Hard Target (1993)

1992 was a fairly weak year for film. The best picture of the year (As by the Academy) was Unforgiven, a truly great western that earned Clint Eastwood his first Oscar (As well as second…) win for directing. Then, the rest of the year had some films ranging from good to classic. Home Alone 2, Wayne’s World, and Aladdin all appearing in the top 10 grossing films of my fourth year, but one of the best films was one not even on radar.

Hard Boiled is the action classic that marked John Woo’s last film of Hong Kong cinema for almost 20 years. Hollywood was smart enough to notice that John Woo is a unique visionary that was held off from us way too long, but still welcome nonetheless. Now, we are here to view his first Hollywood film, Hard Target.

New Orleans has hit hard times lately (And all before Katrina I might add). Unemployment and crime are up; sleaze is up even higher. Many men are desperate for a hard earned dollar. The highest paid money comes in the form of Bishop and Imohotep (Lance Henriksen and Arnold Vosloo, respectively), a pair of hunt organizers who got bored with hunting game and started hunting people.

Not just any old hobo with a drinking habit, neither. No, no; ones with former military backgrounds and the medals to match. Which leads us to Natasha (Yancy Butler… odd name), the daughter of the recent quarry, Douglas Binder (Chuck Pfarrer), whom she is trying to locate to rekindle their father-son….errr daughter relationship. She is attacked by a few ne’er-do-wells in the French Quarter, all but saved by the Muscles from Brussels.

Amazed by his slow-mo roundhouse kicks, she hires him to hunt for her daddy (Ironic, huh?) and eventually serve justice to those hobo hunters.

He vanquishes evil, and peace shall reign!

If only that could be so easy, then we’d have no War on Drugs, or terrorism or other faceless enemies. The Pentagon needs to study films such as these, because then all we’d have to do is kick gases can towards Qaddafi and watch his evil be burned by the very fuel that started this war. Problem solved. Hell, even Congress can be straightened out the same exact way. Look for my campaign posters in 2024 for Scarberry for President.

“Kicks enemies’ ass”!

“Gas cans for Scarberry!”

Oh yeah, I’d win!

Anyways, back to the present, this film is one of the best macho-man type films ever! Gunfights, explosions, car chases, biting the tails off of rattlesnakes. All fun, all the time. I love smart films, but when I need a break from Schindler’s List, I pop this in and let lead be hurled in bags of candy blood.

John Woo brings his trademark style to great effect here (Reflections, slow-mo, dual wielded Beretta’s), just with more money to throw around. But, the problem is the effect of Woo is dampened by our own MPAA. In HK, he was allowed to go pretty much full bore with his films, with high body counts, tons of blood and beautiful violence. Of course the MPAA screws up most films and reduced the violence a good deal. Oddly enough, it seems to work in his favor with some wonky edits, but expert sound design enhancing his deaths”.

Woo is one thing, but JCVD fans are different breed of animal. The star of such fare as Kickboxer and Cyborg, Van Damme was called upon to shine as Chance Boudreaux. He does rather well (Even sporting a Cajun accent that is tolerable), but he is just the hero. No extent of acting is needed, just a bunch of presence and looks believable firing a few rounds into nobodies, and he excels here.

The rest of the cast do well in the stock action mode (Bad guys are bad, good guys are good because they are!), and seems relatively happy chewing 35mm film. The action is terrific, solid special effects and pyrotechnics are superb and a-plenty.

The story on the other hand is a rather weak retelling of the great short story The Most Dangerous Game”. A story often told in everything from a silent B&W film from the early years of cinema to The Pest, I wish Chuck Pfarrer would’ve brought more than machismo to his story. Full of plot holes, so-so dialogue and no characterizations, I recommend to not read the novel rendition (If one should exist) of Hard Target.

But who am I kidding? It’s an early 90s action film that is meant to be taken as such. And I would have it no other way.

3 out of 4

reviewed by Jake Scarberry

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer