MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2

My memory of this film was that it is the worst of the series, even worse than 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One', although at least it has a snappier title.

However for most of the running time (a sprightly 124 minutes) I was pleasantly surprised at the restraint being shown by the director John Woo, and I was enjoying the way the story (courtesy of the great Robert Towne) mashed up 'Notorious' with 'Goldeneye'.

Admittedly there were a few things to worry me, such as the length of Tom Cruise's hair, Ethan Hunt having sex, and the abysmal heavy rock version of the iconic theme tune.

But overall things were going along OK, and I was even getting tense about what might happen to Nyah (the equivalent of Ingrid Bergman's character in 'Notorious').  This was on top of the tension I always feel whenever there is a deadly virus in town.

Unfortunately the picture falls off a cliff with maybe fifteen minutes to go.  It's at the point where (absurdly) Ethan uses the old rubber mask trick to swap places with the number two baddie.  Absurd because Ethan doesn't have the time or equipment to make the swap.  It's also about the fourth time the rubber mask routine is used in the film, which is way too much.

And then we're into the inevitable prolonged action sequence to finish things off.  Leaving aside the fact that I may be the only person on the planet who thinks Woo is a lousy action director (I'm not a fan of using slow motion for starters) it goes on for far too long, it uses a couple of motorcycles that conveniently appear out of nowhere, it overdoes Hunt using martial arts kicks and the like, and it ends on a ludicrous note when Hunt manages to flip a gun out of the sand with his foot, grab it, and shoot the villain of the piece, Sean, before Sean himself gets to fire his gun.  Oh dear.

So once the dust has settled one can reflect on the fact that there's no attempt to flesh out Sean's motivation (he's an IMF agent gone rogue), that Nyah is also a thin character, that there isn't much of an IMF team here, and neither is there much in the way of spectacle. 

Despite these shortcomings, because this time round my expectations were very low I ended up being less disappointed than when I first saw it, but even so there's really no getting round the fact that it is a poor entry in the franchise.  

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm