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"Hey!" Chow Yun Fat says, covering a baby's eyes. "X-Rated action!" He's not wrong: Hard Boiled is a film clearly not afraid to embrace its genre's excesses. While most modern action films (Smokin' Aces for one) aspire to some sort of grand intelligence while providing shoot-outs and explosions, this film is a reminder of times when action films suffered no such pretensions.

Crowds of people are gunned down without explanation and the smallest things explode for little or no reason. The bad guys are massively exaggerated cutthroat caricatures and the good guys never miss. Scenes of Fat and Leung running down corridors are inexplicably shot in slow motion. And, for all of these reasons, it is amazing. It's fast, it's exciting, and it never lets up.

Hard Boiled is loud, exciting, and, thanks to quite terrible dubbing and a ludicrous early 90's soundtrack, often unintentionally hilarious. It is a film that places entertainment firmly ahead of plausibility and logic, and is quite frankly awesome for it.

If you're the average IMDB reader, you probably enjoy a good action movie every now and then, but you approach action films with a certain caution and skepticism (I can't blame you, even though I am an action junkie myself). If you're that kind of viewer, the score I would give (for you) for Hard-boiled is a 6.5. To you, this is a prototypical "good" action movie -- intense, perfectly executed, original action, shown to the tune of a forgettable and occasionally insulting story.

To action junkies, this movie is an easy 9, because the only thing that really matters is that the action is superb and the other elements, if not stellar, don't detract enough from the action to really make a difference.

Splitting the difference, we get an 8/10 -- an outstanding score.

Hard-boiled is the ultimate John Woo / Chow-Yun Fat collaboration. Chow plays an uncompromising Hong-Kong cop who "works" together with an undercover cop (an EXCELLENT Tony Leung) in the triad gun-running organization. Now, when I say "works," I mean "launches thousands of bullets, slugs, and explosive projectiles into HUNDREDS of mafioso baddies." This film has a RIDICULOUS amount of gunplay. Pretty much everyone you see on screen dies at some point. Those that don't die often come perilously close to dying, before getting up and moving on as if nothing had happened. The gunmen in this film have magical powers that enable them to fire about 100 rounds from a Beretta clip without having to reload. And the top good guys seem only vaguely concerned about the loss of innocent life -- at a teahouse, or a large hospital -- except for tiny baby life, of course -- as long as they get to kill the top triad guy. And the story... well... not incoherent, but completely implausible at many points.

Realistic? NO. Is the story good? NO. Is this relevant? Not particularly. You see, one watches a John Woo movie for two things: Strong lead characters; strong lead characters shooting their way to success in surreally choreographed gunplay scenes. "But what if I don't want to watch a movie just for that?" Well, this one forces you to! If you can stand action at all, you'll be glued to the screen the entire time. Chow is a good actor, and Tony Leung is probably even better here -- they make the obligatory story sequences compelling, and when they start firing their weapons, you can't take your eyes away. Slow-motion highlights bullets, explosions, and plaster and sparks flying every which way, even as the actors and stunt men acrobatically move through the air while evading enemy fire. It's a little hard to describe how great this really is, so you just have to take my word for it. Suffice it to say that no one does gunplay like Woo, although everyone and their mother tries. (James Cameron's technique with heavy weapons and muscular guys is the other way to do gunplay, and is great in its own, more limited right.) If you're a fan of Face/Off, an American John Woo movie that actually does not suck, you know what to expect -- but multiply that by 100.

The story and realism are not good, but this makes no difference. Suspend disbelief, and go with the flow, and you're treated to prime-quality action. There ARE however, elements of this film that drag it down quite a bit. Most of them, to me, concern Woo's depictions of violence. It's obvious the man revels in blood. Several times, you see blood spurt copiously and unnaturally -- onto a wall, a desk, even a man's or baby's face. While the action is generally frantic and quick, these shots are slow, deliberate, and in-your-face. Why? To cater to our basest instincts, like a cheap slasher film. With action scenes and character acting done so well, it's embarrassing to watch such gratuitous gore added into the mix. But that's not all! The script's "good" characters are not morally corrupt: You can see them actively trying to avoid other cops or innocent bystanders. This is superficial. The characters aren't corrupt; the final script is. At least 50 innocent people, including patients at a hospital, die violently. The film doesn't display this as a horrific event, but rather as part of the scenery, cannon fodder; the film even gets pretty despicable amusement from this, particularly in one scene involving a baby (don't worry! the baby is not hurt).

Technically speaking, the movie is perfect. Aesthetically speaking, the same is true, with the exception of the music, which is extremely cheesy at times (the sax that suddenly kicks in during "emotional" moments is unbearable -- is that some kind of HK movie thing, or what?).

Such negatives are distracting. Your ability to ignore such distractions will ultimately determine if you give this a 5 or a 9. Were it a little more humane, I'd give it a 9. As it stands, I give it: 8/10.

