Mission: Impossible II (2000)
March 5, 2024 7:44 PM - Subscribe
IMF agent Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera".
The whole series is streaming on Amazon Prime.
The whole series is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Weirdly, aside from this one, the mission impossible franchise only gets better. Actually I just looked at rotten tomatoes, and it seems like I'm right. Aside from 2 (which ranks lowest), the approval ratings rise as the series progresses. Huh.
Regarding this specific movie, I know I've seen it, but I can't remember it for some reason. I was about to ask if this was the movie where he is running through the smoke, but then I realized I think that's all of them.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:03 AM on March 6
Regarding this specific movie, I know I've seen it, but I can't remember it for some reason. I was about to ask if this was the movie where he is running through the smoke, but then I realized I think that's all of them.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:03 AM on March 6
I was about to ask if this was the movie where he is running through the smoke, but then I realized I think that's all of them.
This is the one where he’s running through the smoke in slow motion.
posted by skycrashesdown at 6:43 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
This is the one where he’s running through the smoke in slow motion.
posted by skycrashesdown at 6:43 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
This is so John Woo, and it's a lot of fun if you're into that. All the dramatics are so heightened and over the top. Lots of face switching, even for Mission: Impossible (this is after Face/Off). Dougray Scott is a great man-baby of a villain.
posted by mrphancy at 6:55 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
posted by mrphancy at 6:55 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
This is the nadir of MI, after this they start amping up the fun whereas this one tries too hard for gritty coolness and fails.
I have to say the Ethan Hunt really thinks ahead. "Let's see, gun, jacket, shades, do I need anything else? Whoops, almost forgot the mask of my own face just in case I get in a fist fight with a henchman about my own size."
posted by AndrewStephens at 9:22 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
I have to say the Ethan Hunt really thinks ahead. "Let's see, gun, jacket, shades, do I need anything else? Whoops, almost forgot the mask of my own face just in case I get in a fist fight with a henchman about my own size."
posted by AndrewStephens at 9:22 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
For a movie directed by John Woo, this always seemed like a parody of a John Woo movie, what with the slo-mo doves and all that. It's definitely not a good movie, though it does have it's moments. The face/mask switching gets completely bonkers and actually a bit laughable by the end as I recall. It has been a long time since I saw this one though.
posted by dellsolace at 9:23 AM on March 6
posted by dellsolace at 9:23 AM on March 6
Were it not for production delays on this movie, Dougray Scott was set to play Wolverine in X-Men.
While you can make a rock solid argument that Hugh Jackman is an entirely different performer and the two would have had entirely different careers in any case, you have to imagine that Scott would occasionally pour himself a scotch in his trailer for TV shows like Hemlock Grove and Batwoman and wonder if his career might have had some of the peaks Jackman's has had, if only M:I-2 had wrapped on-time.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:43 AM on March 6
While you can make a rock solid argument that Hugh Jackman is an entirely different performer and the two would have had entirely different careers in any case, you have to imagine that Scott would occasionally pour himself a scotch in his trailer for TV shows like Hemlock Grove and Batwoman and wonder if his career might have had some of the peaks Jackman's has had, if only M:I-2 had wrapped on-time.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:43 AM on March 6
I've always felt this was the weakest of the MI films. I think it made a mistake to focus on Ethan Hunt over being a team, and I think Cruise realised that and put it right for all the alter films, the next film turns right around and establishes a group again for MI3. The solo focus isn't just the same style but with less people, but Cruise is ripped and there's a lot of stuff just focussing on him flexing early on and it seems pretty masturbatory.
I also think Dougray Scott is also one of the weakest of the villains through the series (the only competition being maybe Michael Nyqvist in Ghost Protocol). I tend to think of him as what you would get if Begbie's little brother had left Edinburgh and gone out to make his fortune in the world. He seems so small time and unthreatening. Cruise turns this around in MI3 too, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the big bad, and very much worthy of the designation.
I like Thandiwe Newton in it, but the scene where they introduce her and then her and Hunt basically trash their cars in a sort of weird flirtation is just bizarre.
There is a notable scene later in the film which is totally stolen from Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans. In LotM, Hawkeye tells Cora to stay Alive and he will find her, then jumps into the waterfall they are hiding behind to get away. In MI2, Cruise says "Just stay alive. I'm not going to lose you." Then jumps out of the hole in the skyscraper in his 1 person parachute. Full on homage.
