O Alvo

Jean Claude Van Damme is a seaman with no employment prowling around New Orleans,Louisian and stumbling onto mysterious and strange nasties. He spontaneously aiding a beautiful woman(Yancy Butler) when is attacked and taking on megalomaniac villains,(Lance Henriksen and Arnold Vosloo) who hunt human beings.He's only helped by a Bayou old man,(Wilford Brimley). This is a ¨Sui generis¨ version from ¨The most dangerous game¨,it's a vivid recounting of Richard Connell's famed novel ,adapted previously in the 1932 classic(Joel McCrea,Fay Wray) by Ernest B Schoedsack and by Robert Wise titled¨Game of death¨ and by Boulting titled ¨Run for the sun¨with Richard Widmark and Jane Greer.This theme has been filmed many times since and utilized as a plot for countless television and cinema argument.

The picture displays suspense,tension,thriller and non-stop action for 94 minutes .Breathtaking set pieces action well staged by John Woo with bound and leaps while are shooting.The film is set in New Orleans streets,marsh,bogs of Louisian and into abandoned factory, where is developed an overlong and incredible final duel.Special mention to pair sadist baddies,Henriksen and Vosloo,they're an excessive maniacal, exaggerated villains,they're the best of the film.John Woo direction is good ,he moves well the camera with spectacular scenes ,but doesn't match with his Hong Kong vehicles(Bullet in the head,The Killer,A better tomorrow I and II),John Woo followed with a successful American career(Broken arrow,Face off,Mission impossible II,Windtalkers).The motion picture will like to Jean Claude Van Damme fans and cinema John Woo-enthusiastic

Now I'm a fan of all Woo films; even the worst of his works, such as "Broken Arrow", are at least 'standard fare' in Hollywood-terms; this, however, does not apply to the few sad TV-attempts he made (The "Once a thief"-cable flick is just dreadful...). "Face/Off" and even the 'funny' "M:I-2" are both action-packed showdowns which demonstrate well what Woo can do. But his first Hollywood-attempt still remains the best of them- at least, to date! "Hard target" was shoot with very little time and then re-edited 7 times (count'em- seven!) to finally pass the censorship (yes, I'd call it that!) and STILL, after assumably at least half (?) the flavour taken out, it's still one tough cookie! Maybe frustrated at the censorship, Woo has later on stayed on the safe R-rated waters in Hollywood, not even trying to top himself (And again, STILL remaining the best bet when it comes to directing some serious action!)

"Hard Target" puts Jean-Claude Van 'Damage' against one of the always trustworthy screen villains, Lance Henriksen, and his pack of urban-commando (all black outfits, combat vests and MP5's) goons, and that's all you need to know! IF you think the going gets a little boring on the way, wait for the final 20 minutes, which will give you an adrenaline rush worth your while!

BTW, if anyone knows where I could get my hands on the 116-minutes (any shorter will not do!) uncut "Director's cut", I'd be happy to buy a copy, preferably DVD (but also VHS will do; we're talking cult classic here!)

As with many action movies, Hard Target's strengths and weaknesses are fairly simple to analyse. It's a competent action thriller, notable for some stylish action scenes that have John Woo's touch; one particularly memorable example is when Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) quite literally blasts a bikie thug out a window with a shotgun and a petrol can! These moments pretty much make the film worth seeing by themselves, despite the usual weaknesses in the plotting and JCVD's ever wooden countenance. As JCVD himself noted however, viewers paid the money to see him waste bad guys and he does plenty of this - sometimes in more inventive ways than expected (using snake traps). It very much makes the film worth seeing for action buffs, even though I'm reluctant to give a really high rating based on this alone.

The plot is not too extraordinary: a homeless veteran gets murdered by a team of mercenaries led by Emil Fouchoud (Henriksen) and Van Cleaf (Vosloo), after which his daughter Nat (Butler) comes looking for him and commissions Boudreaux, a homeless Cajun merchant marine (!) to help her out after he rescues her from marauding thugs, raising the ire of the mercenary team. A few plot holes are obvious (shouldn't this mercenary team have been dealt with a while ago, police strike or not? Why is JCVD made a CAJUN?), but it works well as a vehicle for blowing stuff up and killing people.

The dialogue is pretty standard stuff: some profanity, some hilariously cringeworthy lines ("don't worry about Randall; he's all ears!) and some macho stuff.

As for the acting, the villains are better than the heroes. Of course, when JCVD is your hero, that's bound to be the case, with his unconvincing delivery. He has recently shown that he is capable of acting, but he was a long off that in 1993. Still, English is probably his third language (after French and Dutch); Yancy Butler has no such excuses, being quite wooden in a role that doesn't demand that much. Vosloo and Henriksen are much better though. Vosloo has that quiet menace that always makes him a good villain, while Henriksen goes from menacing and purposeful to merrily nuts as Boudreaux causes him more difficulties than expected. Even Wilford Brimley is amusing as Chance's crazy uncle, reeling off some zany lines.

In the end, Hard Target is not a great movie, but it's a competent action thriller with some nice stylistic touches from John Woo during the action scenes. Henriksen, Vosloo and Brimley compensate somewhat for JCVD and Butler, but you still shouldn't watch this film for the acting and especially not for the plotting. Action fans generally don't really look for either that much though, so that's alright. Movie- goers looking for a bit more will probably like some of the style, but won't find that much else.

3/5 stars

This is probably the only movie of Van Damme where I dont find his acting ridiculous:) Classic

And the lady is astonishingly beautiful. It is a pity her carrier didn't work out well after this movie

Action master John Woo's first (and best) American movie is somewhat of a disappointment to his Hong Kong movie fans--see "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer" for comparison--but still miles better than most Hollywood action fare. A good introduction to Woo's directing style with plenty of show-stopping action sequences, incredible stunt work and a solid performance by Van Damme. Despite a very impressive ending set piece and lots of awesome slow motion gun play, the movie (as released) seems to be missing something. Seek out the unrated, uncut version if at all possible--you won't regret it!