Hard Target is F*cking awesome. It’s also pretty cheesy, but god damn is it badass.
John Woo is arguably the best shootout director of all time. There are some who come close but for money, no one beats him in the bullet opera arena. Now that’s an opinion, but get ready for a fact, he is definitively one of the best action filmmakers to ever yell cut, you can’t argue with that, it’s science.
‘Hard Target’ was John Woo’s first American film, made just 1 year after his magnum opus ‘Hard Boiled’. I don’t think making two movies in a row with ‘Hard’ in the title was intentional but who knows. Usually, when a Chinese action maestro makes the transition to American filmmaking, things go down-hill. There’s a clear and definable downgrade from the action highs of the Jackie Chans and Jet Lis in Chinese productions vs. their American productions. There are a lot of reasons for this, insurance problems and liability restrictions, inferior directors, and differing target audiences with different projected tastes. There are exceptions to the rule but it is largely consistent across the board.
John Woo isn’t really an exception here, his own films took a bit of a hit on the American side, some of them anyway. ‘Face/Off’ has a much-deserved cult following and is badass and goofy in equal measure. It’s great, but I like ‘Hard Target’ even more. There’s so much to love in ‘Hard Target’ and the film’s shortcomings, which are numerous, add a considerable degree of charm and schlock factor. You can watch ‘Hard Target’ as a legit action film, or as a good/bad movie and be equally entertained, not many films can say that.
Stunts
Some of the acting is pretty bad, a lot of it actually. But hey, no one’s ever accused John Woo of being an actor’s director and the film’s not even in his native language, neither is it Jean Claud Van Damme‘s. This just might be Van Damme’s best role by the way, Chance Boudreux, creole drifter with a sweaty mullet, an earring and a duster jacket can solve any problem you throw at him with a kick or a gun, or both, sometimes a gun, and then a kick for no reason, sometimes he kicks when a gun would make more sense. Jean Claud Van Claud’s athleticism is on full display and his commitment to the stunt work is definitely admirable, it’s him falling off that horse, it’s him doing that wheelie on that motorcycle. There aren’t many action stars with that level of commitment these days, Keanu Reeves is the outlier.
The Bad Guy
Lance Henriksen makes for a great bad guy. He’s always great and he gets to really ham it up in Hard target. The highlight for him is when his jacket catches on fire and he shakes off and keeps going. And that’s him on fire, for quite a long time too. Usually when you see a burn on film the way they do it Is they slather up a stunt man with fire-resistant gel, but there ain’t no gel on my man Henricksen. He plays the piano too, just ignore the fact that the lid is down when he turns around.
His main henchman is crazy, not like psychotic, but like… linguistically? I don’t know its weird his accent changes from line to line, actually that’s not true, it changes mid line. He’ll start a line sounding British then finish it sounding Russian or Australian, or eastern European, it’s ridiculous.
The female lead isn’t very good, but do you know who is? Wilford “Freaking Diabetus” Brimley. Such an odd casting choice for a bayou, creole-speaking moonshiner. The weird thing is, he works perfectly and is actually pretty badass. I bet Wilford Brimley never expected that at any point in his career he would be on horseback with a bow and arrow riding away from an explosion.
John Woo Staples
Hard Target’s got all the John Woo staples, it’s got slow motion, and dual handguns, and slow motion, and doves, and pigeons, and slow motion, and instant replays, and diving through the air shooting, and slow motion, and two guys shooting at each and missing copious times through a wall of glass, and more slow motion.
The action is fantastic. Woo is in top form with his shootouts, always perfectly choreographed, filmed, executed and edited. He uses bigger blasts and more squibs than anyone in the game and it pays off.
Overthetop Badass Moments
Van Damme hits a helicopter with a chrome shotgun while on horseback.
- He woos a lady and while she’s making kissing face he snatches a snake from over her shoulder and punches it unconscious.
- He does multiple flips over explosions/fire.
- He descends on a winged parade float and shoots the shit out of the bad guys.
- He stands on a speeding motorcycle, crashes it into an oncoming truck, leaps over said truck, then blows it up.
- He catches a flaming plank of wood and locks eyes with the main baddie before dropping a grenade down his pants.