A huge disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (4 June 2000)

Absolutely the biggest disappointment of my moviegoing career. I love John Woo. I love his original Hong Kong stuff. You can't say Hollywood spoiled him because Face/Off and Broken Arrow still kept it up. But this is horrible compared to everything that I have ever seen from him, including Bullet in the Head. The dialogue is flat, cliche and boring (thank you Mr. Chinatown Robert Towne), the acting is bland and unbelievable (thank you "smiles too big" Cruise and "I should have just been Wolverine" Dougray Scott) and the action is too far into the movie and too bland. I kept waiting for Tom Cruise to rip off his face and reveal that he is Chow Yun Fat and start doing some real action sequences. Watered down for a PG13 rating, the action hardly interested me at all after I sat through a film full of implausibilities (even in the world of the film), Cruise smiling like an oaf, Scott grimacing to look mean, and countless other absurdities. You know its bad when the people in the theater are laughing at the supposedly dramatic and romantic moments.
My only hope is that the great Mr. Woo will be able to redeem himself in the future by going back to what he does best.