Mission: Impossible II

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 24, 2000

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

59	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Shawn Levy

Moves with terrific energy, alternating riveting action sequences with intimate material in a manner that's pure Woo. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

It's eye candy that detonates. Read full review

Jay Boyar

This is the sort of breathless joyride that we expect - but don't often get - from a summer movie. [24 May 2000, p.E1]

Desson Thomson

The real deity of the movie is director Woo, who takes complete command of the latest technology -- hyperspeed editing, breathtaking cinematography, 10-out-of-10 stunt work -- to create brilliant action sequences. Read full review

Stephen Hunter

Such a feast of outlandish pleasures it'll send you home steam-cleaned and shrink-wrapped. Read full review

Peter Travers

Keeps the pulse pounding without sacrificing laughs or logic.

Kenneth Turan

The power of film to irrationally transform and exalt is almost a religion to Woo, and another reason why he was the natural go-to guy for this lucrative movie franchise. Read full review

Ella Taylor

Every car chase, every plane crash, every potential drop off a cliff is a masterpiece of grace and surprise. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Woo is in fine form, employing every weapon in his considerable arsenal: slow motion shots, billowing clothing (scarves, loose jackets, the dresses on flamenco dancers), pigeons taking flight, lots of martial arts/WWF moves, and a fluid but constantly-moving camera. Read full review

Roger Ebert

More evolved, more confident, more sure-footed in the way it marries minimal character development to seamless action. Read full review

Susan Wloszczyna

There's also a nice cheekiness to the material written by Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), and the usual cool high-tech toys are deployed. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Check your brains at the popcorn stand and hang on for a spectacular ride. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard

Strangely, what it most lacks is the genuine tension found in the first "Mission"'s signature set pieces. Read full review

David Edelstein

At his best (Woo)'s too promiscuous with the slow motion; and once those doves start fluttering in he enters a new dimension in self-parody. Read full review

TNT RoughCutJ. Rentilly

It is ultimately the film's reliance on this thumping action assault that keeps it from true summer-movie greatness. Read full review

Marc Savlov

As pure a summer popcorn overdose as you're likely to find, M:i-2 is breezy, breathless, brainless fun, falling just short of Woo's own "Face/Off" but head and shoulders above anything else out there just now. Read full review

William Arnold

The story line is the typical M:I labyrinthine mess, made even more confusing by the always challenging Robert Towne as screenwriter, and by the continuation and overuse of the flawlessly lifelike "mask" device established in Part One. Read full review

Joe Holleman

With a deadly slow beginning and an unnecessary overload of special effects, this sequel is incredibly average, doubling the number of explosions and cinematic tricks, but cutting back on story, plot and characters. [24 May 2000, p.E4]

Wesley Morris

Woo delivers a vintage breakneck, break-arm, break-face 20-minute finale. Read full review

Steven Rea

Never as much fun as (Woo's) old Chow Yun Fat-starring Chinese pics. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Suggests that Cruise the actor may have outgrown this kind of stuff. Read full review

Jay Carr

Hard-driving and propulsive as it is, the film is unable to hide the fact that Woo seems not only to be repeating himself, but parodying his earlier films on a much bigger scale, more crudely and coarsely. Read full review

Jack Mathews

There's solid chemistry between Cruise and the stunning Newton, a superb actress previously restricted to such ethnic roles as Sally Hemings in "Jefferson in Paris" and the title role in "Beloved." Read full review

TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh

It's actually sharper, less reverential and generally better than "Misson: Impossible." Read full review

Film.comSean Means

Isn't bad as summer action fare goes -- big and loud, impressively staged by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo, a combination of special effects and eye-popping stunt maneuvers threaded by a plotline that doesn't make sense in the slightest. Read full review

Dallas ObserverAndy Klein

Abandon all hopes of common sense, and enter the theater with high expectations for visceral entertainment. You won't be disappointed. Read full review

Film.comRobert Horton

The problem is that the motion picture around these individual stunts is patently a committee-made artifact. Read full review

Steve Persall

Woo directs Mission: Impossible 2 cautiously, as if still introducing himself to U.S. audiences despite Face-Off and Broken Arrow. Or maybe he has nothing left to say about the poetry of violence after such visual eloquence in his Chinese classics. [24 May 2000, p.1D]

Michael H. Kleinschrodt

Long stretches of boredom punctuated by a few thrilling action sequences is the most succint description I can give of M:I-2. [24 May 2000, p.E1]

David Hunter

Woo masterfully stages fierce and memorably destructive cinematic sequences, but his use of slow motion becomes tiresome, and the motorcycles-and-kung fu finale gets pretty hokey. Cruise comes off as fearless and virile, and his fans should not be disappointed in the slightest. [24 May 2000]