The filmmakers really wanted to turn this into a franchise. The ending blatantly calls for a sequel and just makes the movie even worse. I couldn’t help but laugh at the ending since there will never be a sequel and in 10 years it’s going to look even dumber. It’s like if there had never been a Back To The Future 2 even with the first one ending with “To be continued.” Going in to the theater, I wanted to like this movie. The first 20 minutes or so started all right but it was downhill from there.
This movie has some good action sequences but there aren’t enough. It tries to be an action packed summer flick with great comic relief. The action works on a certain level but 85 % of the attempted humor falls flat. Michael Biehn was the only one who had funny lines and unfortunately they all came in the first 20 minutes. Wesley Snipes was only funny when if he was deadpanning a line but the rest of the time he was just stupid which was displayed very well in his conversation about McDonalds.
Snipes stars as Neil Shaw, a secret agent for the UN or something, who gets framed for the murder of a famous Chinese guy. That’s about all the movie wants you to know. Snipes is only adequate in the lead role. His best scenes are ones where he’s shooting people or snapping their necks. The two good performances come from Donald Sutherland and Michael Biehn but their screen time adds up to about 10 minutes combined. The rest of the cast is awful. Notable Marie Matiko as the woman on the run with Snipes. She gives what may be the most annoying performance ever. And those stupid glasses she wears in practically every scene don’t help at all. Anne Archer is also surprisingly annoying but in her own way. Her voice becomes unbelievably tedious to listen to after her first scene. I would compare her voice to fingers scratching on a chalkboard. After each of scenes I would pray that it was her last but of course she’s in it until the end.
However there are 4 or 5 solid action scenes. The two best are the chase sequences in the beginning and near the end. They were both unbelievably well directed. These scenes are far too good to be stuck in this load of garbage.
Another complaint of mine was all the things stolen from the first Mission: Impossible, straight down to glasses that have hidden cameras in them. And the whole “surprise” ending was identical to Mission: Impossible. Even the lap top scenes were reminiscent of the retrieval of the NOC list in Mission: Impossible.
-Steve