The big bike chase thing at the end also makes no sense, people standing their motorbikes up on the front wheel for no good reason is all that sticks with me. That and the fucking pigeons of course. Fuck John Woo and his stupid pigeons.
posted by biffa at 1:35 PM on March 6 [2 favorites]
I also think Dougray Scott is also one of the weakest of the villains through the series (the only competition being maybe Michael Nyqvist in Ghost Protocol). I tend to think of him as what you would get if Begbie's little brother had left Edinburgh and gone out to make his fortune in the world. He seems so small time and unthreatening. Cruise turns this around in MI3 too, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the big bad, and very much worthy of the designation.
I like Thandiwe Newton in it, but the scene where they introduce her and then her and Hunt basically trash their cars in a sort of weird flirtation is just bizarre.
There is a notable scene later in the film which is totally stolen from Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans. In LotM, Hawkeye tells Cora to stay Alive and he will find her, then jumps into the waterfall they are hiding behind to get away. In MI2, Cruise says "Just stay alive. I'm not going to lose you." Then jumps out of the hole in the skyscraper in his 1 person parachute. Full on homage.
The big bike chase thing at the end also makes no sense, people standing their motorbikes up on the front wheel for no good reason is all that sticks with me. That and the fucking pigeons of course. Fuck John Woo and his stupid pigeons.
posted by biffa at 1:35 PM on March 6 [2 favorites]
This one is good! And it is definitely better than MI3! It's not John Woo's fault that MI1, MI4, MI5, and MI6 are so good that they wreck the curve.
posted by grandiloquiet at 4:09 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by grandiloquiet at 4:09 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Were it not for production delays on this movie, Dougray Scott was set to play Wolverine in X-Men.
While you can make a rock solid argument that Hugh Jackman is an entirely different performer and the two would have had entirely different careers in any case, you have to imagine that Scott would occasionally pour himself a scotch in his trailer for TV shows like Hemlock Grove and Batwoman and wonder if his career might have had some of the peaks Jackman's has had, if only M:I-2 had wrapped on-time.
That's a delicious piece of trivia. Man, can life be a motherfucker.
posted by kbanas at 6:09 PM on March 6
While you can make a rock solid argument that Hugh Jackman is an entirely different performer and the two would have had entirely different careers in any case, you have to imagine that Scott would occasionally pour himself a scotch in his trailer for TV shows like Hemlock Grove and Batwoman and wonder if his career might have had some of the peaks Jackman's has had, if only M:I-2 had wrapped on-time.
That's a delicious piece of trivia. Man, can life be a motherfucker.
posted by kbanas at 6:09 PM on March 6
This is the Mission Impossible of my college years, the one that I watched multiple times in the cinema because I shipped Ethan and Nyah so hard. So hard I legit boycotted watching the third one in the cinema for the first month because I was so mad to find out that she wasn't back lmao. Over the years I vaccillate between thinking this is the worst of them all but regardless it's got the best hair (all that wind machine work helped) even if it managed to pick Australia as a setting and picked the boringest locations outside of the race course (oh look! Another highway!).
posted by cendawanita at 7:43 AM on March 7
posted by cendawanita at 7:43 AM on March 7
No offence to the cliffs, even those got outshined by the american boulders that opened the movie. I'm so fond of laughing at this movie.
posted by cendawanita at 7:45 AM on March 7
posted by cendawanita at 7:45 AM on March 7
That and the fucking pigeons of course. Fuck John Woo and his stupid pigeons.
Literally all I remember about this movie is the explosions and the pigeons. (And the boulder climbing, but I didn't recall that it was in this particular movie.)
posted by velvet_n_purrs at 5:13 PM on March 7
Literally all I remember about this movie is the explosions and the pigeons. (And the boulder climbing, but I didn't recall that it was in this particular movie.)
posted by velvet_n_purrs at 5:13 PM on March 7
A somnambulistic slog of a movie.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:55 PM on March 8
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:55 PM on March 8
The big bike chase thing at the end also makes no sense, people standing their motorbikes up on the front wheel for no good reason is all that sticks with me.
The one thing I remember of this movie is this stupid chase, and the shot of the road tyres suddenly becoming off-road tyres mid jump.
posted by coriolisdave at 1:25 AM on March 10
The one thing I remember of this movie is this stupid chase, and the shot of the road tyres suddenly becoming off-road tyres mid jump.
posted by coriolisdave at 1:25 AM on March 10
I remember reading, when this came out, that they started by designing the handful of primary action sequences, and then wrote the plot in order to connect them together.
I don't know (and frankly can't be arsed to find out) whether that's true or not, but it absolutely captures the vibe of this movie.
posted by bjrubble at 3:37 PM on March 21
I don't know (and frankly can't be arsed to find out) whether that's true or not, but it absolutely captures the vibe of this movie.
posted by bjrubble at 3:37 PM on March 21
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posted by Molesome at 2:41 AM on March 6