Revisiting M:I-2

Woo boy!

I've decided to go back through the entire Mission: Impossible franchise, and last night I rewatched M:1-2 for the first time in at least 15 years. I rewatched it and . . . I gotta say, it's a lot more entertaining than I remember it being. I actually kind of liked it this time.

I've been reading some old posts here and one thing a lot of people said was, "It's a great action movie . . . but a poor Mission: Impossible movie." I would probably agree with that. It feels TOTALLY different from the first film and just does not have a Mission: Impossible feel to it, but I think that if you can divorce yourself from those MI expectations and just watch it as an action movie, then there's a lot to like here.

It is full of John Woo-isms. The slow-mo, the doves, the weird shit like the car scene where Tom and Thandie seemingly fall in love before almost crashing to their deaths, there's all kinds of John Woo going on there. But we shouldn't say "John Woo" like it's a bad thing. The dude is an action master. A lot of his American films don't quite convey this, but if you watch some of his Hong Kong films like Hard Boiled then you can really see his talents shine. And I think that MI 2 is one of his GOOD American movies.

The action is very stylized, so you also have to be ready to accept stylized action rather than grounded, realistic action, but the last hour of the movie is actually pretty thrilling. The whole scene where Ethan breaks into the Biocyte lab is incredible. That's where I really started to sit up and go, "Oh shit, this is getting good." And I really enjoyed the motorcycle scene and the final fight this time as well.

Also, Thandie Newton is hot as hell.

Long story short, I think I am now a fan of this movie, largely based on the strength of the incredible action that permeates the second hour of the film. And at the risk of having to deflect abuse hurled in my direction, I must say that I think I enjoyed revisiting it more than I enjoyed revisiting the first film as well.