It seems like the black sheep in the series but I recall it being the more popular of the original two for a while and the hype for it was HUGE. These days its viewed as the worst entry in the series and a poor follow up to the original movie.
shareI think at the time the John Woo style of movie was still somewhat popular and cool. It was near the very end of that time, though as The Matrix was already out. It was also just before the Bourne movies and a little before super hero movies really took off (X-Men came out a couple months later). So there wasn't quite as much to compare it to except for other, generic action movies, several of which mimicked the style. Looking back we have all of the super hero movies, Bourne movies, Bond movies, Matrix movies and several others that have come out since then that make it "obsolete." It was just a bit behind the times right before a bunch of movies came out that heavily influenced action movies since then so it doesn't hold up well.
shareThis was a very popular movie at the box office during the summer of 2000. I was 11 at the time and I loved this movie, as did most of my friends. I don't know how it was received among adults, though many I have talked to said they thought it was nonsensical and disappointing. As a kid, my only complaint was due to the poor pacing of the middle act, which I also assumed was just me being young and just wanting explosions, gunfights and car chases.
Upon re-watching this as an adult, it is a guilty pleasure that I have nostalgia for due to how much I loved it as a pre-teen, but I now realize that the plot is a bad rip-off of Notorious, the first act of the film is mostly empty "fun and games," and the second act is truly boring due to the bare bones story, one dimensional characters and badly written love triangle. I still think the third act is a lot of fun, especially with how goofy and over the top the stunts are. On the plus side, I still like the cinematography and overall visual style, along with Hans Zimmer's score, and the movie did prompt me to seek out other John Woo films, such as The Killer, Hardboiled and Face/Off.
Trailer For My Second Feature
https://youtu.be/UXsIq-oPxXA