Hard Boiled (1992)

Is Hard Boiled the peak of pre-CGI-enhanced action cinema? When you sit down to watch it, or rewatch it after a gap of far too many years, it soon becomes hard to argue against that position. Considering how beloved it remains by action movie fans, I seriously considered not even writing a review. What can be said about Hard Boiled that hasn't been said already? Nothing, but I still want to add my own praise to the mass of positive words you can already read about it elsewhere.

Chow Yun-Fat plays 'Tequila', a good cop with a very good aim. Others say that he never wastes a bullet, but that claim may be tested when he is surrounded by more and more gun-toting criminals looking to push him right off the end of this mortal coil. The head villain is Johnny (Anthony Wong), but he's helped out by a deadly killer named Mad Dog (Phillip Kwok) and a young man (Tony Leung) who might be keeping a big secret that could compromise a lot of people.

With a screenplay by Barry Wong and Gordon Chan, Hard Boiled has everything you could expect from this kind of movie in this time period. There's our hero clashing with the Chief Superintendent (Philip Chan). There's some awkward comedy, and relationship tension between our hero and the woman he is involuntarily separated from (Teresa, played by Teresa Mo). And you have the moral fluidity of the heroes and villains, depending on what is at stake and who is caught up in the middle of the action. And there are guns. Of course. Lots and lots of guns.

The influence of John Woo, often referred to as the father of "bullet ballet", cannot be under-estimated, and Hard Boiled is a modern action movie source text that so many other moments of great cinema stem from. The two main stars are suitably bright, but they're also happy to share scenes with the actual main star of the show, all of the weaponry and firepower that Woo presents in a number of increasingly impressive and audacious set-pieces. 

Aside from Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung, both unable to be any cooler unless they were dipped in liquid nitrogen, it's a pleasant surprise to find Wong and Kwok able to make any kind of impression at all. The fact that they both manage to be as riveting as the leads, albeit in very different ways, is downright miraculous. I cannot say the same about Chan or Mo, but they do well enough with what they're given, particularly while playing their parts in the third act.

It's far from perfect, a lot of the less violent moments fall a bit flat, but when moving from one gunfight to the next . . . Hard Boiled is very hard to top. In fact, I may not see an action movie as good as this until I check out another John Woo movie from this part of his career. And I hope to be doing that quite soon.

9/10

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Broken Arrow (1996)

When you think about watching Broken Arrow you might think about the fact that it isn’t the best film from anyone involved. It isn’t director John Woo’s best film. Both John Travolta and Christian Slater have starred in a number of better films. Even writer Graham Yost peaked a couple of years before this (having worked on the brilliant Speed). It’s a film destined to be overshadowed by so many others, and yet I tend to get the urge to revisit it every few years.

Travolta and Slater play Deakins and Hale, respectively. They are two pilots who find themselves battling against one another when one puts in motion a plan to steal some nuclear weapons. Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) is a young park ranger who finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous situation, and it isn’t long until we get slow-motion moments, two-handed gunplay, and inventive action sequences that showcase a fantastic variety of stuntwork and gags.

As much as I enjoy Hard Target, the first American feature from Woo, it feels very much like a Van Damme movie that John Woo directed. Which is what it is. Broken Arrow, however, feels like a John Woo movie that could have started anyone in the main roles, but benefits from both Travolta and Slater upping their game to work with such a great action director. I hope that clarifies why I have always enjoyed this film a bit more than the enjoyable Van Damme flick.

The script may not be the best work that Yost has ever done, but he puts all of the pieces in place and gives some great dialogue to the main characters (one line even famously leading to the name of the kingdom of the now-disgraced Harry Knowles, “Ain’t It Cool News”). What it lacks in smarts and plausibility, it more than makes up for in action movie witticisms and simple fun, which is an approach supported by Woo’s enjoyable direction.

Travolta steals a few scenes, but both he and Slater fit well in their roles, and both seem equally capable at doing whatever their characters are required to do. Mathis is weaker, but it’s hard to figure out whether that is down to her performance or the fact that her character feels like a last-minute addition to the whole thing. Thankfully, the supporting cast includes Bob Gunton, Frank Whaley, and the always brilliant and captivating Delroy Lindo, each one of these familiar faces getting at least one great little moment to remind you of why you enjoy them onscreen.

Well-paced, with a fantastic set-piece just over the halfway point that remains awesome and impressive nowadays, and with a third act that really pulls out all of the stops, this remains a top-tier action film. You can really sense Woo feeling gleeful as he plays around with this huge toy set. It is also worth mentioning the score by Hans Zimmer, featuring a guitar refrain performed by Duane Eddy, which is so good that it was re-used and recycled in a number of different works.

I love this film, ever since I first watched, and rewatched, the trailer while it played at a cinema too far away from me to access. Everyone involved may have done better work elsewhere, but they all work together brilliantly here to deliver something hugely entertaining and enjoyable.

8/10

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Silent Night (2023)

I can imagine the excitement that director John Woo must have felt when he was given the option to make an action film in which the lead character didn't speak. Maybe there was an earlier script draft that had some other characters speaking, maybe there wasn't, but Woo surely relished the opportunity to deliver his trademark visual flourishes with no pesky dialogue dragging things down. It's certainly a strong central idea, but it's one that cannot be maintained for the length of a feature. Nobody wanted to tell Woo that, however, which leaves us with this.

