Hard Target is my favourite Van Damme movie and along with Face/Off, is John Woo's best Hollywood movie to date (none though come close to his earlier Hong Kong efforts). Inspired by "The Most Dangerous Game', Hard Taget helps introduce Western audiences to the stylised visuals and balletic violence that is the Cornerstone of a John Woo film, and he certainly doesn't disappoint in that category. Although the plot is run-of-the-mill and does somewhat disappointingly dissect the action sequences, it does not really matter because it is the action that is worth waiting for. It is ridiculously over-the-top, in a good way though, violent, entertaining and at times hilarious.
Van Damme is actually pretty good in this film, playing a really hard bastard. He is perhaps helped by some decent characterisation, but this perhaps favours the two villains most of all with Henriksen excellent as usual, playing the snarling, evil villain and Vosloo pretty amusing as his cocky, over-exuberant right-hand-man. It helps they are given some decent lines even if the script isn't the most polished in the world but no doubt is it set instead on catering for the action. Although convincingly handled, the action scenes do however, require some suspension of disbelief and a view that doesn't hint towards gritty realism. So what if no one never reloads, so what if the police and public are never around, so what if it takes Van Damme thirty bullets to kill one man, this is simply an action film and nothing can be taken for granted in this genre. Besides if the action is as greatly entertaining and stylistically done as this then you can easily forget the films mishaps and general lack of narrative qualities.
7/10
Van Damme is actually pretty good in this film, playing a really hard bastard. He is perhaps helped by some decent characterisation, but this perhaps favours the two villains most of all with Henriksen excellent as usual, playing the snarling, evil villain and Vosloo pretty amusing as his cocky, over-exuberant right-hand-man. It helps they are given some decent lines even if the script isn't the most polished in the world but no doubt is it set instead on catering for the action. Although convincingly handled, the action scenes do however, require some suspension of disbelief and a view that doesn't hint towards gritty realism. So what if no one never reloads, so what if the police and public are never around, so what if it takes Van Damme thirty bullets to kill one man, this is simply an action film and nothing can be taken for granted in this genre. Besides if the action is as greatly entertaining and stylistically done as this then you can easily forget the films mishaps and general lack of narrative qualities.
7/10