Hard-Boiled is the last movie John Woo made before coming over to America to continue his directing efforts. He has since made such hits as Hard Target, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible II, but he also is responsible for such misfires as Windtalkers and Paycheck. With this film, he pulls out all the stops to produce one of the most badass action movies I've ever seen. Only the action scenes in Face/Off compare to some of the stuff you'll see in this one.

Chow Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) has had moderate success in the United States as an action star, but in Asia he was like Tom Cruise, Stallone, Van Damme, and Swarzenegger all rolled into one. In this movie, he is in top form as a cop sent in to investigate mob members and their illegal arms smuggling operations. By investigate, what I really mean is that he identifies and then blows up or shoots every single one of them.

This movie runs about two hours long and I think that it is about fifteen minutes too much. It opens with a really cool gunfight sequence where, like so many cop movies, the partner gets shot. From there, the plot slowly develops and we see Chow Yun Fat in the office as he tries to romance the secretary and argues with the boss. From Dirty Harry to Lethal Weapon, this type of stuff is nothing new, but we still tolerate it. There is a kind of cool part where coded messages must be deciphered by singing out the tunes, but the actor's Asian accents make them sound like drunk American karaoke singers. Some of the comic relief is a bit much as well, including one part where Fat's pants are on fire and the baby he’s carrying pees on him to put it out. It's one of those "What the hell?" moments, sort of like when the guy suddenly jumped out the window in The Bourne Identity.

The two most annoying things about this movie were the music and the horrible subtitles. The music is made up of this synth-jazz stuff that just sounds awful and for some reason the music gets really loud during certain montage sequences. The subtitles are full of misspelled words and poorly worded sentences that lack punctuation. There is one part where a girl left a baby in a hospital room and she runs back to get it while the subtitles say, "I felt a baby in the waiting room!" Felt? Don’t you mean left? A lot of translated video games have these same kinds of problems, such as the famous 'All your base are belong to us' line.

The real reason to see Hard Boiled is for the three main action sequences. The opening action sequence is nothing compared to what's to come. After that, there is an extended two-part action sequence in a car garage where three different groups of people take turns shooting up the place. The last thirty minutes of this movie are nothing but violence in a Die Hard type of setting in a hospital. This is one of those movies where just about everybody dies and everything blows up. According to the IMDB, this movie has a body count of 230 people. Saving Private Ryan's body count was only 206 and it was a war movie.

If you are willing to tolerate the bad subtitles, I think all action fans should give this movie a chance. It is a little slow getting started, but once it gets going it really gets going. Be sure to watch for the extended uncut shot that takes two characters down several hallways and even on different building floors in an elevator. The precision in pyrotechnic and stunt timing to pull that off must have taken an incredible amount of skill. Hard-Boiled is a hard-core action cop movie that goes way over the top. I loved it.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age