Mission: Impossible 2

by

Various Artists

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Recently, we've seen quality soundtracks for Scream 3, TheCrow: Salvation, Heavy Metal 2000 and many others. The soundtrack forM:I-2 is no exception. The headliners on this album deliver with great results. Limp Bizkit's "Take A Look Around" is one of the most sophisticated songs they've ever done, and it gives Fred Durst an opportunity to shoot back at his critics. The chaotic, frenzied remix of Chris Cornell's "Mission" (re-titled "Mission 2000") is an intriguing stand-out. Another intriguing addition to this disc is the Foo Fighters' cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" with drummer Taylor Hawkins on vocals. They add a bit of adrenaline to it for some splendid results. Buckcherry's "Alone" and Godsmack's "Going Down" easily dwarf the material on both bands' albums. One of the best tracks on this album is Rob Zombie's thundering "Scum of the Earth." It's great to see that he didn't offer yet another remix of something from Hellbilly Deluxe. Metal gods Metallica offer the excellent "I Disappear." While the song won't dispel any notion that they've gone alternative, it supports the argument that they do it better than anyone else. Oddly, Tori Amos is on this disc. I don't like her all that much (I enjoy Sarah McLachlan much more), but her song "Carnival" is a cool mix of sweet vocals and trippy electronica. The lesser known bands don't fare quite as well. Only Powderfinger's mellow "My Kinda Scene" and Apartment 26's rollicking "Backwards" succeed in carving out a unique identity for these two bands. The Pimps' "Rocket Science" is a blatant, pathetic attempt to cash in on rap-metal's current popularity. For a Kid Rock song, "What U Lookin' At" is pretty good, but the name on the CD and the booklet is Uncle Kracker (but the CD and the booklet also say it was produced by Rock). He sounds exactly like Kid Rock, lyrics, style, voice and all. If it's not Kid Rock, then it's completely derivative, if it is him, it's not bad. Diffuser's "Karma" and Tinfed's "Immune" are decent songs, but they don't present anything new or unique. For the most part, the soundtrack for M:I-2 delivers a great collection of hard rock and metal. Buy it. Now.

For any of you who might actually want to hear some of the music played EFFECTIVELY in the movie and not just for the purposes of music sales, this album is not for you.

It is my humble opinion that yes, a soundtrack is designed to help the box office sales as well as make money for the final bottom line (which includes merchandising, soundtrack sales, etc etc)... but I really really hate it when I see the lines "Music from and inspired by the film..."

Why? Because it means typically that the record companies have gone out and found some artist of the moment that sells records and happily place their song on the soundtrack. (Can we say cross promotion?)

The problem with this is that some of the very best elements of sound in the movie, being Hans Zimmer's original score have been left out of the soundtrack. AT LEAST MI:1 HAD THE IMPORTANT SCORES ON THE DISC!

The most powerful song in the movie was left out of this disc. If you don't believe me, see it, and then look for the scene where Nia has just been infected. It's a powerful scene made even more so by the sweeping music going through the theatre and the action going on around them. JOHN WOO AT IT'S BEST AND THEY LEFT IT OUT!

All I have to say is, the original score had BETTER be produced.