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| Star Tom Cruise entrenched in a sea of fire on the eye-stopping poster for John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2 |
IMF agent Ethan Hunt gets a new mission: Using a beautiful woman as bait, he is to retrieve a deadly virus from his now rogue ex-colleague. Hunt falls in love with his bait, however, complicating matters.
Mission: Impossible 2 is written by Robert Towne (Cisco Pike (1971)), with Brannon Braga (Salem (2014-16)) and Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica (2004-09)) contributing story elements, and directed by great Chinese filmmaker John Woo (The Young Dragons/Tie han rou qing (1974)).
It is a spectacular and highly stylized action vehicle built around its towering star Tom Cruise (Eyes Wide Shut (1999)), whose screen power has been matched by few in all the history of cinema. But the whole cast and crew give it their all on what is certainly Woo's best film made in the West.
Ving Rhames' (Piranha 3D (2010)) Luther character is a gift to the franchise; Anthony Hopkins (Slipstream (2007)) is another joy here, and Thandiwe Newton (RocknRolla (2008)) is a beauty as the woman Hunt falls for. Dougray Scott's (Last Passenger (2013)) villain is a bit of a disappointment though, and one misses a name actor in the part to be honest.
Hans Zimmer's (Widows (2008)) score feels like a rehearsal to his later (great) work in The Dark Knight (2008): Somewhat comic kitsch meets solemn, Greek myth-like grandeur - and hard rock.
But M:I 2 is all about visuals, and those provided here an action fan will not want to miss.
Related post:
John Woo: Face/Off (1997) - Travolta and Cage butt heads in Woo's wild, silly action machine
Watch the incredible intro of the film here
Cost: 125 mil. $
Box office: 546.3 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.37 times its cost)
[Mission: Impossible 2 premiered 18 May (Los Angeles) and runs 123 minutes. Towne has reported that several action sequences were planned for the film, before its story was set. Shooting took place from April - December 1999 in Australia, including Sydney, Utah, Arizona and in California, including Los Angeles. Cruise refused to change his introduction scene of him free-climbing in Utah's Moab, which was done only with a harness and no safety net. In a jump in the scene, he tore his shoulder. Newton has many years later recalled Cruise's perfectionism on-set as a "nightmare". Hopkins was paid 5 mil. $ for his part; Cruise made incredible 75 mil. $ on the film through gross participation salary. The film opened #1 to a 57.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it retained the #1 spot for another 2 weekends and spent a subsequent 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 215.4 mil. $ (39.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 94.1 mil. $ (17.2 %) and the UK with 26.3 mil. $ (4.8 %). It was the highest-grossing film worldwide of 2000 and the highest-grossing in the M:I franchise until Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), the 4th entry. The M:I franchise with Cruise at the helm has spawned 4 films since M:I 2, with 2 more production. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Woo returned with Windtalkers (2002). Cruise returned in Vanilla Sky (2001). Mission: Impossible 2 is rotten at 57 % with a 5.96/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Mission: Impossible 2?
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