Hard Target

The combo is an incendiary mix: Woo unleashes all barrels in vintage Hong Kong action style while Van Damme delivers not only his martial-arts prowess but some well-developed acting skills as well.

Though it lacks the epic feel and melodramatic sincerity of Woo's Oriental movies, this is nevertheless first-rate action.

A disappointing American debut of the Hong Kong cult director John Woo is a decent action vehicle by standards of its star Jean-Claude Van Damme but, hampered by a B script and flat characters, it doesn't bear Woo's auteurist signature and unique vision

It's what Hollywood wanted Woo for: bigger, brighter explosions.

Presenting Mr. Van Damme as reverentially as Sergio Leone did the young Clint Eastwood, Mr. Woo displays a real aptitude for malignant mischief, which is this story's stock in trade.

An action film from Woo that delivers high doses of testosterone, but it frequents commonplaces and, ultimately, never hits the mark with all the clichés that adorn its plot of violence, gunfights and kicking. [Full review in Spanish]

...the movie improves considerably once it progresses into an increasingly enthralling second half...

Don't expect too much from Hard Target, and you won't be disappointed. Shoot-em-up action films have a limited range, but John Woo and company take this one to the limit.

the second half plays like an all-out action extravaganza, a symphony of bullet-strewn slow motion and hyper-real physicality