/ 30 June 2000

Mission Cruise Control

Mission Impossible 2 abounds with impressive explosions, car chases and a rather predictable plot. But who needs a clever plot when you have Tom Cruise in daredevil mode hanging by his powdered fingertips over 2000 foot precipices in the Rockies?

Tom Cruise and John Woo, both disciples of the blockbuster genre, have teamed up for “M:I-2” a romantic action thriller that plunges special agent Ethan Hunt into an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.

Agent Hunt is interrupted during a holiday in the Rockies when a helicopter drops off his new mission: it seems like Scottish baddie Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) has his hands on a lethal flu virus that he intends to use to extort oodles of dosh from a big pharmaceutical conglomerate. (Actually he’s not interested in the cash, but rather in stock options – brilliant little Financial Times twist there.)

To penetrate Ambrose’s (Dougray Scott) modernist lair in Sydney Harbour, Hunt (Cruise) recruits the lithe international cat burglar (Newton) who was once the baddie’s main squeeze. After their obligatory romp in Seville, Hunt seems hesitant to see his new love return to her ex. But she’s untrained, cries Cruise. “She’s only got to go to bed with a man and then lie to him,” snorts the Boss, “she’s a woman – that’s all the training she needs.” Best line in the film.

The cast is impressive with Anthony Hopkins as the controller and Thandie Newton as the bit of fluff. Woo doesn’t allow anything to dominate his elaborate action sequences though, so don’t expect a well-defined script or unbearable suspense. In the land of Woo, lines don’t matter so very much.

Ving Rhames returns from the original Mission Impossible stable as the computer-whiz and Aussie wisecracker, John Polson, joins Hunt’s team as a pilot who is constantly baffled by his boss’s daredevil antics.

However neither do much except follow orders. The villains come in duplicate with Ambrose’s henchman (Richard Rowburgh) kept in check by his boss’s habit of reducing the length of his fingers with a cigar cutter. (Look out for Rowburgh’s South African accent – especially the ‘eina’ when he walks into a swing door.)

The gimmick of the movie is the latex masks that enable one character to disguise himself as another, only to rip off his ‘face’ to reveal his true self. The face-ripping sequence gets rather old though after the umpteenth attempt to baffle the audience. Try to look past this irritating sequence, Cruise’s girly hairstyle and try not to squirm at the white doves. Mission Impossible 2 is great fun in true Hollywood Blockbuster style.

Mission Impossible 2 is currently the top earner in South Africa after raking in almost R9million at the box office.