Jan 09 2009
B+ Movie Review: Hard Boiled
There is a fine line between awesome and excessive. I found this out the hard way after the finest meal I’d ever had followed by one Wild Turkey too many, resulting in me seeing said meal again. Peter Jackson rode this line almost to the breaking point with the numerous false endings in Return of the King. But occasionally, you find someone who not only knows that this line exists, but how to play it like an E String.
I offer the final installment of my week of John Woo and Chow Yun Fat: Hard Boiled.
The story of Hard Boiled starts with Tequila, a cop who has a reputation for being ground zero for explosions of riotous mayhem. Of course there is a mob boss that Tequila has his sights set on and of course it’s getting him into trouble. Along the way, we meet an undercover cop going after the same gangster. At first, cop and undercover cop butt heads. Eventually, they figure out they are on the same side and go to finish the job together.
This film asks a lot of questions about the nature of cop vs. criminal, if there can be honor among thieves and when is doing your duty less of a virtue and more like suicide. Like the two other movies reviewed this week, Woo has managed to make the the violence in Hard Boiled be part of the story, frame and backdrop, with the dialogue and character interaction being the real focus and not just and excuse to set up shots of things detonating.
That said, lots of things detonate. And get shot. And bleed. And fly across the screen. Oh my blessed gods there is a lot of action in this movie. The first ten minutes contain more impressive gunplay than the whole Lethal Weapon trilogy. There are shootouts in a restaurant, a warehouse and a 30 minute running gunbattle in a hospital.
By the end credits, you may want to check yourself to make sure you got through the movie unwounded.
The legacy of this film is immense. The video game Stranglehold is a sequel to it. There’s been talks forever of an American made chapter staring Yun Fat and Nicholas Cage as Tequila chases someone to the states. And O my stars and garters, you can get it at Wal Mart now, distributed by Dragon Dynasty.
Hard Boiled is B+. It should be required viewing for anyone wanting to make an action film. Anyone who is a fan of this genre needs to consider his status questionable until this one is in the “seen it” pile.
“Give him a gun and he’s Superman. Give him two guns and he’s God!”
