Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

Once again, we are continuing on our countdown to Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation with our Ass Whoopin Wednesdays presents the Mission: Impossible series. For today’s film, we are looking at Mission: Impossible 2 which was the sequel that took four years to make and once again stars Tom Cruise (Top Gun) as our favorite IMF Agent Ethan Hunt. This time around, a deadly virus that was created by a scientist named Dr. Nekhorvich (Radé Sherbedgia) called Chimera which has been stolen by a former IMF agent named Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) and he plans to sell it in the market for lots of money. With the help of a former girlfriend of Ambrose (Thandie Newton), Hunt has to destroy both the virus and the cure before it gets into the wrong hands. The film also stars Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) as Luther, Anthony Hopkins (The Silence Of The Lambs) as Swanbeck, Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing) as Hugh Stamp, John Polson (Swimfan) as Billy, Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) as McCloy, William Mapother (The Grudge) as Wallis, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) as Ulrich, and the film was directed by John Woo (Face/Off). Let’s check out some stats from the film before we get into the review of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can definitely tell the difference between the first film and this one just by who the director of the film is which happens to be John Woo. Just from that little piece of info, you know that the action sequences are going to be more epic and more outrageous because let’s go for broke after all. For one, Ethan Hunt knows some bad ass martial arts moves in this film and his kills/knockouts count triples in this film than what it was in the first film as he has 26 kills/knockouts overall. Once again, Ethan has no origin story to speak of in this film, but he does gain a love interest and he has a sexual conquest with her. In the film, she is infected with Chimera virus so Ethan is on the hunt for the cure before it is too late and the big boss is eventually defeated. Now the question going into this film is do I think that it was better than the first film? To be honest with you, while the action was turned up a notch for this film, I still find the first film to be better than this one. There was  more of a clever story in the first one than there was in this one, but this film is still pretty good in it’s own right. One thing that it has working for them is the cinematography as we get some great shots of Sydney, Australia during the film. While the rest of the series is not available to stream on Netflix as we speak, the first two films in the series are and you should definitely check them out if you love the whole action spy espionage thing that so many of us have craved for years which is why we continue to love James Bond. I am going to give this film four fists out of five for a final grade.

Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween 2014: Day 31: The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (1973)

What is a Halloween celebration with Hammer Films, Christopher Lee as Dracula, and the legendary Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing in The Satanic Rites Of Dracula? Well, I can tell you that it’s not a very good celebration, but Rob Zombies album Hellbilly Deluxe inspired me to watch this film for this year’s edition of Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween. In my opinion, Dracula embodies Halloween and that is why I posted it today as the last film of the celebration. The film follows Scotland Yard Police Investigators in 1970’s London as they investigate some Satanic Rituals that host some pretty important people in English society after they were tipped off by an MI-6 agent. What they don’t realize is that one of the participants is really Count Dracula himself disguised as a big time real estate agent that plans to infect the world with a fatal virus. So, they call upon Professor Van Helsing (Cushing) for help on the case. The film also stars Michael Coles (Dracula A.D. 1972) as Inspector Murray, William Franklyn (Top Secret) as Torrance, Freddie Jones (Dune) as Professor Keeley, Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) as Jessica Van Helsing, Barbara Yu Ling (Hardware) as Chin Yang, and the film was directed by Alan Gibson (Dracula A.D. 1972).

I actually enjoyed this film because at times it didn’t feel like a horror film, but an action espionage film as well with what we assume is MI-6 and a rival faction. The film had snipers as well as vampires running through the film which gave it that action espionage James Bond type field as they try to stop an evil group from poisoning everyone. It just happens that Count Dracula is the villain and Professor Hellsing will presume the role of James Bond considering he is hired to do what his family has always done and that is kill vampires. As I said, I enjoyed this considering it was a Hammer Film and most of the Hammer film’s that I watched were set in the 1500’s and so on. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are just as great as it gets in Horror and you can’t not think of them when Hammer Films is mentioned. It’s just iconic and they’re iconic as well. There are certain types of films that I have always enjoyed having the Brits make and these are some of them. Plus, I love their accents which I cannot get enough of. What more can I say about the film because the acting is great and the cinematography is pretty good as well. I definitely suggest that if you haven’t seen any Hammer films then you get right on it like this one for starters which can be found on Youtube to watch for free and Vampire Lovers which stars Peter Cushing and the beautiful Ingrid Pitt and Madeline Smith. I am going to give this film a B for a final grade. Happy Halloween everyone and I will see you all next year for Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween.