The story on the first "Mission: Impossible"was that nobody could understand the plot. Yet, the picture was a worldwideblockbuster. That formula is seemingly duplicated in "Mission: Impossible2," which succumbs to another barely comprehensible storyline right from thestart.

A scientist has developed a deadly virus and its antidote. Bothfall into the hands of the bad guy, who happens to be a former IMF agent (DougrayScott). Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must get the goods, destroy the virus and savethe world.

That all seems clear enough, and the audience can sit back andenjoy the extravagant action sequences, which is the whole point of these movies.Hunt, under orders from the IMF boss (Anthony Hopkins), enlists the villain'sex-girlfriend (Thandie Newton) for the mission. Hunt falls in love with her in asappy but enjoyable scene which is none other than a car chase, but then mustsend her back into the hands of the villain.

The movie goes from actionsequence to action sequence; most of which are incredibly executed: Cruise'srock-climbing scene, a bungee-jump into a skyscraper's air duct, and a finale onmotorcycles. Director John Woo squeezes juice out of these scenes, happilytapping into the talent that sparked his Hong Kong triumphs. When Cruise andScott aim their motorcycles at each other in a modern medieval joust, it is moviemayhem.

"Mission: Impossible 2" lacks a vision of how the wholemovie is supposed to blend. The director seemingly didn't realize that capping ascene by having a spy yank off a life-like face mask is effective once, but notsix times. The storyline becomes pathetic as characters simply stand there andtell us what's going to happen next, and why.

There isn't much of theensemble fun of the original TV series. But the fact that the movie isn't reallyabout ruling the world but about getting good stock options isamusing.

The graceful touches of John Woo are simply not enough toovercome the dull plot. The glitzy action sequences hold the movie together onlyfor a while before mediocrity takes over.