Review of Hard Target (1993) by Amicus F — 23 Nov 2010

You know, there's times where you want to think and there's times when you want to forget and today was a day to celebrate the latter. After hearing of Ingrid Pitt's death, I decided to turn to the action genre and seek solace in the acting giant known by the name of Lance Henriksen.

I know Hard Target has its problems but, like any movie that entertains, I couldn't give a DAMME ;-). The action is relentless, explosive, hard hitting, face kicking, head splattering, venom inducing, earlobe cutting, car crashing and just plain awesome! Arguably Van Damme's best, Hard Target benefits from stylish direction from John Woo (yes, one of his lesser movies, I do know that), brutal violence, great oomph in the pacing stakes, Wilfred Brimley in one of his most endearing roles and, of course, Lance Henriksen, here, rarely better in one of his career highlights as a real badass son of a bitch who can go from cool, calm and collected one moment and totally offensive, in your face and downright callous the next.

The intensity in performance is shown in every single facial expression - just watch him play that piano - and oozes screen presence at every turn. A magnificent performance and one that helps me rate this very highly without having to think about it.

Nice one daddy Lance, the cinematic king of cool!