MovieChat Forums > Mission: Impossible II (2000) Discussion > This movie is not an action movie. It is...

This movie is not an action movie. It is a parody of an action movie.

posted 11 years ago by datrius
4 replies | jump to latest

I think I understand why this movie got so many bad reviews.

I just watched it for the first time after watching "Ghost Protocol." And I think the main difference between this and Ghost Protocol is that MI:2 is so damn MELODRAMATIC. This movie has so many overwrought action cliches, and they're strung together in ways that are supposed to be really moving, but they're just comedic in their execution.

There are so many unnecessary flips in this movie. Tom Cruise feels the urge to pretend like he's in a kung fu movie by doing cartwheels in slow-motion while kicking baddies in the face. The action scenes feel like something a 10-year-old dreamed up: "And the main villan and main protagonists face off in a motorcycle joust, revving at one another in a standoff before GOING ON WHEELIES and TACKLING EACH OTHER MID-AIR as the motorcycles explode overhead!" Note: this actually happened. And it's slathered in so much smooth jazz at the beginning that I wasn't sure if I was watching an action movie or a mid-grade porno.

The plot is slow, it slags along, and it falls victim to the "vaguely Eastern European bloc" enemy complex that plagued action movies in the 2000s. The masks are one of the cooler things in the Mission Impossible franchise, and it's mostly because every movie except this one uses them really well - you never know who's impersonating whom. In this one, however, it's seriously predictable. Again, our ten-year-old scriptwriter makes an appearance: "And then Tom Cruise takes off his mask, and then the next scene has Tom Cruise in it saying something completely out of character, and then he takes of HIS mask!"

You can see every twist and turn in this movie coming a mile away, from the different colored motorcycles to the failed attempts at symbolism with the smoke and pigeons. This movie is neither epic nor entertaining - and it does absolutely nothing for the Ethan Hunt character that you should ever care about. You can safely ignore MI:2 if you want to enjoy Tom Cruise's action movies, because this is not an action movie. This is a parody of an action movie.

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Datrius
Just my two cents.

[–] yurenchu 11 years ago

Every movie is a product of its time. Within ten years, people will say the same thing about e.g. the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the Jason Bourne sequels, the Daniel Craig 007 movies, the currently popular Marvel superhero franchise films, or even M:I-3 and M:I-GP. The difference will be that those people will be about 10 to 15 years younger than you.

______
Something Happens - "Parachute"
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[–] granitodiaz 11 years ago

the worst scene is near the end, the girl in that cliff, and we're supposed to believe that w.h.o.r.e. would kill herself to save humanity, come on.

[–] rabksaj 10 years ago

Stop moaning and enjoy the movie. Its a john woo movie and its got tom cruise in it

[–] Yellow-Psychopath 10 years ago

Well if it was a Hong Kong movie instead, well you probably wouldn't even be bothered, because you know, "*beep* foreign films, only dah Hollywood matters"