Review of Hard Boiled (1992) by Andy N — 09 Jun 2010

Hard Boiled still today, is an action movie that trumps most every action movie. Gun play that puts any Desperado to shame, a story a lot of movies have tried to copy, and the first, true usage, of bullet time. More bodies fall in this film than all of the Rambo's combined (mainly due the fact that almost everyone in the country of China shows up for the gun fights). Also, Chow Yun-Fat proves you do not fuck with a clarinet player, they will eviscerate your body with bullets and then front kick you into the wall.

The story is about a man named Tequila who's on the edge. He started out a young cop with many aspirations, but, over the years he's become hard. His best friend, and the drummer of his band, is killed in a massive tea shop shootout and because of this, Tequila begins to investigate a gun smuggling ring that was never supposed to be his case. On the opposite side of the law, you've got Alan. He's conflicted because for years he's been working for a man named Uncle Hoi and he's come to love and respect the old man and make his family his, but he leads another life. That of an undercover cop. He's torn when the real gun runner he's been trying to catch finally steps up to bat and attempts to take over everything from Uncle Hoi.

The plot gets pretty emotional at times because John Woo demonstrates that he knows how to film both drama and action. Using clarinet music along with his style of slow motion, the right coloring of the set, etc. Woo is able to capture how everyone is feeling not just because of the quality of his actors, but the quality of his design. You could take the actor out of the picture, and you'd still know how they were feeling just because everything in the scene-is about that certain feeling whether it's loss, anger, or guilt.

The action set pieces are the real star of this film though. Combining style with his shootouts-Hard Boiled has pretty much, never been beaten in Hollywood. Woo can't even top himself. Instead of people shooting at each other from behind one piece of cover and when its safe moving out...Tequila and company constantly keep moving-using their environment to aid them and make them look cool. Sliding down stair banisters, riding hospital gurneys like Superman, diving in and out of windows, jumping over cars, you name it. Hard Boiled is about the constant flow of action that not a whole lot of movies can even match up to. The gun play is just so well choreographed that it has to be seen to be believed.

Woo can also make a claim, that Hard Boiled is one of the first films ever to employ the usage of bullet time. The Matrix adds to the formula of bullet time-following the bullet. A lot would say that's bullet time, but bullet time is also the slow motion dodging and firing of bullets. That's Hard Boiled. Woo doesn't need to add the spirals of the bullets. He's got the guns firing their individual shots, characters dodging the bullets, and firing back their own. The Matrix can add artsy bullet swirls and a camera fixed on a cgi bullet from time to time, but it is adding to the formula that Hard Boiled started and which it effectively employs to keep its constant flow of action and show you just how awesome their characters are.

If you're in the mood for a Chinese action flick that isn't about kung fu or want to see what one of the founding fathers of the modern shooter/action film was like, check out Hard Boiled. The characters, the story, the action, the direction, and the acting, all combine to make Hard Boiled one of the greatest action films of all time. Easily in the top 5 of my top 10.