MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2

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Director John Woo's (Broken Arrow, Face/Off) hyper-boiled rendering of screenwriter Robert Towne's (Chinatown) razor-sharp script in Mission: Impossible 2 makes the Mission Impossible logo a potentially worthy rival to the James Bond cinema franchise.

Woo keeps similarities to director Brian De Palma's 1996 Mission Impossible to a minimum in this very dissimilar sequel by incorporating his signature slow motion, ballet-of-bullets action sequences against the taut resolve of Tom Cruise's most ambitious action performance to date.

Cruise's current performance as undercover agent Ethan Hunt is virtually unrecognizable from the excessively smiling American emissary in De Palma's film. Where Cruise's former character resembled more of a clean-cut action stick figure going through a series of disconnected motions, the chiseled-faced actor emerges here as a hot-blooded, libido-fueled street fighter with a mind like a steel trap.

Hunt's bristling physicality is articulated in every scene of the film as daredevil rock climber, bedroom seducer and hand-to-hand combat master. Much has been written about Cruise's insistence on performing many of his own stunts to the chagrin of Paramount studio execs and their insurance officers for good reason.

The film's realism of danger allows it to operate on a higher level of believability and determination. There's no question that Cruise was born to have his unavoidably handsome aspect blown up to fantastic proportions on giant movie screens, but here Adonis meets Bruce Lee meets Steve McQueen. Like McQueen in The Great Escape, Cruise enjoys a thrilling chase sequence on a black Triumph motorcycle which Woo captures to exquisite effect.

Mission: Impossible 2's plot purposefully aligns itself closer to a James Bond film than to an extended version of the '60s television show as De Palma's film did. Rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) steals an extremely volatile German-made virus (called Chimera) to sell, along with its antidote, to a bio corporation for a huge sum of money and stock options so he can release the virus on the world and make even more money selling the antidote. Ambrose's big weakness is an uncontrollable lust for his comely ex-girlfriend and professional thief Nyah (Thandie Newton, Beloved). Ethan, too, falls for Nyah's charms before sending her back into the belly of the beast to live with Ambrose and help recover the Chimera virus.

Mission: Impossible 2 is a movie that revels in the seductiveness of masculine super action with all the bells and whistles of techno-gadgets, fast cars and explosions attached. It's more romantic than anything in a James Bond movie and boasts better Kung Fu scenes than The Matrix. As a sequel, M:I-2 links itself to the original with Ving Rhames (Out of Sight) returning as IMF agent Luther Strickell. Although Luther is stuck behind a laptop computer for most of the movie, Rhames graces the film with touches of humor underlying every line of his dialogue.

But the strongest aspect of the movie is Woo's love of the duel. Ethan and Nyah fall in love while racing on a winding mountain road in an Audi convertible for the lady and a Porsche for Cruise. The two soon-to-be-lovers smash into one another and spin around in a slow motion pas de deux that exposes their mutual need for extreme danger as the only prerequisite for love. Likewise, when Hunt and Ambrose collide in a mano a mano motorcycle collision that gives way to an all-out fist fight, flesh and bones are the final solution to global threat and personal freedom. John Woo's summer blockbuster is surely the most elegant and graceful example of cinema's technology advanced comeuppance so far.

Rated PG-13. 123 mins.

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT

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MI6 fulfills everything the Mission: Impossible franchise has to offer if not much more. Tom Cruise’s frequent directorial collaborator and “Fallout” co-screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (“Jack Reacher,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” and “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation”) orchestrates the film’s overblown action with meticulous attention to detail, perhaps a little too much.

The car chase sequences, while impressive, don’t come near the unpredictable nature of the one William Friedkin filmed for “To Live and Die in L.A.” Still, there is plenty of splashy gravity defying spectacle to wash over you as you watch a movie that was clearly made with an IMAX screen in mind. The stunts are gut wrenching, and the helicopter stunts are out of this world.

You need every inch of that 80’ by 100’ IMAX screen to experience what the filmmakers have in mind, which is to blow yours. Another trip through the editing process would have helped tighten the pace but no one is coming out of this film not feeling like they didn’t get their money’s worth.

The politics of the MacGuffin-laden plot are sufficiently bland so that no audience member feels left out or put upon regardless of their political leanings. Even anarchists should feel right at home with this film’s cartoonish narrative design since the villain here is a Ted Kaczynski knock off. Bad guy number one has a crew of “Apostles” helping him destroy world order. Don’t worry, there’s only one bloody scene in the whole movie, and the rest of the violence is strictly of the cartoon variety. Our height-challenged action man Ethan Hunt (Cruise) still receives his mission assignments in the same old-school method of a self-destructing reel-to-reel tape.

