Mission: Impossible 2: Movie Review, DVD Review, HD DVD Review, Blu-ray Review

Directed by John Woo, written by Robert Towne, 120 minutes, rated PG-13.

(Originally published 2000)

In John Woo’s highly stylized and often gripping “Mission: Impossible 2,” Tom Cruise returns in cruise control as Ethan Hunt. The film is great fun, a blockbuster that seamlessly blends action, humor, sex and glamour into a mix that’s so intoxicating, it proves sequels can indeed be better.

After the first “Mission: Impossible,” which featured a plot so dense and muddled not even IBM’s Big Blue could make sense of it, Woo wisely weaves his plot around a less convoluted premise--one that buys straight into AIDS conspiracy theories: A deadly, man-made virus is about to be released on the world so a group of evil, alpha-males can earn tens of billions on its man-made cure.

As Ethan, Cruise’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to join forces with the unsuspecting Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), an international jewel thief and former lover of the nutcase controlling the virus--Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

Recalling Hitchcock’s 1946 film, “Notorious,” in which Ingrid Bergman’s character risked her life to marry a villain so she could help her true love (Cary Grant), Nyah re-establishes her relationship with Sean, moves in with him and gets the goods on the virus for Ethan.

Predictably, she and Ethan also fall in love.

Always assured, “M:I2” is loud and showy when it needs to be, but it’s also restrained in ways that Woo’s “Face/Off” and “Broken Arrow” never were; this is the rare action film that holds its audience in its clutch even when bombs and bullets aren’t tearing up the scenery.

Influenced throughout by a myriad of classic thrillers, including “To Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest,” “M:I2” relies too often on the oldest espionage trick in the book -- peeling away a mask to reveal (surprise!) another person -- but it more than compensates in the execution of its executions. With Woo’s sweeping signature style in full, dazzling effect, and with Cruise fully committed to the role, this is one mission that promises not to detonate in video stores.

Grade: B+