Woo, although perhaps not an experienced enough director to competently handle a complex Mission: Impossible plot, does understand one basic concept that this rid-the-world-of-a-disease-being-carried-through-pharmacudical-plants story allows: chemicals equal bigger explosions. Now, rather than merely shooting a few people and perhaps even an occasional gas tank on the side of a car, the film’s characters can throw grenades into rooms full of bio-hazardous materials and run from a flame big enough to cook smores for an entire national convention of hungry boy scouts.

      The other nice thing about viruses in tubes is that you can use colors to make the basics real clear to anyone and everyone (especially the younger kids who will, despite it being against their better interest, take advantage of the film’s PG-13 rating). The red substance kills its victims in a most horrifying manner in just over 20 hours. The green substance, if injected within those 20 hours, saves the victim. Its sort of like a game of Green Light, Red Light ­ but with the entire existence of humanity hanging in the balance.

      Of course, with good chemicals and bad chemicals come good guys and bad guys. The good guys want to rid the world of the red stuff while the bad guys want to mass produce both the red and green so they can raise stock prices and sell the green at outrageous prices to an entire population that will be in desperate need of it. Did I mention a hijacked airplane, sexy theft (Thandie Newton) with a coincidental boyfriend (that’s the romantic angle that weighs the film down significantly), highly secured building that will have to be entered from the roof by someone on a belay rope who can be real quiet (where have I seen that before? Hmm. . .), the Sydney Opera House (still not sure if that was a relevant part of the film, but the cameras kept showing it time and again), a day at the races, John Woo’s signature doves, a bunch of cool motorcycle stunts (Cruise, in a move that reaffirms him as Hollywood’s number one leading man, did the majority his own stunts in this film) and those aforementioned pesky masks. Confused? It’s okay ­ I am still trying to work out the details of the plot from the first movie.

      With the majority of the picture set “Down Under,” cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball does a spectacular job capturing some truly breathtaking background images. Whether it be an early scene with Ethan Hunt rock climbing over a canyon or the numerous orange sunsets, Kimball’s work is always appealing to the eye yet never too noticeable so as to draw attention away from the movie’s plot.

      Mid way through the film, Sir Anthony Hopkins makes a cameo as Ethan Hunt’s boss. Hmm. . . an extraordinary British actor, who has been honored by Her Majesty, playing our sexy hero’s boss. That’s it! It’s really Dame Judi Dench with one of those rubber masks!

Mac VerStandig, 2000