Look I got a female John Woo hero, I was primed to enjoy this - yes it suffers stacked up to the original, a cosmic cop/killer epic that Woo wrote himself compared to a mimicked/modernized version written by others. Duh! It’s more generic but still competently written, there’s lots to appreciate about the new character dynamics and of course how Woo continues to navigate the digital landscape. Teeming with innovative transitions and camera movements, in classic Woo fashion there’s an…
It pains me to give a John Woo film this rating but no matter how hard he tried to inject his interests of cop/vigilante dynamics and the poisonous allure of violence, with no dialogue there’s little to be gleaned here that doesn’t leave a sour taste. Too self-serious for its own good and the other people should have talked! Still had a bird though and that match cut was epic.
She's not pretty anymore.
Woah?? Not sure how John Woo pulled off the insane tonal redirection of this from a Scorsese-style romp into a godless living nightmare of a psychological war epic, without losing the vibrance of the action. It’s eternally awful that he’s made a few of the greatest films ever and they’re completely lost on the mainstream. So many horrific images in here of ravaged innocence and how violence corrupts, the kind of film that defies convention and…
Oh, John Woo already has made a western and it’s about a working class warrior who can dish out an inexhaustible amount of roundhouse kicks and insane one liners like “poor people get bored too”. Lots of online polls in search of the ‘best action director’ of all time see names like James Cameron or Christopher Nolan. If we phrase it as the ‘best director of action’ you’d be silly to see John Woo as anything but peerless. The final…
The third act of this is why you don’t waste John OP Woo. This man could tell a whole story just through fists and explosions. Some fucking transcendent shit to cap off an odd sequel that is Batman Forever levels of horny and charmingly early 2000s rock n roll. I’ll never get sick of the doves or slow mo. Tom Cruise as a Woo hero needs to be done again. Have we ever gotten a Woo/Bay directors on directors?
Seen in 35mm tonight!
This has to be the biggest five star run I’ve ever had on this app, I’m just watching some bangers. Seeing this in a crowd was so fun. Constant laughter and cheering and it was LOUD as hell. Could really make out those stunt doubles on the big screen.
“Well, I've gotta go. I've got a government job to abuse and a lonely wife to fuck!”
John Woo really wrote, directed, and edited this and did it with such slickness you wouldn’t even know a real person was behind the camera. The perfect marriage between drama and action, and good drama at that. His set pieces have so much depth and innovation, it’s actually crazy to watch. The entire hospital stretch is like an hour long action sequence that somehow doesn’t let up for a single second. That’s talent! Tony Leung was excellent of course but I really enjoyed Chow Yun-fat’s performance as Tequila. Teresa Mo was great as well. What an odyssey!