"Mission Impossible 2" on DVD

Cruise Missile

Co-producer Tom Cruise may be trying to make his own franchise with the Mission Impossible concept, but he'll have to do a better job than on MI2 if he wants to keep returning to the well.

This extremely inferior sequel to the pretty good "Mission Impossible" sees Cruise's Ethan Hunt sent to save the world from a super virus similar to that from Stephen King's "The Stand."

That's merely the first unoriginal concept in MI2, and there are plenty more to come. Director John Woo may not have had much of a script from which to work (despite a good screenwriter being involved), because otherwise-promising sequences all through this movie end up being nothing more than shooting, explosions, stunts and/or assorted mayhem. The audience's suspension of disbelief is stretched beyond the limits and the movie falls apart from its own pretentiousness and lack of logic.

There's some neat technology and some lovely locations, especially Australia (it almost seems, however, as if the location was more an excuse for Mr. and Mrs. Cruise to vacation in her homeland than it was as a logical place from which to be unleashing the superflu), but in the end no amount of stunts, shooting, pretty scenes, or pretty girls can make up for what is at heart nothing more than a really bad movie.

The DVD looks and sounds great, however. It's presented in widescreen, enhanced for 16x9 TV's, and with Dolby Digital audio. Extras abound as well. Besides some PC Friendly DVD ROM features like agents dossiers, etcetera, there's a series of cast/crew interviews, a featurette on the film's stunts, and "Impossible Shots," another stunt-related feature that includes words of wisdom from Cruise, Woo, and stunt coordinator Brian Smrz.

You can also partake of an alternate title sequence, a Metallica music video, and a parody from the MTV Movie awards.

Let's hope that, for Mission Impossible III Mr. Cruise does more than just hire a famous action director, he should also put a leash on him to rein in excess gusto. A good script would be even better.

Mission Impossible 2, from Paramount Home Video
123 minutes, Widescreen (2.35:1), Dolby Digital
Starring Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames
Produced by Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner
Written by Robert Towne, Directed by John Woo

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