Mission: Impossible 2

How did John Woo turn so quickly from the action movie almighty into a self-perpetuating cliché? Once upon a time, if this director had two combatants racing toward each other on motorcycles, then jumping off the bikes and colliding in mid-air, it would have seemed like the coolest fight scene ever. In M:I-2, however, Woo takes sooooo long setting up such showpiece sequences, which look as if they were choreographed by a professional wrestler who had just seen The Matrix, that they simply become boring. On the motorcycles are a shaggy Tom Cruise, scowling with Steven Seagal-like determination, and Dougray Scott (Ever After), as a rogue IMF agent with a biological weapon he's selling on the black market. Thandie Newton (Beloved) plays Cruise's love interest in a distracting and laughably sincere sub-plot. A Woo M:I-2 sure seemed like a great idea, but while there's lots to look at here, there's very little actually worth seeing. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)