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Ethan Hunt recruits the skills of a beautiful jewel thief to recover a lethal virus that was stolen by a rogue IMF agent. Brian De Palma's attempt to make a more adult spy movie in the original Mission Impossible is jettisoned in favour of the usual Hollywood blockbuster histrionics and to be fair, MI: 2 has dated rather better as a result. It plays out very much like its contemporary Bond films and a gorgeous Thandie Newton conjures some pretty decent chemistry with Cruise in the early scenes of the film. In fact John Woo shows some unusual restraint for the first two acts and his trademark stylised action works extremely well for an exciting research facility heist. Dougray Scott also makes a suitably Machiavellian villain as "Dark Ethan" and it all shapes up to be an enjoyable if silly action movie. Unfortunately things take a decided turn for the worse during the climax as Woo succumbs to his worst excesses for an uncomfortably bloated finale which degenerates into complete nonsense. The action becomes so overblown and incessant it becomes increasingly tedious rather than exciting and the emotional button pushing is done encased within a concrete boxing glove. This all culminates in an absurd acrobatic smackdown between Cruise and Scott that resembles a drearily drawn out round of Tekken. A shame really, because up until that point it was really good fun but it still stands up as a brainless but fun instalment that's probably the second best of the series after Ghost Protocol thanks to its willingness not to take itself too seriously.