Ever since John Woo came to America he seems to have lost the ability to crack the stylish violence up to 10. Only Face/Off has really come close to the type of style that he displayed in Hong Kong - Hard Boiled being a perfect example.

Hard Boiled sees cop "Tequila" Yuen (Chow Yun Fat) lose his partner in a violent shoot out in a tea-house and aims to bring revenge on the gangs causing chaos on the streets. During the film he come across a deadly assassin Tony (Tony Leung) who may or may not be an undercover police officer.

The film's plot is pretty good considering with several double crosses, good twists and the bonding relationship of Leung and Fat. However this is all about the action scenes and these are spectacular. Full of highly stylish violence, double handed gunplay and exciting near misses. Fat and Leung are both excellent in their roles but the stars here are the action scenes.

The only problem with this is that it is very violent and may be a turn off for some. That said if you're watching a John Woo Hong Kong film then you're probably not that bothered about a bit of stylish killing.

When someone mentions, "action movie", the first thing that gets in their minds is guns, fighting, blood, and so on. The people who they instantly think are the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, even the hammy Seagal, Snipes and Van Damme! Not until recently, I found myself confused about which action movie is the greatest. For me, the ultimate action hero is Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I cannot seem to find a perfect action movie.

Until I began checking up films of John Woo, and stumbled upon this baby...

Only a handful of action movies can compare to this, but most fail to be better. This movie IS the epitome of an action movie, it has never-ending thrill-a-minute stylish action sequences that just make your jaw drop in amazement. It has a body count that can be compared to most epic movies, and it has an excellent atmosphere to further enhance the story. The action sequences are a combination of outrageous, unreal and cool at the same time.

The story is weak, but not very. It provides the basis for the action to unfold. And boy, when it does, you'll have a blast! I mean, they took the premise of a basic cops and robbers tale and highly jazzed it up somehow to deliver this truly authentic and unique piece of movie making. This is not just a movie which action fans alone should see, this movie deserves to be sought and recognized by other highly-ranked film critics.

The director, John Woo, ups the ante on this one. After glorifying the gangsters in his "Better Tomorrow" movies and "The Killer" (which almost is as good as Hard Boiled), he decides to glorify the cops, and he does that, but with bigger elements. He doesn't show realism and humanism in this film, because he wanted to emphasize and slightly exaggerate on how big the elements can go. The criminals would kill lots of innocent people to complete their nefarious deeds, and the violence is hyper-stylized to the point where it becomes necessary to subdue the criminals using that technique. He combines unique Chinese Opera dancing techniques and dramatic shootouts to create stylistically significant and exhilarating gunfights for the eyes and ears to behold. The pace is hyper kinetic as Woo relentlessly dishes out whatever tricks he has up his sleeve, much to our delight.

Chow Yun-Fat's status as an action hero is immortalized here in his performance as super cop Tequila, who dodges bullets and shoot crooks while cooing a baby to sleep and covering his eyes from the ensuing violence. This scene also signifies the violence in Hong Kong back in the days, but highly stylized to create a superb action experience. Tony Leung is also splendid as the disillusioned undercover cop, who seeks to regain his humanity and reputation. The rest of the cast gave good performances, with kudos to Anthony Wong as the sadistic villain who will do anything to get what he wants (fully exampled during the film's climax), and Cheng Jue-Luh as one of the most badassed villains ever, Mad Dog.

The atmosphere of the movie further improves its credibility. John Woo's interests are shown through Tequila's passion of jazz and the beautiful and dark cinematography of Hong Kong, which, when combined together, gives an effect that signifies two different worlds, that is, the life of a cop and the life of a criminal. Also, the music score by Michael Gibbs is great, with a perfect melodramatic jazz score during dramatic scenes, and to pumping synthesizers, gritty and haunting scores during the majority of the action sequences. All of these add up to the amazing elements of the movie to make it even better.

Overall, I cannot think of any other action movie than this. This is THE action movie for film-goers, critics, and action junkies alike. This perfectly shot ballet of blood and bullets is an example of how great and reliable Asian movies can be, when we are finally tired of cliché elements from Hollywood. Mr. Woo, Your Midas Touch has its full effect here. This movie is one of the greatest action movies ever made. And I will stand by that decision for as long as I live.

A must see.

9/10

Delton

Chow Yun Fat, toothpick in mouth, a gun in each hand. That's all of the plot you need to know. Hard Boiled was my first John Woo movie and, in my opinion, his best. No other action movie comes close to this. In fact, this is THE best pure action epic ever filmed. Upon viewing it, I immediately fell in love with Woo's style and his star. It's full of the most stylized gunfights ever seen and Chow Yun Fat is the definition of cool. The full blown finale defies description. Someone once called it an action fan's wet dream. There's not much more I can say because actions speak louder than words. So go see the movie.