(What. The fuck. Is up. With those. Goddamned. Doves?)
CAST: Tom Cruise. Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Sherbedgia.
DIRECTOR: John Woo
WARNING: Minor SPOILERS and some really annoying bird action right up ahead.
In the review to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (#60), I highlighted just how Hitchcockian the film was with its emphasis on set-pieces that carefully built up suspense and spiced then up with unexpected flashes of action. This blend of cerebral and visceral thrills helped make M:I into an international success - naturally leading to a sequel. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 was directed by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo, known for his flamboyant and flashy visual style, which is the diametrical opposite of Brian De Palma's carefully chilly tone echoing Alfred Hitchcock's. With such a different director behind the camera this time, one thing was for certain: M:I 2 would be very different from M:I.
Surprisingly, before the film turns into an overblown action extravaganza, it looks like Woo is at least partially inspired by Hitchcock. Or, more specifically, Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS. Those of you familiar with the Master of Suspense's oeuvre will remember NOTORIOUS as the 1946 suspense/espionage thriller wherein a spy (Cary Grant) persuades his lover (Ingrid Bergman) to romance and infiltrate the household of a potential baddie (Claude Rains). Talk about romantic. In M:I 2, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) persuades his new lover, Nyah Nordhoff-Hall (Thandie Newton), to spy on her former lover Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), himself an IMF agent.
But a little background on the Ethan-Nyah relationship. Evidently, Nyah is some sort of skilled thief whom Ethan needs to have on his team. He finds her in Seville, Spain trying to steal a necklace from a safe ensconced within a bathtub - which is really just a blatant excuse for Nyah and Ethan to rub crotches against one another in the confined space when he catches her in the act. After the requisite bickering and "you will never have any of this" schtick from Nyah, she eventually decides to accept Ethan's offer to help with his mission.
What's the mission? Glad you asked. See, in the opening scene, a Russian scientist (Rade Sherbedgia) was escorted by Ethan onto a plane under some sort of protective custody thing. Apparently, the Russkie was getting ready to turn in a vicious virus to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta to keep it out of the hands of rogue individuals willing to sell it to the highest bidder or, I don't know, unleash it themselves on whatever drunk assholes happen to be pissing them off on any given weekend. Unfortunately, who we think is Ethan is actually IMF-agent-gone-psycho Sean Ambrose. We discover this when "Ethan" rips off a latex mask to reveal our villain. Killing everyone on board, Sean and his cohorts steal the virus and skedaddle out of the plane - right before it goes up like New Year's Eve in Italy against a mountaintop.
So.... needless to say, the world's got a bit of a problem now. And that's why Ethan's rock-climbing vacation was interrupted by his boss (Anthony Hopkins) so that Ethan could get a head-start on righting the wrong perpetrated by one of their own. This is what led Ethan to Seville, and the reason that it's imperative for Nyah to be on Ethan's new team is because she used to fuck Sean - and that intimacy is a valuable bargaining chip in trying to get the virus back.
This proves all too true when Sean learns that Nyah is coming back to him because of her sudden status as a fugitive - courtesy of IMF's machinations. Unfortunately, Sean's # 1 cohort (Richard Roxburgh) correctly surmises that: (1) Nyah is about as trustworthy as cat in a tuna factory, (2) she's obviously got an agenda, and (3) Sean's a horny dumb shit for welcoming her back with open arms. Sean, for his part, shows his even-temper and willingness to consider a viewpoint that may not necessarily jive with his by: (1) nodding calmly, (2) smiling, (3) placing a brotherly hands on his cohort's shoulder, then (4) forcing the fucker onto his knees and chopping his fingertip off with a cigar-trimmer. Safe to say that cohort #1 will likely keep his goddamned opinions to himself from now on.
Joining Ethan and Nyah for this new mission are Luther (Ving Rhames) and, um, some Aussie guy whose name I can't remember (John Polson plays him, though). The rest of the film chronicles the foursome's attempts to: (1) prevent Sean from unleashing the virus on an unsuspecting world, (2) get Nyah out of Sean's clutches before he discovers she's a mole, and (3) keep Ethan's hair perfectly coiffed from scene to scene. Needless to say, that last bit is the most challenging goal.
Oh, and one thing I will say to John Woo: get rid of those fucking doves before I shoot them and braise them in lemon juice and olive oil. Seriously.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Just going to come out and say it: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 is nowhere near as good as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Yes, it's kinetic and action-packed and great to look at, but the fact remains that there really isn't a whole lot going on here. If it weren't for John Woo's over-the-top use of slow motion, this movie would've probably been a lot shorter than it is. You have to wonder if the producers paid heed to all the misguided complaints about M:I having too complicated and confusing a plot - and decided to essentially dumb down this installment. For the record, I thought M:I 's plot was easy enough to follow and was also quite interesting. By contrast, M:I 2's plot is so thin as to be almost non-existent. And no matter how many times Woo unleashes his doves and his slo-mo routine, it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't have much to work with. And it's annoying to boot.
The actors are all fine. Tom Cruise turns in good work, as usual. The hauntingly-beautiful Thandie Newton matches - and, in some scenes, even exceeds - him, making them a strong couple with the right amount of chemistry. Indeed, their relationship is the only thing that elevates M:1 2 somewhat and keeps it from being mediocre. Ethan and Nyah's bond is the vehicle that gets the film over its dull spots and keeps it on track. Without it, the movie would be far worse. Dougray Scott is okay but not remarkable as the villain. Guess Nyah left him because he was not only crazy but boring, to boot. Ving Rhames is a warm familiar presence from the first film, while Richard Roxburgh and John Polson are competent in their respective roles of bad cohort and good cohort.
All in all, the Ethan-Nyah love story, aided by Hans Zimmer beautiful score, is M:I 2's saving grace. This thread provides the film with an emotional foundation that was missing from the first film. Sadly though, it's not enough to make it as good as its predecessor - because M:1 did everything else right. If the Ethan-Nyah subplot had been attached to a more interesting and properly-executed main plot, we might have had a worthier sequel. Instead of an average one.
