More John Woo claptrap

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2003)

It's about time John Woo got back to making movies, rather than two-hour-long self-tributes. I used to be a fan when he put the moviegoing audience first and he gave us some great actioners when he first arrived in Hollywood (e.g. Broken Arrow, Hard Target). And for the first 20 minutes, in the initial scenes and those in Seville, it seemed like Mr Woo was back on form. Not for long.
This, like Face/Off, seems a demonstration of Mr Woo believing the reason he was hired was to showcase his style. Either that or he is afraid we might miss his style, so we're force-fed it. It's not that I don't appreciate his genius, but I can only take so much of slow-motions, close-ups and two-gun Tommy getting in the way of the story's flow. Call me old-fashioned.
With the greatest respect to a fellow southerner, Mr Woo's best recent work was his BMW commercial, The Hire: Hostage, starring Clive Owen. Watch that about 13 times back to back and it's a better way of getting the same quantity of John Woo style than trying to make head or tail of this Hollywood-moneyed insult to Bruce Geller's memory. The only sign of this film being distinguished was Tony Hopkins's brief presence as the IMF boss.
Oh, it's nothing to do with the TV series. But you knew that.