Mission Impossible 2

After the first installment was a commercial and a critical success, Ethan Hunt came back to the movie screens for another episode of "Mission Impossible" and since Tom Cruise is very involved with the project being a producer as well, he hired no other then Mr Hong Kong cinema himself, John Woo, to direct the sequel, was it a success ? let's dig deeper.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the new leader of IMF, and while on vacation doing some extreme sports thing he gets contacted by the Agency, and during a meeting in an exotic location Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins) informs him that some prototype virus "Chimera" had been stolen by his arch rival Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), and that his mission "should he choose to accept it" is to retrieve the virus and it's antidote, he might choose two teem members and the third must be Nyah Nordof-Hall (Thandie Newton), a woman who had a relationship with Ambrose and well trained in her field.

From Spain to Australia, back to America, and again, the chase between Hunt and Ambrose goes firece, while both fight to get their hands on Chimera, a love triangle forms between the three of them, and indeed it has an effect on the progression as anytime the professional and the moral and the sentimental gets mixed, you always know in your heart that the good guys win, but at what cost, to themselves and humanity.

A highly anticipated sequel, turned out to be a mere money maker, John Woo lost his mojo when he moved to America and he never got it back, he surely made a lots of money, but he did a big harm to his filmography, an American action hero is not as absolute as a hong kong one, and besides, the story doesn't justify the stunts, which are the true force of this movie, and the two most important ones, the vilain and the love interest are far from convincing, Thandie Newton was a clear miscasting, and Scott could be a goold vilain would his character be drawn better, but again, this is a star vehicle for Tom Cruise, who shines in shades and on motorcycles, doing stuff that is illegitmate outside of Hong Kong, i mean at one point, a white dove flies out of nowhere for god's sake ! but it was a good summer movie, which a lot of movie fans wanted to like, and the remainder is a couple of mountain climbing stunts, and some scenes that look like the prototype of the far superiour "The Dark Knight", indeed at the heart of a good action movie are story and character, and character is exactly what this movie lacks.