Considering the franchise landscape at hand, what surprises most are the casting choices that fail. Alec Baldwin’s IMF character Alan Hunley (Ethan’s boss) seems like he walked onto the wrong set on the day he needed to shoot the handful of scenes he’s in. However, Baldwin does deliver one primo piece of acting while performing one of dramaturgy’s most traditional tropes. No plot spoiler here; you’ll know it when you see it. Angela Bassett also falls flat, regardless of her ageless beauty, as CIA director Erica Sloan. Bassett’s tempo and tone don’t match with the movie as a whole.

What does work in the character department is the reliable chemistry between Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Tom Cruise. Here is an onscreen friendship that feels like an old pair of slip-on house shoes. Michelle Monaghan is as perfect as it gets for onscreen romance. No shortage of mask disguises provides a series of nods to the original “Mission: Impossible” television show, while providing the movie with some nifty plot twists that register with an added amount of humor. And yes the super-action men's room fistfight is a hoot.

“Mission: Impossible” is the closest thing Hollywood has going next to a James Bond franchise, and going it is. Tom Cruise will soon be too old to play the part of a stunt-happy super spy. Get it while you can on the biggest IMAX screen you can find. 

Not rated. 147 mins.

 

TERMINATOR SALVATION

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Dark Future
Spectacle Trumps Satire
By Cole Smithey

More of a 21st century "Mad Max" than a continuation of the Terminator franchise that seasoned audiences are familiar with, director McG's post apocalyptic man versus industrial-robot-military-complex lurches through fits and starts of spectacle that almost add up to a story.

Helena Bonham Carter plays mad scientist Dr. Serena Kogan who uses the body of executed convict Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) for her latest and last — she's dying of cancer--experiment of creating an indestructible human/machine hybrid.

Christian Bale plays alpha male Resistance leader John Connor, whose blanket radio transmissions begin with "If you're listening to this, you are the resistance."

With his pregnant wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard) awaiting his return, Connor sets off on a mission to rescue a group of prisoners from the country-occupying robot clutches of Skynet, whose prisoner Kyle Reese (played by Anton Yelchin) is of special importance.

From an action standpoint, "Terminator Salvation" is an eye-blasting fiesta accompanied by good performances from Bale, Worthington, Yelchin, and Moon Bloodgood as a hot shot soldier. However, the film comes up short with an underdeveloped story and some abysmal performances from actors in secondary roles —reference lackluster efforts from Common, as a Resistance soldier, and child actor Jadagrace playing a mute witness.

Bale's John Connor works under the gruff leadership of Michael Ironside's General Ashdown, whose guts-for-glory presence gets hung out to dry thanks to inattention from screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris ("Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"). Known for his performances in Paul Verhoeven's "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers," Ironside effectively chews what little scenery he's given but gets lost in a shuffle of gonzo Transformers-styled spectacle.

Where the movie excels best is in all things big, fast, and metal. In the 2018 prophesied world of perpetual darkness, Skynet's arsenal of bots includes articulated Hydrobot creatures that swim like snakes and have extracting tongue-and-claw mouths--think "Alien," and colossal spider-like Harvester aircraft capable of plucking up humans in their gigantic claws. The Harvesters go all Transformer when they eject high-revving motorcycle bots called Moto-Terminators that enable a thrilling chase sequence when Connor hot wires one.

As a sequel to a sequel of a sequel, "Terminator Salvation" doesn't waste time with how-we-got-here exposition, but as such doesn't connect easily to the rest of the franchise either. The tone here is distinctly more downbeat as reflected in the film's drab color palate and muted lighting. And if you're looking for humor, you've come to the wrong movie.

John Conner is the now-grown character that Edward Furlong played in "T2," and whose purpose — to defeat Skynet and save the world — depends on his ability to rescue Kyle Reese as the man who will eventually father him. (Got it?)

The future-past-future time device comes off as an obvious ploy designed to milk more sequels. The trouble is that the screenwriters don't build enough character development around the quirky plot anchor.

Chemistry between Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard is zilch, with Howard visibly straining to work up some crystal of romantic attraction with a character over-amped about his responsibility to save humanity. Connor listens dutifully to cassette recordings his mother made to guide him on his mission, but he doesn't share as much communication with the woman who will bear his child.

As a result, Sam Worthington's cyborg-with-a-beating-heart Marcus presents a more interesting character, and steals the movie as a rival anti-hero. A chance meeting with Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood), the last badass woman on the planet, gives the movie a much-needed jolt of sensuality.

"Terminator Salvation" isn't the sci-fi extravaganza I'd hoped for, but it does fulfill on its promise of visually articulating the robot mentality that America's military seems geared to accomplish. Without a someone like a Paul Verhoeven writing and directing it, the Terminator franchise will slug out another sequel every so many years for audiences to get to the bottom of their popcorn.

The opportunity for loaded satire of colored thematic fruits from such ripened narrative soil will likely go unseeded. There is, however, a wellspring of potential in the franchise for the right filmmaker to generate a "Starship Troopers" kind of frisky movie that goes beyond the constraints of spectacle-generated entertainment toward sophisticated sci-fi satire. Until that time comes, take what you can get.

Rated PG-13. 116 mins.