Review of Hard Boiled (1992) by D. B. R — 08 Jul 2009

Some have said that "Hard Boiled" is John Woo's finest hour, and it may very well have been; in 1992, at least. At minimum, it's a shoot-em-up playbook that inspired a thousand video games, spawned a thousand copycats, and created a thousand action movie cliches: plenty of tuck-and-rolls, orange kerosene explosions, breaking glass, bullets through foreheads, guns with infinite ammo, and blood-spurting squibs, all chronicled in achingly overdramatic slow-motion. Michael Bay too intellectual for you? Tony Scott too paced and staid? Paul Verhoven too by-the-numbers? Even the most vanilla effort from any of these "directors" pales when put side-by-side with this, John Woo's ridiculous paean to over-the-top violence against man.

Chow Yun-Fat is a powerhouse of charisma as always, but his nonstop scenery-chewing sometimes threatens to drag the film into the depths of parody, despite the hail of lead that would presumably return the overarching attitude back to dead seriousness. Plot-wise, it's just another cop story, albeit with a tricky, slow-burning, undercover Triad angle that's developed rather well over the course of the first reel. Unfortunately, all this otherwise favorable exposition is pissed away by the second reel, swiftly decaying into a chaotic and ultimately pointless killing spree.

And yes, there are boats.