Review of Hard Boiled (1992) by Ben H — 18 Apr 2008

It would be horrible living in a world by John Woo's design: there'd be a bloodbath around every corner. Thankfully it's all just make-believe and the gallons of blood spurt from small packs exploded by squibs rather than gushing from innocent people's bullet-riddled bodies.

This is a good film but OTT even by the action genre standards. Several questions are raised throughout the film, such as why do the police keep starting gunfights in crowded public places? How can two cops be so good but the rest be so rubbish? Do morgues normally have steel reinforcements? Apparently the film has a body count of 307; and considering most of the deaths take place in slow-motion, that means pretty much the entire film is just people getting killed.