Contrary to what people think, this was better than Black Hawk Down!

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2002)

I checked out this flick last night and thought it was one of the best war films I've seen this year. While Black Hawk Down was very much a documentary rather than a movie and was very well done, it didn't match anything Woo did with this, his best film since Face/Off. This got a rather bad rap in the States but contrary to what people said over there, it seems to be doing very well over here, and it's not hard to see why. When you've got Nicolas Cage putting in his best performance for ages (ala Leaving Las Vegas, and none of that Gone in 60 Seconds and Captain Correli's Mandolin crap!) and Christian Slater giving a great performance. Also Adam Beach as the nervous but determined young Private is very good. Frances O'Connor (who I'm proud to say is an Aussie. As if you didnt already know that but hey!!) is just wasted here with a role far too small for her awesome talents!
Woo can certainly direct a battle sequence! With more explosions to make any other action director blush with jealousy and and squibs galore, action fans won't be disappointed. His talents at directing this kind of thing were evident in his Vietnam war movie Bullet in the Head, but with a budget twice the size of that one, he did incredibly well and made the POW camp scene in Bullet to shame! Only criticisms are the use of stock footage from old Navy battle cruisers and very poor CG planes dropping bombs on the Japanese.

Certainly Mr Woo has made a mark on Hollywood since directing Hard Target coming from making great action flicks like, Bullet, Hard Boiled and of course, The Killer. After the very disappointing MI:2 it's great to see him back in form. I didn't see We Were Soldiers but this and Scott's BHD had great cinematography but as much as everything else in this flick is better, I'd go BHD's over this! Overall though, a good story told and and great performances all round. Real star tho: the explosions caused by the HUGE Japanese bombs!! A real treat! hahaha! Rating: 8.5 out of 10