Now balletic violence is John Woo's thing, and I'll admit there's a fluidity (if no actual realism) to the fight scenes. But there's a fluidity to sewers, too, and that doesn't make them any nicer to watch for minutes at a time. The final fight sequence was especially tedious.
Bernard Kelly [1] in a user submitted review to The IMDB [2]
Saw Mission Impossible II [3] today with some friends and for a John Woo [4] film, it was pretty dull. I kept wishing I could fast forward through parts. The action sequences were well done, but the constant slow motion effects got tiresome after awhile, and I felt like I was watching a second rate James Bond rip-off than a Mission Impossible mind-bending caper.
And like Battlefield Earth, [5] the small details were good, like one of the heros seeing the reflection of the obligatory LED countdown from a bomb underneath the van reflected off a puddle into a rear view mirror, or the line Anthony Hopkins says to Tom Cruise: “This isn't Mission Difficult, Mr. Hunt. It's Mission Impossible.”
But the big details … totally missed.
[1] http://www.imdb.com/CommentsAuthor?124614
[2] http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?120755
[3] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120755