Mission: Impossible II

"Ambrose" (Dougray Scott) is a disavowed IMF agent with a grudge. He is determined to procure and release a deadly hybrid "chimera" virus onto the streets of Sydney so he can push up the share price of the company that wins his auction to acquire it; and that can also manufacture the antidote "Bellerophon". It falls to "Ethan" (Tom Cruise) and his inventive gang of regulars to come up with a way to thwart this plot. To that end, he recruits the brassy thief "Nyah" (Thandiwe Newton) who gets to play a real love interest with "Ethan" whilst feigning one with "Ambrose" to get close to him and learn his plans. On the face of it, this is an ideal screenplay for this franchise, a sort of "James Bond" theme with plenty of location cinematography, action scenes and the odd gadget. Sadly, though, Scott is just not very menacing as the baddie and the story is really under-developed. The characters appear to be almost grinning their way through the unremarkable dialogue, and John Woo creates then recreates the action scenes as if it were just some sort of cartoon feature. The standard of the production is high, the staging of those action scenes is strong and well photographed, but the story just doesn't ever really get into gear and at over two hours, it's a pretty weak and insipid outing for just about everyone. Not a patch on the first film.