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| Movies,
Jerry Carpenter & Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F3
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Already the best Tom Cruise ever, purely for the fact that almost an hour and a half of it’s two hour running time is well-framed full screen Tom, and nothing else. This is really Cruiser-Deluxe, from the slow motion shots held that little bit too long, to the bombardment of cheeky smiles, over-played eye gestures, and of course the ‘running very very fast’ scenes. Score two on that particular count.
The plot is contrived, contorted and ultimately vapid, concerning some bad-guys and a lethal virus. Book-ending all this nicely are a bang-on car chase and motorcycle joust. Into the mix is tossed in a sexy girl ( a very sexy girl !) for Cruise and his bumbling angry Scot nemesis Dougray Scott to get sweaty over . Unfortunately Thandie Newton gets short shrift, not only used by the boys but also by the film-makers as a simplistic device to create antagonism between the male leads.
Unlike the first film, where the IMF (International Monetary Fund ? – haha ) had a team dynamic, this is just the Cruise and a couple of comedy relief stooges there to ferry him between locations and check his e-mails. Back from the first film is Ving rhames (doing the e-mails), and he’s ok. Worse however is the new guy, whose character could be detailed on a stamp as ‘Australian and a helicopter pilot’ – he’s rubbish.
Attempting to create a franchise that no one really wants, Cruise hires a certain John Woo to add flair to an otherwise tepid thriller. Once again Woo’s flamboyant technique overcomes all obstacles and wows with its sense of timing and movement. He’s still the nearest thing to a creator of live action Anime in Western cinema. But, when down to credibility stretching set pieces and dumb gadgets, Bond does this stuff better. At least the first movie had a certain sense of unease, with disenfranchised former boss Jim Phelps selling out the IMF. This time round the division between good and bad is much more distinct, Cruise is a saint ( he gets his own dove motif!), and the bad guys are just plain bad, fulfilling their quota of sadistic acts and dying on queue in the right order of ‘badness’.
So, great motorcycle action, but if you find the Cruiser that little bit irritating, rent out ‘Street Hawk’ on video instead.
UK rating:
15
US rating:
PG
John Woo. 2000 USA
Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Rade Serbedzija.
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