In theaters

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2. Directed by John Woo. Written by Robert Towne, based on a story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, and the television series created by Bruce Geller. Running time: 120 minutes. Rated PG-13.

In John Woo’s highly stylized and often gripping “Mission: Impossible 2,” Tom Cruise returns in cruise control as Ethan Hunt.

The film is great fun, a summer blockbuster that seamlessly blends action, humor, sex and glamour into a mix that’s so intoxicating, the rush of visuals and sound so finely tuned with testosterone-charged energy, some teen-age boys might find themselves fainting in the aisles midway through.

Who says sequels can’t be better? After the first “Mission: Impossible,” which featured a plot so dense and muddled not even IBM’s Big Blue could make sense of it, Woo wisely weaves his plot around a less convoluted premise — one that buys straight into AIDS conspiracy theories: A deadly, man-made virus is about to be released on the world so a group of evil, alpha-males can earn tens of billions on its man-made cure.

As Ethan, Cruise’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to join forces with the unsuspecting Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), an international jewel thief and former lover of the nutcase controlling the virus — Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

Recalling Hitchcock’s 1946 film, “Notorious,” in which Ingrid Bergman’s character risked her life to marry a villain so she could help her true love (Cary Grant), Nyah re-establishes her relationship with Sean, moves in with him and gets the goods on the virus for Ethan.

Predictably, she and Ethan also fall in love.

Always assured, “M:I2” is loud and showy when it needs to be, but it’s also surprisingly restrained in ways that Woo’s “Face/Off” and “Broken Arrow” never were; this is the rare action film that holds its audience in its clutch even when bombs and bullets aren’t tearing up the screen.

Influenced throughout by a myriad of classic thrillers, including “To Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest,” “M:I2” relies too often on the oldest espionage trick in the book — peeling away a mask to reveal (surprise!) another person — but it more than compensates in the execution of its executions. With Woo’s sweeping signature style in full, dazzling effect, and with Cruise fully committed to the role, this is one mission that promises not to detonate in theaters. Grade: B+

THE LAST SEPTEMBER. Directed by Deborah Warner. Written by John Banville, based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen. Running time: 104 minutes. Rated R. Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

If you’ve seen Pat O’Connor’s 1990 film, “Fools of Fortune,” then you’ll know the terrain Deborah Warner stakes out in “The Last September.” Part coming-of-age story, part romance, part end of an era and part historical fact, her film follows the decline of the Anglo-Irish and the end of British rule in Ireland.

Based on Elizabeth Bowen’s novel, “September” is set in 1920 County Cork, southern Ireland, at the country home of Sir Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) and his wife, Lady Myra (Maggie Smith), members of the Ascendancy whose moneyed, graceful way of life is quickly nearing an end.

Beautifully shot, sumptuously mounted, but sometimes too slowly paced and disjointed to suit, the film’s central protagonist is Lois (Keeley Hawes), a teen-ager being courted by a sweet yet financially undesirable captain in the British army (David Tennant), but whose heart longs for the sexual freedom, excitement and experience only a gruff, renegade terrorist (Gary Lydon) could give her.

Other characters move about the set pieces with all the chill and bite of a late September breeze. With the possible exception of the Naylor’s pet monkey, a furball that darts throughout the sets with abandon, nobody here is happy.

There’s Hugo and Francie Montmorency (Lambert Wilson and Jane Birkin), an emotionally dead couple locked in a sham of a marriage. And there’s Marda Norton (Fiona Shaw), a woman of a certain age who loves Hugo but cannot have him. The tension between them gives the film its raw power while also adding to its underlying tone of sadness, disillusionment and emotional bankruptcy.

If “September” moves too slowly, it more than compensates in its depiction of its characters, mirror images of their English counterparts — they dressed for dinner, rode to hounds, spoke in precisely the same sneering, vicious lilt — who increasingly found themselves living displaced lives: Neither Ireland nor England wanted them — and they knew it.

It’s this knowledge of being unwanted — and how these people push on in spite of it — that gives “September” its unsuspecting humanity. Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”