stick to civilian movies Mr. Woo

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2003)

I've always enjoyed a John Woo movie, until this one. It seems that hollywood is hell bent on coming up with movies that elongate brief encounters during WWII with lots of blood_gore in the first half hour, followed by a stack of 'war newbie' emotions, followed by some heroic action by them newbies, with able assistance from experienced campaigners, some more heroism, some more blood, a tragic death while saving a fellow soldier, another action sequence, death, and so on. the starting scene, and the ending scene is well shot, maybe Mr. Woo reused his MI2 beginning shots :) Some war sequences are well shot. But the story doesn't have the expected tautness. nicolas cage is predictable, the whole movie is predictable.
john woo makes better civilian movies with good choreographed action. a war movie just doesnt work. camerawork is good, but its the same old war story modelled on the flow Mr. Spielberg showed in Saving Private Ryan. But its next to impossible to achieve something close to SPR, or Thin Red Line for that matter.
minor spoiler mr. woo even manages to squeeze in his famous 'gun pointing at each other_no bullets' scene in a WWII situation :)
rent it if u really want to...
rating: 2 out of 5