow motion. I won't tell you my favorite, except that it involved a young boy. This movie is a big jerk-off job to Cruise. It's no secret the battles that Woo and Cruise had on the set. Cruise had an idea of what he wanted to portray... mainly himself in the best possible bad-ass light ever... and Woo wanted to, you know, MAKE A GOOD FILM. Poor John Woo. For those of you who do not know this action film masters work, I implore you, rent the following:
A Better Tomorrow This is directing. This is getting your film done, with a singular vision. This is hard work. My favorite American film of John Woo's is Hard Target. Jean-Claude Van Damme became the testing target for all of the Hong Kong producer/directors who came over to Hollywood to make big budget action films, such as Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. But only Woo made a decent film with Hard Target, which echoed his ability to direct real action... but was then cut to ribbons by the powers that be. Woo couldn't get a break... and the same is true today. This film should have been a difinitive Woo film. After his other crap movies (after Target), including Broken Arrow (written by the hack of all hacks (besides Akiva Goldsmith), Graham Yost), the Americanized version of Once a Thief, Face/Off (not a bad film, for certain, and it's ranked second of my favorites of Woo's American films), Blackjack (which I did not see), and MI:2... Woo fought the man, teeth and nail. But, in the end, all he could do was produce this crap for producers like Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner (who does the jerk-off handjob "Tom Cruise is the best" thing very well in the supplementals of the DVD). John Woo is a god among directors, with an eye for action better than anyone in the past ten years. John Mctiernan has it, Richard Donner has it, Paul Verhoeven has it, and a few others... but Woo has an edge over them all. Or had. Robert Towne, in my opinion, was a good screenwriter fifteen years ago. Yes, Chinatown is one of the best scripts around. But, look at Chinatown and look at MI:2. Give me a break. MI:2 is so full of useless dialog, obvious characters and scenes... it's one big joke. I liked Mission: Impossible, the first installment, a lot. But I don't credit that to Towne either. Towne is one of those guys who the execs bring in to re-work a story that is already good, just so that they can tell the BRASS that Towne worked on the script and everything will be just fine. Well, nothing was fine about this movie. Today, in this day-and-age, successful movies are defined as "Money-makers". MI:2 was a money maker, for certain. Hell, I went to see it in the theaters, but only because of Woo. And it sucked then. I watched it on DVD as a kind of masochistic honor to Woo... and I regret it. Tom Cruise replays his role as Ethan Hunt, alone, without is team, still working for IMF, under the reign of (JESUS CHRIST) Anthony Hopkins (How the hell did they get him for this shit? $$$). His character is much more wooden in this film... almost as if he's gearing up for the finale, the entire time. He did an ok job acting, but I'm sure his mind was much more behind the camera than it was paying attention to his role. Dougray Scott. Eh, nothing so great, he made a piss-poor villian, very cardboard like, almost like every other villian ever, like Towne went and watched a whole bunch of Bond films so he could come up with how to deal with Sean Ambrose. Sheesh. Thandie Newton, a newcomer to the Hollywood scene, the idea here was to get her breasts in almost every shot, very similar to the first film with Emmanuelle Beart, who played Claire Phelps. Mostly, she was a pretty face. Her previous work is nothing to really call home about. Mostly independent films, mostly crap. She played her role ok, but again, the writing was so bad that her character was nothing new, nothing exceptional, a wooden doll. I'm sorry to say that Ving Rhames, who did a great job in the first film, played THE SAME EXACT ROLE in the second film. No, not just the same... he was in the same situations, the same everything. Then he gets those great lines like "This isn't funny", or "Now I'm pissed off". Whew, talk about a choice role. Oh, but he did get to shoot some guns and a grenade launcher, so I guess that makes up for it all. He's an excellent actor when he wants to be, was great in Pulp Fiction, Rosewood, Con Air, Out of Sight, Bringing Out the Dead... and in the future we get to see him in (shudder) Baby Boy. Wonderful. The only saving grace about this film is the photography. Jeffrey L. Kimball is an incredible cinematographer, has been since the beginning. In 1971 he worked on a film called On the Line, a psuedo-documentary. Then, in 1982 he worked as a DP second unit on Cat People. In 1985 he shot The Legend of Billy Jean... and then exploded onto the cinematographer scene shooting Top Gun for Tony Scott. From there, Beverly Hills Cop II, Revenge, Jacob's Ladder, True Romance, The Specialist, Wild Things, Stigmata, MI:2 and Woo's new film (which looks terrible) Windtalkers. It's gorgeous photography, and it saves the movie, somewhat, but not enough. For those of you who think this is a pinnacle action film (and believe me, I've heard that from a number of people), give Woo's other work a chance. You'll learn to appreciate the finer aspects of directing without Hollywood hanging over your head, waiting for the toned down version. You'll learn to appreciate the finer aspects of directing without an ego like Cruise's over your head. It's a terrible film, and it's a vehicle for Cruise, only. If you're that big of a fan of his, so be it. But if you're looking for something other than a man stroking himself... forget it.
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