Search - Mission - Impossible II [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 3/23/2024...

Great action, mystery and suspense series with Tom Cruise throughout the movies!

Woo! One very good action pic

hultrain | Atlanta, GA United States | 10/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"OK, Ok, if you've read the reviews (both professional and customer), you've probably heard all the negatives...bad plot, cliches, predictability, etc. etc. And perhaps all of that is true; for example, who could buy a love story that starts out with the hero and heroine making googy-eyes at each other while one of them is dangling periously over the edge of a cliff? But, it seems to me that the whole point of a good action flick is the ACTION, isn't it? I mean, if you want to see great plot, multi-dimensional characters and the like, I direct you to the various films in the Merchant Ivory genre. If you like good action, stylish film-making, and overall bang for your buck, MI:2 is the way to go. What MI:2 may lack in the complexity of its plot or character development, it more than makes up for it with the complexity of many of its action scenes. This corroborates the rumor that the screenplay was written around the action "set pices" already composed by Cruise and Woo. (And really, shouldn't a good action movie revolve around the actual action scenes?) From the opening of the movie, the famous rock-climbing stunt, you can tell that the action pieces in this movie will be something different. And from the panoramic and breathtaking rock-climbing scene to the motorcycle-chase, cum shoot-out, cum hand-to-hand combat finale, you can't help but be riveted by John Woo's unltra-macho, ultra-stylistic direction. Even a scene involving flamenco dancers is turned into macho eye-candy by Woo's deft film artistry. And sure, Woo often riverts to the same formula: slow-mo shots, standoffs where all the characters seem to be pointing about a million guns at each other, a strange fetish for doves and pigeons.... But, darn it, all these things look good! Another, quite refreshing, positive in this movie is that the female character, played by Thandie Newton, is not a simple foil character, made to be used sexually and then killed off to make way for another potential conquest. Instead, she actually makes a unilateral, powerful decision at the movie's climax that affects the entire outcome of the movie. Show me a Bond pic where that happens! All in all, despite its flaws with plot and character, MI:2 delivers the best of all cinematic guilty pleasures: a good couple of hours on the edge of your seat, and some virtuoso, fun-to-watch film-making. This movie should make any fan of action pics very happy."

Wonderfully Visual Action Re-Make of "Notorious" !!

kentuckyreader | Louisville, Kentucky USA | 06/26/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was surprised to discover that this is a refashioning of Hitchcock's 1946 classic "Notorious." While Cruise and Newton are no Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, they don't try to be. Refreshingly, the film only borrows the shell of the story, without trying to be some kind of remake.Thandie Newton is, in particular, a pleasure in this film. Not only does she have truckloads of screen presence, is strikingly beautiful (I can't stop watching her when she's onscreen), and can actually act, she has been given an actual flesh and blood, thinking, real character to portray ... not just "the woman." I was disappointed in one scene, though, where she - an obviously skilled pickpocket - makes the grevious error of replacing an item into the wrong pocket from which she'd originally picked it, which reveals herself to the villain. However, later, she regains this ground when she injects herself with the virus, turning herself from a somewhat disposable character into suddenly the most valuable person in the room.But what I like most about this film is something I like about other Woo films I've seen (Face/Off). He takes characters who symbolically represent figures from ancient mythology and puts them into an arena to fight it out. This film tells you in the first sentence what the story is really about: "When you set out to create a hero, you must first create something that all heroes require: a villain."We return to this theme at the very end during the motorcycle chase. When the two men fly off of those cycles and slam into each other, we finally have our hero and our villain, our virus and antivirus, engaged in mortal combat - each as brutal, each as determined, each as clever.Wordlessly pounding each other on that surf-battered shore, in truly operatic fashion, the film elevates from a mere action movie to the level of mythology, and to one myth in particular: the desperate battle between good and evil.Woo realizes this myth on the screen in true, splashy, Saturday matinee fashion, and - on that level - it is quite a pleasure to watch!"

Should have gone straight to video!

kentuckyreader | 03/30/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen! I am a big fan of action movies, and anything that is similar to James Bond with cool gadgets and cool cars. I understand that some movies will have portions that are unrealistic and difficult to believe. This movie takes that to a whole new level. There is not one thing in in this movie that is believable. They could have made some part of it where an average person could have done one thing in this movie. The acting is terrible, the action is way over done. By the time you get to the end you just want it to be over so you can say you watch. Honestly, I say don't even waste your time renting it like I did on Pay Per View. But at least see it before you buy it. I could never recommend this to anybody."