Is Tom Cruise on a mission impossible?

But somehow the Hollywood heartthrob loses his way in this all-action thriller, never quite matching the martial arts magic of Van Damme or the suave aplomb Brosnan brings to 007.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that film director John Woo is an all-out action kinda guy. Fellow director Quentin Tarantino, asked if Woo could direct action scenes, said, "Sure, and Michel Angelo can paint ceilings."

M:I-2 screenwriter Robert Towne, who won an Oscar for writing Chinatown, is known for painting his characters in shades of gray. But the most spectacular scene, which opens the movie, has nothing to do with Kung Fu or British suavity. It shows Cruise climbing a sheer cliff face in Moab, Utah, hanging by one hand 2,000 feet (610 metres) above the ground.

And yes, it is Cruise and not a stuntman in the release by Paramount, a division of Viacom. He insisted on doing 95 per cent of his own stunts and, as co-producer of the film, he had enough clout that when he insisted on something the crew, from director Woo on down, did not argue with him.

"My heart was in my mouth when Tom was on that cliff face, hanging by just one hand," Woo recalled at a recent press conference in Beverly Hills.

"But what was worse was that he insisted on doing it time and time again until he was satisfied he had got it right. I would say, `Tom, that’s great, it’s a cut,’ and he would say, `No, it’s not quite there, I’m going to do it again.’ In the end I think we did it four times before he was happy."

Cruise, in fact, was tethered by a cable to his waist, but that did not keep the Hong Kong-born director’s heart out of his mouth.

"I kept thinking, what if the cable breaks. We had a great stunt team there to back him up but it was just so risky."

Long on action, short on plot, and with about as much dialogue as an early Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western, M:I-2 will be released nationwide on May 26 to kick off the Memorial Day holiday weekend and summer blockbuster movie season.

It has an innovative, spectacular motorcycle joust when Cruise, as Mission Impossible agent Ethan Hunt, and Scottish actor Dougray Scott, as his evil nemesis Sean Ambrose, use cycles much as knights jousted on steeds in mediaeval times.

There is also a damsel in distress, a beautiful but tough professional thief with just the right amount of vulnerability who is recruited by agent Hunt to help thwart Ambrose’s plan to spread a deadly virus all across the planet.

The role is played by British actress Thandie Newton, who has not had much exposure to American audiences, although she played the title character in Beloved and worked with Cruise in Interview With the Vampire.

But she surely will be better known in the future.

She is a close friend of Cruise’s wife, Nicole Kidman, but it was not that that got her the part. Screenwriter Towne said he first met Newton when he and Cruise were working on The Firm. Although she did not get the part she was auditioning for then, she left an indelible impression on Towne.

"When I came into this movie, Tom and I were talking and he said, `Do you know this girl Thandie Newton?’ and I said `Get her,’" Towne said.

Co-producer Paula Wagner said the search for the right actress to play Nyah was difficult until Newton came along. "We were looking for someone who defined the women of the new millennium. She’s feminine, sexy, smart as a tack and can be very physical if she needs to be."

Newton fit the bill. Born in Zambia of a Zambian mother and English father, she moved with her family to England when she was 4. She started acting in high school but put her career on hold to take a degree in anthropology at Cambridge University.

She is married to British screenwriter Ol Parker and five months pregnant with their first child. Of M:I-2 she said, "I loved it, working with so many talented people, having so much fun doing it, and the exposure can’t hurt either."

But Newton’s considerable acting talents are hardly put to the test in the film, in which she plays a first-class thief who is also the former girlfriend of bad guy Ambrose. She falls in love with Hunt despite Ambrose’s attempts to win her back before he tries to poison the planet.

Apart from a brief nearly nude scene, the director chose to concentrate on her enigmatic smile: A beauty to behold, indeed, but not to be shown in close-up after close-up ad nauseam.

The movie was shot mostly in Australia and features several Australian actors as good guys and bad guys, including one with a South African accent. There is also a cameo appearance by Anthony Hopkins as the head of Mission Impossible, a sort of tryout for playing M in the Bond series.

Based on the Mission Impossible TV series, M:I-2 follows the 1996 "Mission Impossible" film directed by Brian De Palma. That one was criticised for being too complex and confusing, an accusation the sequel definitely escapes.

Moviegoers really hate it when reviewers reveal the plot, and co-producer Wagner pleaded at the press junket, "Please don’t give the plot away, let the audience be surprised."

No problem with this movie. There’s no plot to give away. Reuters