Review of Hard Target (1993) by Richard R — 22 Jun 2009

The first of the films John Woo made in the United States after the majesty of 'Hard Boiled' (1992) made him the most coveted action director in the world. Essentially a chase movie, Hard Target starts as it means to go on as we quickly learn that money is exchanging hands in the jazz state of New Orleans for the opportunity to hunt and kill human prey.

A young woman whose father is missing acquires the help of drifter Chance, played with admirable honour by Belgian martial arts superstar Jean-Claude Vamme in perhaps his best role to date, to find out just what the hell is going on.

The trail leads to the much underrated Lance Henriksen, an actor who appears in many of our favourite films, and his gang of bounty hunters which include the future Doc Ock Alfred Molina. Chance, of course, has his work cut out to stop this freelancing group of mercenaries but with the help of some nifty footwork and gunplay he may just come out of this thing alive.

When you watch a John Woo film you just know it. His style is the inspiration for many directors after him, most notably Quentin Tarantino (particularly 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)) and The Wachowski Brothers ('The Matrix' trilogy 1999, 2003, 2004) with its endless use of guns instead of words and slow-motion, a trick all have also garnered from legendary director Sergio Leone.

Deliberately over-the-top in order to distinguish it from the action films of the time which regularly had the Planet Hollywood trio in the lead roles (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis & Sylvester Stallone) or Steven Seagal, Hard Target benefits from being directed by a man with his own slant on action but is often unfairly marginalised because of the man in the lead role, who I think actually does a good job.