MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: What might have been a decent
James Bond film plot (with a little patching)
just shows that the writers do not understand or
want to ignore what a "Mission: Impossible"
script is. See Tom Cruise climb rocks, ride
dirt bikes, and race cars in the name of saving
the free world from a new and deadly virus.
This is a film with a lot of action, a lot of
vanity, and not much thought. Rating: 4 (0 to
10), 0 (-4 to +4) A minor spoiler follows the
main review.
The new "Mission: IMpossible" film is out for early summer audiences. It will have stiff box office competition from Disney's current DINOSAUR which offers material that will appeal to adults.
Once again we have a "Mission: Impossible" movie without a "Mission Impossible" plot. What is a "Mission: Impossible" plot? It is like a jigsaw puzzle. Through most of the plot you see the pieces being fit together, but you have no idea what they build. Suddenly toward the end you go through an "Ah-ha!" experience when you understand what it is all for. Then you see what you built do its thing. Maybe doing its thing is to make some banana republic would-be Hitler suddenly appear to have been stealing from the country's treasury. It is a spy film powered by gray cells instead of testosterone. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 is as clueless as its predecessor what its title claims it to be. It is like me saying I am going to write great romantic sonnets just like Shakespeare, but I am going to write them in four lines.
Instead of a "Mission: Impossible" plot it has something that might have worked as a James Bond script. And evens so, it would have been a Bond script a little heavy on chases and fights. For too much of the screen time Cruise is just showing off for the camera. Cruise is trying to be the Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., of our generation. He wants to be dashing and handsome and superb at any number of sports. This film is too intent on glamorizing Cruise.
As the story opens we have a scientist in Sydney, Australia, who had developed a great anti-virus. And to prove the anti-virus works he has also developed a great deadly virus for his anti-virus to counter. (Yes, that's what he did.) Now he wants to take the virus and the anti-virus to the CDC in Atlanta so he injects himself with the deadly virus. The deadly strain will be benign for exactly 20 hours, then it will attack him like Ebola. Our brilliant scientist wants to get to Atlanta and inject himself with the anti- virus and not become the Patient Zero of a virus that could destroy the world. And what does he do to be sure to get to Atlanta in time? He boards a commercial air flight. (Is this making sense to you?) But there are baddies who will stop at nothing to get the virus and anti-virus. On the commercial plane the pilot happens to be one of the baddies' gang. (However did they manage that? They didn't even know what plane he would be taking.) The baddies, led by Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), seize the biological agents and escape the plane, leaving it to crash.
The Impossible Mission Force has to call in the vacationing Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) who is having fun by climbing about half a mile up a sheer rock face without benefit of equipment. The IMF brings in Ethan and tells him to pick two team members as well as recruit a third, one a beautiful jewel thief named Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton). (With a name like Nordoff-Hall one wonders if there was a bounty on her head.) In the best traditions of Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS, she is asked to go not just under cover but also between the sheets with former lover Ambrose.
The film stars Tom Cruise as the lead agent of the IMF. Thandie Newton is a new face and a different one, but she does not have enough to do on the screen. Tom Cruise plays the athletic miracle man. In an unbilled role, Anthony Hopkins is around to give Cruise his orders. Tom Cruise plays the great lover secret agent. Dougray Scott is a little lackluster for the villain, but perhaps a lackluster villain is more realistic. Tom Cruise is there as the quick-thinking super-agent. The Impossible Mission team also has the talented Ving Rhames returning as Luther Stickell. He gets to ride a helicopter and shoot a gun. Rounding out the crack team of four agents was some dude with a thin moustache and beard. I don't remember if he did anything or had any speaking lines. I seem to remember he flew the helicopter. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 also features Tom Cruise.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 was badly in need of another script re- write, particularly by someone who was a fan of the original series. John Woo keeps the action coming, but not the intelligence. And Woo is not able to make the action scenes believable or enjoyable. The climactic fight is as funny as it is contrived. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 is more just a Tom Cruise vanity piece than anything else. I rate it 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Minor spoiler... Minor spoiler... Minor spoiler... Minor spoiler...
I am starting to have a real problem with this whole mask thing. The idea seems borrowed from the opening of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, where it was fresh. But let us be clear that to masquerade as someone else with one of these masks requires a lot of preparation ahead of time. It cannot be easy to make a mask that would fool someone into thinking they were seeing someone they knew when it was really someone else. The voice disguise would also take a tremendous amount of preparation. Probably neither could be done without the cooperation of the person who is going to be impersonated. Further, people recognize each other by more than scent, word-choice, accent, memories, and dozens of other parameters. The original series used impersonation very, very sparingly giving the person a lot of preparation time and even then it was really a credibility stretcher. You do not just attack a building with a back-pocket full of these impersonation masks ready to use. In addition dramatically it is a poor idea. It distracts the audience making them constantly wonder if they really know who they are looking at or not. The script uses it entirely too frequently, whenever the writer wants to throw the audience a cheap and easy curve ball.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
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