Mission: Impossible II (2000)

I am definitely going to be in the minority about this, but I thought this one was better than the first one. Mission: Impossible II is superior to Mission: Impossible because it has characters instead of test dummies, and plot instead of sheer confusion. Now, granted, I like the first Mission: Impossible, but I don’t love it. This film, while I still don’t love it, I do like it a lot more. Here, the torch is passed down to John Woo, who is probably most known for directing the film Face/Off with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. While this film is nowhere near the critical acclaim that Face/Off had, it’s still gotten decent reviews, but still worse than the first one. And I don’t see why. The film feels more like a James Bond thriller than just a standard action film, like the first one. And that’s why I like this movie more. Here, Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt, who finds himself having to stop an evil mastermind that created a virus that kills people in a very gruesome and disturbing way. This sounds so awesomely Bond-like that I was ecstatic throughout the entire film. This seems like John Woo’s tribute to the Bond films. Honestly, I was waiting for the scene where the villain strapped Ethan on a table and attempted to fire a laser straight through his entire body. But no, sadly. Either way, I do like this film more than I did the second one. It had better action, was more plot-driven, and had better characters than the first one did. Definitely recommended.
8.5/10