Review of Hard Target (1993) by Jake S — 19 Nov 2007

This action movie has mullets, the fat Quaker Oats guy with a french accent shooting arrows, Van Damme, and John Woo directing. What more could you ask for? Probably one of Van Dammes best movies, and even if your not a fan of his films, it's at least watchable. The movie is obviously a re-telling of The Most Dangerous Game, but it's a cool concept. Rich boys get bored so they pay to hunt down War Veterans for excitment, but they kill the wrong people and decide to hunt the WRONG MAN! Don't hunt what you can't kill...and no one can kill VAN DAMMAGE! He makes Chuck Norris look like a bitch.

Van Damme, while not horrible, has done better in the acting department, but the villians played by the always great Lance Henriksen(Aliens, Alien 3, Alien vs. Predator) and Arnold Vosloo(The Mummy, The Mummy Returns) are great, and fun to watch. They portray cold blooded professional killers. When they go out, it's with a bang, and rush of adrenaline. Yancy Butler is pretty good, AND HOT AS HELL! Even though she has a weird-ass first name. And lastly, Wilford Brimle, the guy from those diabetes commercials. He gets to play a fat dude who's really good with arrows(and he looks like Santa). AWESOME!

John Woo's style is here in his American debut. We got the poetic gun fights, spiritual doves, guns in both hands, 9mm Berettas, cool framing and style, slow motion, and lots of ass kicking. The man is an action genious.

I'm a big fan of John Woo, but his bloodshed is turned down in this one(in no small part due to the studios). This can be both good and bad. For fans, like me, it's disapointing not to see the hero kill hundreds and I literally mean hundreds of men. This can be good for people who don't like watching waves of men being killed for 90 minutes(I wonder why?). But this movie is action packed don't get me wrong, this is just a flaw in my opinion.

The movie has two other flaws as well. Obviously the bad guys are all horrible shots, the film can get a little cheesey and some things explode for no reason. I know that happens in a lot of movies, but things that have no reason to explode do.

These are minor flaws though, and should you be able to turn your brain off and watch for fun, it really will be. Personally, I think it's better than MI2 and MI1. With it's fresh new action (for the time) and cool dialogue, the movie is not only badass, it's truly underrated.

Punching a Snake+Biting off its tail= Greatest moment in movie history!