Mission Impossible 2

Details

When biologist Dr. Nekhorvich attempts to contact Ethan Hunt and appeal for his help, the IMF sends fellow agent Sean Ambrose to impersonate Hunt and meet him instead. Unfortunately, Ambrose has his own agenda and, after stealing a deadly new virus called Chimera, disappears with a group of former agents and begins putting together a plan to make himself an extremely rich man.

Ethan is recalled from his holiday and given the mission of recovering Chimera and discovering exactly what Ambrose intends to do with it. His first task is to recruit international thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall, who also happens to be Ambrose's former girlfriend. Although initially reluctant to become involved, Nyah agrees to renew her relationship with Ambrose and infiltrate his organisation.

With Nyah feeding information back to Ethan, it becomes clear that Ambrose intends to exploit Chimera and its antidote, Bellerophon, for financial gain. Unfortunately, Ambrose knows Ethan extremely well - having previously doubled for him on IMF assignments - and quickly begins to suspect that Nyah's sudden reappearance may not be entirely coincidental.

When Ethan attempts to destroy the remaining supply of Chimera before Ambrose can obtain it, the mission goes badly wrong and Nyah becomes infected with the deadly virus. With only hours remaining before Chimera becomes active, Ethan must stop Ambrose's plan and recover Bellerophon before Nyah succumbs to the infection. Naturally, this will involve motorcycles, explosions, ridiculously dangerous stunts and rather a lot of slow motion.

Picture & Sound

The picture is sharp with rich and vibrant colours and an extraordinary amount of detail. There are no obvious signs of artifacting or outlining and the transfer maintains an above-average bit-rate throughout, increasing dramatically during some of the more complicated action sequences. It really is an impressive picture and represents a vast improvement over some of the other discs released by Paramount.

The film's highly stylised photography also provides the transfer with plenty to work with. From the warm Spanish locations to the darker interiors and explosive finale, colours remain strong and detail is consistently impressive. There's little to complain about here and the excellent transfer does full justice to John Woo's elaborate camerawork.

You'll be glad to learn that the sound is just as good. For a start, even the animated menu is scored in 5.1 - still something of a rarity - and things only get better once the film begins. Dialogue remains firmly positioned in the centre channel without any noticeable bleeding, whilst the numerous action sequences provide a superb amount of activity in the rear channels.

There's also plentiful LFE to accompany the explosions, gunfire and motorcycles, whilst Hans Zimmer's powerful score fills the soundstage without overwhelming everything else. With bullets flying around the room and engines roaring through the surrounds, this really does add up to a surround-sound treat and is exactly the sort of disc you want when demonstrating your home cinema system.

Menu & Extras

Paramount seem to have learnt their lesson in the extras department too. Everything is presented through wonderfully animated menus and, more importantly, the supplementary material is actually interesting rather than simply being included to fill space.

Director John Woo provides a feature-length commentary, whilst the various behind-the-scenes featurettes take a closer look at the film's spectacular stunt sequences. Given Tom Cruise's enthusiasm for performing as much of the action himself as possible, there's plenty of material to work with and it's fascinating to see how some of the more elaborate sequences were put together.

However, the highlight has to be the MTV Movie Awards parody Mission Improbable, with Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller playing off each other brilliantly. It's absolutely hilarious and almost worth digging through the extras for on its own. There's also Metallica's I Disappear music video, an alternate title sequence and DVD-ROM material to round out a very respectable package.

Let's just hope that the Region 2 edition arrives with all these extras intact. Given the treatment some previous releases have received on their journey across the Atlantic, I'll reserve judgement until I actually see the disc.

Overall

Okay, so the plot may be a little thin, but Mission: Impossible 2 is a visually stunning film with some truly fabulous camerawork and is really a must for John Woo fanatics. After Brian De Palma's rather more restrained original, Woo takes the franchise in a completely different direction and turns Ethan Hunt into a fully fledged action hero.

Tom Cruise certainly seems happy enough with the transformation. Gone is much of the paranoia and intrigue of the first film, replaced by motorcycles, gunfights, explosions and Cruise hanging from, jumping over or throwing himself at anything that happens to be nearby. It's hardly subtle, but then subtlety isn't really what you hire John Woo for.

Dougray Scott makes an effective villain as Sean Ambrose, particularly because of his history with Ethan. The idea that Ambrose has previously impersonated Hunt gives him an interesting advantage, as he understands how Ethan thinks and operates. Unfortunately, the screenplay doesn't really make as much of that relationship as it could have done, preferring to concentrate on the action and the rivalry over Nyah.

Thandie Newton certainly looks the part as Nyah and has good chemistry with Cruise, although the romance develops at rather an alarming rate. One minute Ethan is recruiting her for a mission and seemingly five minutes later they're gazing longingly at each other whilst driving sports cars around Spanish mountain roads. Still, when the scenery looks this good it's probably best not to ask too many questions.

Then there's John Woo himself. He does tend to overdo his famous slow-motion sequences, but when they work they're incredibly effective. This is particularly highlighted when Ethan first meets the beautiful Nyah in Spain, with plenty of slow-motion walking and those fabulous flamenco dancers. By the time we reach the finale, practically everything seems capable of exploding, preferably whilst somebody dives sideways through the air firing two guns at once.

And, of course, there are the birds. Lots of birds. White doves appear at suitably dramatic moments with such regularity that you begin to wonder whether they're actually members of the supporting cast. I still can't work out John Woo's fascination with them. Perhaps he's a bit of a pigeon fancier in his spare time?

The final motorcycle chase and beach confrontation are completely ridiculous, but also enormously entertaining. Motorcycles leap through the air, bullets fly everywhere and Ethan and Ambrose eventually launch themselves from their bikes directly at each other. Any remaining connection with reality has long since disappeared, but by that point you're unlikely to care.

Mission: Impossible 2 may lack the clever plotting of the original and there are moments when John Woo's stylistic excesses threaten to overwhelm everything else, but as a piece of pure action entertainment it's difficult not to enjoy. Add an outstanding picture, superb 5.1 soundtrack and an impressive collection of extras and this becomes exactly the sort of DVD that the format was made for.

For all its faults, you really must add this to your DVD collection. Superb!

Special features

• Behind the Scenes Exclusive Cast and Crew Interviews
• Mission Incredible Stunts Featurette
• Impossible Shots Stunt Sequences with Tom Cruise and John Woo
• Commentary by Director John Woo
• I Disappear Metallica Video
• Alternate Title Sequence
• Mission Improbable Inspired Parody from the MTV Movie Awards
• DVD-ROM Enhanced