The biggest grossing movie this year (so far) is Mission: Impossible 2, starring Tom Cruise as Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt who has been tasked with recovering a deadly virus from the clutches of former IMF operative Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott). MI2 is a pure action movie filled with car chases, technogadgets, gunfights, and explosions. The safety of the world is at stake as the hero and villain square off.

The movie is directed by John Woo, which is supposed to be a big deal. I'm not too sure why though. The director certainly controls the look of the movie: how scenes are shot, what's emphasized, where everything is. Usually they also control the final editing, so they decide what makes it into the movie and in what order. But they didn't write the story, they usually don't have the ability to add and delete scenes or make plot changes (or maybe I'm wrong and they do have that kind of control).

Saying a movie is directed by Spielberg gives you some idea of the movie because of the kind of projects he has done before and his directing style, but it doesn't say that this movie will be good or will have this kind of plot or much of anything else. So a John Woo directed movie has doves and two gun salutes and whirlwind camera moves. But those are just elements, it takes more than that to make a good movie.

The same criticism applies to actors. Good actors tend to associate themselves with good movies, but that's no guarantee. I suppose that comes with the territory. Since the actors and directors (and producers even) are associated strongly with films, people start thinking of them as the only factor in a film being good or bad. It's like being the head of any corporation or sports team: you get all the glory and all the derision.

So, back to the movie. Sean Ambrose has gotten his hands on Bellerophon, an engineered cure for Chimera. Chimera is an engineered disease that is deadly if not treated within 20 hours, and I suppose it's also extremely easy to spread although it wasn't explicitly stated in the movie. Both were created by Dr. Nekhorvich for the genetic/pharmaceutical company Biocyte.

Ambrose has the only sample of Bellerophon, Biocyte the only sample of Chimera. (Forget the fact that Biocyte must have had backup data for Bellerophon, especially since they were able to confirm that Ambrose's sample had the right DNA makeup.) They need to negotiate over a price. Hunt and his IMF team must discover what Chimera is and stop Ambrose from whatever plan he has in motion. That's a slight twist since usually the agents know know all the facts about a mission.

Hunt's team is composed of Nyah Nordolf-Hall (Thandie Newton), a professional thief and a former love interest of Ambrose; Billy Baird (John Polson), an Aussie who is the scavenger and helicopter pilot; and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), the computer expert who helped Hunt in the last movie. Most of the action is set in Australia, Sydney to be more precise, with some scenes in Seville, Spain.

I like this movie. There is the requisite love interest between Ethan and Nyah, some great car and motorcycle stunts, a couple of cool firefights between Ethan and a host of bad guys, and a flawed villain in Ambrose. It's nice to see a villain who is not totally focused on world domination. Well worth a see if you like action movies, Tom Cruise, or John Woo movies.