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Mission: Impossible II (2000) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2025-07-25 23:00:06
Edited:
2025-07-26 15:15:05
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

Alright y'all ... number two in the series! I should note that this is my first John Woo film so I guess I know what vibe to expect whenever I finally get to Face/Off.

Please enjoy! Looking forward to your comments. [Direct link here.]

✦ KL

Files

Mission: Impossible II (2000) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction

Comments

Nathan Jasper

Yeah, as an action movie, it's pretty good. As a Mission movie, it's on the bottom of almost everyone's list. I would be interested to see if you feel differently about it once you've seen more John Woo movies and get a better sense of his style and what he loves. George from Cinebinge made the comment that Woo loves a flowy scarf and he loves doves. Those are his directorial signatures, much like Hitchcock always appeared as a silhouette in his movies and Scorsese has that quick-edit camera movement and Tarantino has over-the-top blood spray and sudden quick-zooms. As far as the music goes, I can definitely see what you mean, but it's also something Woo loves. It's like a sweeping, dramatic, warrior type of theme, Ethan professing his love and literally jumping into the abyss to save the woman he loves. His style is so particular that it definitely works better in standalone films rather than a series like Mission where there's multiple directors. Woo's brilliant in his own way but MI2 definitely does feel like the odd man out. Can't wait for you to see the next one!

Steve Mercier

As a John Woo, it's pretty standard fare--the action scenes are beautiful, almost like ballet. As a Mission: Impossible movie, it's okay; but, definitely on the bottom of the barrel for me. Some of the beats here feel thick, and easy to predict. But from here, they starting getting really damn good.

Tyler Foster

Just one fun fact as I press play: this movie inadvertently helped create a 14-film, two-TV show franchise. The guy playing the villainous Sean Ambrose, Dougray Scott, was cast in another major blockbuster movie, but the shoot for Mission: Impossible 2 ran long, forcing the filmmakers to get another actor. That actor was Hugh Jackman, who as you can probably guess, took over the role of Wolverine in X-Men (2000).

Tyler Foster

Although John Woo is known as a legendary action filmmaker, he is passionate about classic Hollywood as well, and the premise of this movie draws on two Hitchcock classics, namely To Catch a Thief (1955) and Notorious (1946). If you liked the first part of the movie, then you should definitely check out both of those films. Notorious in particular is one of my favorite Hitchcocks. As far as Woo's style goes, one of the key issues with translating it into this film is that Woo's Hong Kong movies are quite bloody and violent, whereas all of the M:I movies are four-quadrant PG-13 blockbusters. On the commentary for the fourth Die Hard movie, which was the only entry in that franchise that was rated PG-13, director Len Wiseman discusses how the MPAA initially gave that film an R-rating on the amount of bullet hits on walls in a scene -- they felt the cumulative impact of that kind of destruction, even though it didn't affect a person, still constituted a form of "violence." With that in mind, the intensity of the sound effects, the visual impact of the punches and kicks, much less actual graphic violence with blood or bullet hits, it's all significantly toned down. I think once you see Face/Off, which is a fully R-rated movie, Woo's operatic over-the-top style will click for you in a way that it doesn't here. Note also that the white dove in the climax is one of Woo's signature touches. If you look up the theatrical poster of Cruise in orange running through flames you can see they even put the silhouette of the doves on the poster as a tribute to Woo. Your observation about the influence of The Matrix isn't quite right but isn't quite wrong either. What's actually happening is that The Matrix is heavily influenced by Hong Kong martial arts and action movies, including those of John Woo; there's no question the Wachowski sisters were thinking about The Killer (1989) and Hard-Boiled (1992) when making that movie. One of the movie's craziest stunts is one that the viewer may not even think of as real: the knife just a few millimeters away from Cruise's eyeball. Cruise had them build a little stand that had a rope with a knife on the end of it. The rope was designed to take some crazy amount of weight, like 500 tons, so no matter what it could not get any lower. Cruise told Dougray Scott to put his full weight on it when they did the shot.

Sam

This isn't representative of the franchise—or even representative of the best of John Woo. In fact, I would go as far as to say it's objectively the worst film in the series—and I think it's probably the worst John Woo film I've ever seen and still thoroughly enjoyed it. In its defense, it's funny. Maybe it's unintentionally funny, but it makes me laugh—and you kind of represented that in your reaction. It's almost like a parody of an American action film. And I think, if you watch it through that lens, it's great. The score is terrible :D but again, it's terrible in a funny way. If you listen to the music at the beginning when they are in the bathtub, it's like the studio went, "we need some stock 1970s soft core porn music for the bathtub scene". :D

WastedPo

I love the MI series, while also actively disliking this movie. I think the only way to really enjoy it is if you can mentally divorce it from the rest of the series, and if you have a particular love of guilty-pleasure cinema. That said, this movie (in its cheesiness) makes for a neat "setup" for the next one. Because MI2 shows that the series at this point didn't have any clear sense of what it wanted to be. It was grasping at straws as to any consistent tone, or even what Ethan Hunt's emotional motivations are. That's why the next movie feels almost revelatory (though I don't want to set the bar too high). I can just imagine them having multiple creative meetings after MI2 and discussing if they even wanted to go forward with the property. And if they did go forward, how could they not repeat the narrative mistakes of the second movie, and what they wanted the series to be "about." For me, the MI movies truly start with MI 3.

Guy Gordon

Easily my least favorite of the M:I films (the only to get a thumb down), and possibly least favorite John Woo film.

HugoBoss435

Okay I originally saw this in the theater when it came out and haven’t rewatched it since…until now. OMG I had truly forgotten just how terrible this one is. Even worse than I remember. The good news is that they are all A+ films moving forward. FYI - for me personally, the next one is my favorite in the series.

Movies with KL

LOL thank you for experiencing a suffer to watch the reaction.

Movies with KL

"Mentally divorce" haha I'll have to remember that one. I'm very excited to check the next one out! Y'all are hyping it up well.

Movies with KL

I was excited to see Face/Off win the last poll, so a second John Woo coming soon!

Movies with KL

It is pretty funny at times, that's for sure. Giving some pretty good early 2000s cheese.

Movies with KL

Yes, always reminded that I need to get to more Hitchcock's. One Day ™️ Very excited to get to Face/Off and thanks for correcting me on influences there! That is absolutely CRAZY about that knife to eye stunt, oh my gosh. I could not participate in that without flinching haha.

Movies with KL

I'm pretty curious about that too! We'll see how Face/Off goes when I get to it.

Bryan Dempsey

I was half watching this today while I’m working. I don’t care for this movie so I felt that it was easy to let it play and watch the interesting moments. And wow, I was so bored that I gave up at 1:02:30 and just skipped to the wrap up thoughts. Sorry, KL. They do get better.

Onno Smits

Well, I did it. I suffered through this entire movie with you. My god, it would be a half hour shorter if they just played all the slow-motion in realtime. 🤣 The story for this was meh, and the directing, editing, music, and weirdly specifically the sound design really grated on me. 😬 I'm gonna hop into MI:3 with you tomorrow to get the bad taste of this out of my mind.

Movies with KL

Hahahaha thanks for the suffering. MI3 definitely feels like a palate cleanser.