Considering that Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible - a 1996 adaptation of Bruce Geller's Cold War-era TV series about an elite group of intelligence operatives known as the Impossible Mission Force - was a big hit for its star Tom Cruise and its studio Paramount Pictures, it's not surprising that it would be the first entry of a new movie franchise.

With three films in existence and a fourth one under development, Mission: Impossible seems to be going where Star Trek - another Paramount TV series-to-movies franchise - has gone before, i.e., to take a small-screen favorite and amplify its content for the big screen.

Unlike Star Trek, however, Mission: Impossible films aren't ensemble movies that pay attention to continuity with either the TV source or each other (save in subtle offhand references).

Instead - and this draws the ire of the show's fans - the M:I brand has become all about Ethan Hunt, the IMF's answer to James Bond and/or Jack Ryan.

In 2000's Mission: Impossible II, Cruise returned as Hunt and screenwriter Robert Towne teamed up with former Star Trek: The Next Generation writer-producers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga to write a screen story set around action sequences already conceived by director John Woo.

Woo, of course, is a filmmaker who is known for his high-octane and choreographed action sequences, so it's not surprising that he would have come up with such scenes as the opening titles' rock-climbing by Ethan Hunt or a climactic confontation between Hunt and guest-villain Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

This time around, Ethan Hunt is assigned to team up with a beautiful thief named Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) in order to stop Ambrose from getting his hands on Chimera, a man-made super-virus that kills its victims in less than 24 hours unless they're injected with Bellerophon, an equally man-made cure.

Towne, who wrote Chinatown, borrows a plot element from Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious when he has Mission Commander Swanbeck (an uncredited Anthony Hopkins) order Hunt to find Nyah in Seville, Spain, then convince her to "reunite" with her ex Ambrose, a former IMF operative who had worked with Hunt in several missions but has now gone rogue.  Swanbeck believes that Ambrose's obsession with Nyah will allow Hunt to find his Australian hideout and foil his plans.

There is, obviously, a bit more to the story, but that's basically all you need to know about the plot if you haven't seen Mission: Impossible II.  Suffice it to say that this time around Towne's screenplay is a bit more muscular and less convoluted than the one he did for the first film.

For me, Woo's installment is the lesser of the three Mission: Impossible films, not just because his visual style and pacing are so different from eithe De Palma's or J.J. Abrams', but also because it has a James Bond-blended-with-cartoons sensibility that emphasizes action and stunts over character development.

Certainly, most Hollywood "spy movies" tend to depict intelligence and counter-terrorist operatives pretty much in the same fashion as the Indiana Jones movies portray archaeologists: as nearly indestructible action heroes who are as talented in bed as they are with guns and other deadly weapons.  Even the more reality-grounded adaptations of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books tend put their protagonist in exciting action-hero sequences because that's what we expect to see.

Even so, in the Jack Ryan movies there's a sense of both continuity and character development that's absent in Mission: Impossible.

Sure, there is one throwaway line about coffee in the dialogue and the return of computer expert Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames), but other than the fact that the film stars Cruise and that his character is still named Ethan Hunt, there's no sense that life has changed between the first movie and this one.

In a way, Mission: Impossible II feels more like a Tom Cruise movie of the 1980s where the actor plays a cocky upstart who smiles way too much during the movie. It's hard to imagine his Risky Business Joel or his Maverick from Top Gun with longish Last Samurai hair, but that's essentially how his Ethan Hunt comes across here.

Thandie Newton fares slightly better here; not only is she hot and brainy, but she provides the film with an important-to-the-plot twist that elevates her role from mere eye candy to active participant in the story.

Dougray Scott is all right but not impressive as Hunt's nemesis Sean Ambrose, though he utters my favorite line in the movie ("You know, that was the hardest part of portraying you; having to grin like an idiot every 15 minutes.")  Like most of the lesser villains of the James Bond films, he has no political agenda or great cause other than fatten his wallet.  In a post-Cold War movie series, this is okay, but it's been done before - and better - in the Die Hard quadrilogy.

The action sequences are what Mission: Impossible II is really about, and while some are gripping, others are a bit too stylized for my taste.  Maybe it's because this is the first John Woo movie I've seen and haven't acquired a taste for his style, but some sequences were just a bit too over the top for me.

I don't think the movie is horrible or unwatchable.  It moves fast and never drags, plus the story is easier to follow than the one from Mission: Impossible.

However, if you want to watch a more character-driven entry in the M:I franchise, you'll find that in Mission: Impossible III.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older