Joel Kinnaman plays Brian Godlock, a man we first see chasing after some gun-fighting gangsters. He manages to deal with some of them before being shot, and left for dead, by Playa (Harold Torres). He somehow survives though, although his voice doesn't. After time spent recovering in the hospital, Brian starts on a path of revenge. It turns out that those gun-fighting gangsters accidentally killed his son. Getting himself armed and learning techniques from online videos, Brian doesn't care if he survives his quest. He only cares about taking the life of the man who killed his son. Oh, and there are some Christmas trimmings scattered here and there, seemingly just to work with the film title, like all of the non-speaking characters.

Written by Robert Archer Lynn, someone who must have been extremely grateful to have grabbed the interest of Woo, Silent Night has infrequent moments that hint at a much better film, but it’s generally a woeful experience. The fact that the central concept won’t actually work becomes clear quite early on, leaving viewers hoping for some patented Woo action, but Woo seems to have more faith in the script than it deserves.

Although there are some action sequences, none of them really hit the dizzyingly high bar set by Woo throughout many of the previous highlights of his filmography. In fact, the gunfire is particularly weak, Woo instead doing a much better job this time around with some car-based carnage. The varying quality of the action may not be so bad if alongside some strong dramatic performances, but the cast are all hampered by the lack of standard dialogue.

Kinnaman can be a great actor in the right roles. This is not one of the right roles for him. Watching him attempt to yell out in rage with no sound coming from his voicebox is just one of many poor, occasionally laughable, moments. Kid Cudi, billed here as Scott Mescudi, is a cop who ends up drawn into the trail of violence, but his character could have been played by almost anyone. As for Torres, he is a generic villain with no real charisma or personality, basically waiting around to be confronted as the “final boss”. None of those people are treated as poorly as Catalina Sandino Moreno, who has to play the suffering wife who also chooses not to speak to her voiceless husband (for no reason other than the script requires her to, because . . . Silent Night).

Many fans of Woo may have been waiting for his return to American movie-making, but I think this just proves that he continues to do his best work in his home country. I love both of his Travolta-starring movies, and I actually don’t mind Paycheck, but it remains obvious that fans of his action and style would be better off revisiting his impressive back catalogue than awaiting any new mainstream offerings from him. Each one offers disappointingly diminishing returns.

3/10

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June-Claude Van Damme: Hard Target (1993)

Jean-Claude Van Damme starring in a film that is yet another version of The Most Dangerous Game, what could possibly make this any better? Perhaps the fact that it was also John Woo making his first feature in America, after amassing such a loyal fanbase of his Hong Kong films. Would we get some impressive slo-mo moments, two guns being fired while characters dive across the screen, and doves flying into the air? Of course we would, which makes Hard Target a film that provides just as much fun today as it did when first released a quarter of a century ago (yes, it's been 25 years).

Van Damme plays the wonderfully-monikered Chance Boudreaux, a drifter in New Orleans who cannot get himself back into a job he has been selected for until he earns enough money to pay his union dues. But he can't pay those dues until he gets a job, of course, so finds himself in a vicious circle. For about half a minute. The chance to earn some money comes about when a young woman (Natasha, played by Yancy Butler) wants to hire someone as she searches for her missing father, an ex-veteran who fell on hard times. The pair start to do their amateur detective work, eventually piecing together evidence to realise what viewers have known from the very beginning; Natasha's father was paid by people who then chased him down and killed him before he could reach a designated safe point.

Like many other people, I really liked Hard Target when I first saw it. But I believe that I liked it then purely for the Van Damme factor. I wasn't familiar enough with John Woo to know of his style, I hadn't seen too many previous incarnations of this material (apart from The Running Man, which managed to feel a bit removed from the original idea because of the additional comments on the media and manipulation of the masses), and nobody else in the cast made much of an impression, simply because I was waiting for the next scene that would put Van Damme front and centre again.

Rewatching the movie with more knowledge tucked away into my brainparts has led me to find even more reasons to keep it marked as a fun action thriller, and one I am always happy to revisit. Van Damme may have the top billing but he's not the star here. The star here is Woo, clearly having a lot of fun with the cast and resources at his disposal. His style is stamped all over this, almost from the very first scene, as a statement of intent. "I have come to your shores," it says, "and this is why you wanted me here in the first place, so take it or leave it."

The script, by Chuck Pfarrer, is focused more on fun than any sense of realism, allowing for some decent exchanges between all of the main characters, and also some absolutely wonderful lines uttered by Lance Henriksen (the main villain).

Speaking of Henriksen, he almost steals this entire movie, which is easier for him to do as Woo balances things between allowing his leading man to have some leading man moments and allowing himself plenty of Woo-isms. Henricksen and Arnold Vosloo have a lot of fun with their roles, Van Damme gets to deliver some impressive smackdowns (including a great moment that sees him dealing with a rattlesnake), Butler does okay in her role (it's a bit underwritten but far from the worst female role in the action genre, especially from this time, and I can't help thinking a more recognisable actress could have lifted things slightly), and there's good support from Willie C. Carpenter, Kasi Lemmons, and the great Wilford Brimley.

Booby-traps, armed people riding motorbikes to track their potential victims, grenades being lobbed around with a distinct lack of real care, and let's not forget a damn fine mullet being worn by Van Damme, this has all of these treats and a lot more. Watch it, enjoy it, and rewatch it whenever you feel the urge. Which may happen more often than you expect.

7/10

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