Toned up and teeth gleaming, Tom Cruise returns as daredevil special agent Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible II, which opens at cinemas across the country next Friday. Brian De Palma's 1996 Mission Impossible, the first big-screen treatment of the old TV series, was a disappointing effort bogged down by a convoluted plotline and enlivened by only a few outstanding set-pieces.
Cruise, who also co-produced the new movie, wisely hired the Hong Kong action master John Woo to kick some life into the series, and viewers can expect lots of Woo's signature balletic action as Ethan Hunt slugs it out with his former fellow agent, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).
The international cast includes Thandie Newton as an international thief and Brendan Gleeson as a shady pharmaceuticals tycoon.