Just a mindless action flick, but not in a good way

Rating: 3/10 (15 April 2005)

I don't know that John Woo was the man to direct this. Then again, I don't know that the gang of writers should have been the ones writing this either.
I can summarize the movie and it's flaws in by describing one particularly asinine scene: Our good guys are-of course-surrounded and out numbered by the evil Japanese. During this climactic battle, our hero fires a pistol at a hillside. A half dozen Japanese SIMULTANEOUSLY leap out of the bushes in their dramatic deaths. All sense of realism is shattered.
Really not a period piece but a lame action vehicle smothered in cliché. Oh well. I'm not a big fan of Woo anyway.
**1/2 (one and one half stars out of four)