You're better off avoiding M:I-2. The 3rd one's actually a decent flick and doesn't seem like a Tom Cruise vanity project.

I had actually seen MI2 in the theater, and as I said earlier, enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure, turn my mind off, what-the-fuck-is-Sir-Anthony-Hopkins-Doing-in-this sort of way... and I had yet to see the masterpiece Notorious. Well, years later, I'm sitting in a film history class watching Notorious. It took about 15 minutes before I said aloud, "you gotta be F-ing kidding me..."

There's derivitive, and then there's straight-up ripping off a classic.



Doc

MI2 is my favorite one in the series...

Bah, MI3 is more outrageous then MI2 if ask me, just missing the Woo MTV slow mo. The bridge scene alone should have killed Ethan at least 50 times. I enjoyed 1 and 2 but 3 not so much, just seemed rushed with dull outrageousness to it.

Woo is supposedly directing 4.

I watched part 2 this morning and it's even worse than I remember. That whole film is dated and awkward. Woo's trademark action is lame and doesn't flow well.

As bad as Face/Off is that action is much more consistent and flows properly. I heard that MI:2 was neutered to get the PG-13 rating down.

Agree. Between the constant slomos, face lifts and doves I was in Woo overload. I could take them way back when in The Killer and Hardboiled, but 2 was preposterous...

Confirmed, not true!

I think the last ~25 minutes of M-I:2 are fine

This was more exciting than 2.

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The problem with 2 is that there’s incredibly little action in the film. There’s a high rise heist at the mid-point and a motorcycle chase that ends in a knife fight at the end. That’s it.

For all the flack that 2 gets for stealing from Notorious, no one ever bitches about how part 3 cribs from Danger Diabolik and tons of other euro espionage films.

We tried to go see Fallout last week but an emergency with our dog at home forced us to leave early (she's fine). So we're going back later this week.

With that in mind, I just had a fun three days watching all five MI movies basically back to back. I've never done that before and it was fascinating to see how wildly different they all are. I mean, I knew that in the abstract but I've never done a viewing like that.

2 is problematic from start to finish - even Cruise is overacting and I blame the dialogue for being super-cheesy (the "I WILL FIND YOU" stuff is ripped straight out of Last of the Mohicans). I like that his martial art skills have completely changed from movie to movie too. The motorcycle stuff is actually pretty fun at the end but the rest is just blah. And too much "wire-fu" stuff too. And I saw pointed out that 2 is actually the only MI movie up to Fallout where Cruise and his team are on an actual MI mission and not fighting the IMF bureaucracy.

It was weird to go straight into 3 which is a much more interesting movie, has great dialogue and way better set pieces.

Just a fun way to watch them all.

I love everything about 2 and make no apologies for it

The entire bunker section and motorcycle chase are fantastic. It's getting there that's the issue for me. I really don't like Thandie Newton in the movie either.

Of the first 3, 2 is my favorite with 3 being my least favorite. I actually think 3 is the worst in the whole series. It is unmemorable and PSH is terrible and woefully miscast. I have seen it a few times and I am struggling to remember any action sequences or anything impressive about the movie as I type this.

I remember 2 and 3 being awful (R.I.P. Dougray Scott’s career) with the rest of them being solid. Haven’t seen the first one since the 90s.

PSH is easily the best villain.

I have such a soft spot for 1. Possibly since I had no clue what was going on when I saw it in the theater so I had to watch it again and really pay attention to finally get it. It's almost a completely different movie from the rest and perhaps that why I despise 2 so much because it followed the original and was just so different.

My lasting impression from seeing 1 in the theatre as a 16 year-old was that it made no fucking sense. I rewatched it last week and was shocked to find that my 22 year-long grudge against the movie was unfair. The movie feels dated to me, like it was filmed in the 70s, but the plot is perfectly understandable.

My thoughts on the series:

I saw MI1 in theaters and hated it (and I love DePalma films, mostly). Years later I watched it again and appreciated it much more. I don't think it's a great film but it's easily a very good one. Unfortunately it set the pattern for "Ethan Hunt & Team on the run/discredited/disavowed/going rogue" etc. instead of actually going on missions.

MI2 (also in theaters) I loved at first, but it was an action film first and foremost, and so much a relic of its time that now the film suffers for it. It's oddly paced as well, replete with lukewarm Hitchcock'ian "To Catch A Thief" leftovers that are oddly fitted with a chemistry-less Cruise/Newton. Still, it has some slick and impressive sequences that are still worthwhile.

MI3 (last one I saw in theaters) was largely forgettable since I largely forgot it. I remember thinking PSH was great in it, but like many JJA movies (and shows) it started very strong and petered out to hohummery by the end.

MI4 was the best since MI1, with a fun story and impressive action sequences. I think here they perfected the formula balancing compelling storylines and cool action. I think the final set piece was a bit of overkill and a letdown after the thrilling Burj Kalifa sequence.

MI5 is IMO the best overall (I haven't seen Fallout yet). Gritty, fun, suspenseful, and engrossing. I was surprised that the fifth entry into a series provided the best experience yet.

My ranking: 5, 4, 1, 2, 3

Fun fact: Dougray Scott turned down Wolverine to do MI:2.

I imagine he spends his days now going from showing to showing of "The Greatest Showman" with a bottle of cheap Scotch.

I still love MI1 the most, with 4 and 5 behind it. It was the only one that really had the TEAM aspect, at least for part of the movie, and not Super-Ethan. If, when, they reboot I hope they go back to using the team concept.

Turned down? No, he was actually cast as Wolverine but they ran way too long on MI:2 and he could not be released from it, so they recast him with Hugh. From what I remember.

That's what I remember as well.

I think you're right. It was a Tom Selleck situation.