20 Times Directors You Trust Totally Let You Down
10. John Woo - Mission Impossible II
The Director:
One of the best action filmmakers who ever lived, John Woo turns action scenes into elaborately choreographed and visually stunning ballet, filled with guns, corpses and... doves randomly flying across the screen.
The Film:
John Woo's move to Hollywood did not go very well. Face/Off is a good film, but with that one, Woo was given more creative control. His American films were constantly hampered by studio interference, and Face/Off is his only film from this period of his career which was particularly well-received.
Mission Impossible II is terrible. And this is coming from a huge fan of action cinema, so it'll be bad even for action fans. The main problem is the total lack of plot, and the film ultimately amounts to nothing more than a collection of Tom Cruise stunts. Unfortunately, these are only sporadically entertaining.
It's impossible to feel John Woo's presence here at all, and it seems likely that the studio did a lot of meddling. What a terrible waste of a great talent.
Has He Bounced Back?
Unsurprisingly, John Woo eventually ditched Hollywood and once he returned to Asia, he got back on form. His war epic Red Cliff was a success, and subsequent films The Crossing and Manhunt both did fine.