Mission Impossible 2 (aka M:I-2 2000) (M)
Director: John Woo
Bug rating: 1.5 out of 5
You've probably read by now that Tom Cruise did almost 70 percent
of his own acting in this sad and soggy sequel to the 1996 remake of the
late 60s TV show.
And it shows.
MI2 starts out with special agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) just hanging around
on holidays on a cliff face in Utah, defying the law of gravity and, if
you believe the press kit, the basic law of moviemaking that states the
box office talent is never, ever, placed in danger.
"One of the most intriguing aspects of the filming was Cruise's insistence
on doing the majority of the stunt work himself, which often left director
Woo watching with his heart in his mouth," screams the press kit in
apparent defiance of this basic movie law.
"I really appreciated the fact that Tom wanted to do all his own stunts,"
Woo says, "but he really scared me sometimes."
Believe that, of course, and it's quite possible you could believe the storyline
as well.
How's this for starters? Hunt is given just a few days to track down the
beautiful master thief and ex-lover of our story's villain. In the twinkling
of an eye, he is not only in Spain but has somehow managed to get himself
hired as the chief security whizkid at the very location our thief (Thandie
Newton) has selected for her next major heist. Neat, eh?
Hunt beds our thief and they fly to Australia to thwart former fellow agent
turned nasty Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from unleashing some dreaded bug
on humankind and destroying all life on the planet as we know it, etc etc,
etc.
There's the set action pieces to Woo us, with those fancy pistols that only
fire if they are held on their side and slow motion shots of birds taking
flight – a visual treat that this reviewer hasn't personally seen since,
well, Face/Off.
It all ends with a long, overdone motorbike chase sequence and cliff
top fight.
Of course, the other spin about MI2 that was supposed to have sucked us
in along with Tom's death-defying heroics was the fact that this movie showcases
our very own Olympic city.
True, there's some nice harbour shots and other pretty postcards but am
I missing something here?
Sydney in the year 2000 needs movie exposure of this kind about as much
as Cairns needs another didgeridoo shop.
- Don Gordon-Brown
The War Zone (R)
Director: Tim Roth
Bug rating: 4 out of 5
There are some movies you come out of whistling show tunes. Others
leave you feeling good about life in general. Or leave you with a chuckle
or wistful memory.
The War Zone is not one of them.
First-time director Tim Roth has taken to the bleak and foreboding cliffs
of wintery Devon to present this sordid tale of one family's disintegration
through the evil of incest.
Ray Winstone and Tilda Swinton are the seemingly happy parents; acting newcomers
Lara Belmont (pictured) and Freddie Cunliffe are the moody, unsettled offspring
with some shocking secrets to firstly deny – and then share.
We may have lost Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and that wonderfully
foppish cad Archie Cunningham from Rob Roy) to behind the camera,
for here is a director with an eye for imagery and sufficient faith in the
audience not to spell out every development as his version of the Alexander
Stuart novel unfolds.
There's some of the feel, pacing and music of The Winter Guest to
this effort, so it's no surprise to find that director of photography Seamus
McGarvey worked on both.
Roth has the artist in him, with Rembrandt's lighting in many of the interiorior
scenes. And the brush strokes are subtle, with interpretations to be made
along the way and an ending which poses more questions than it answers.
- Don Gordon-Brown
Looking for Alibrandi (M)
Director: Susan
Bug rating: 4 out of 5
