Hard Target (DVD)

This film was originally at the cinemas in the 1990's and I was recently given a copy as a gift for my birthday.
At first I wondered why I had been given this as a gift since I have never professed to being a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan at all. The friend who bought it for me explained that the director of the film, a certain John Woo is hugely famous and acclaimed for his action films, especially in Japan. Now since I am a big fan of action ...
...THE MAIN CAST

Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme)
Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler)
Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen)
Pik van Cleef (Arnold Vosloo)

THE PLOT

A young woman, Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler) is desperately trying to find her missing father and travels to New Orleans in her search for him. As her search goes on she discovers that her father, an ex-Vietnam veteran has recently ... more

This film was originally at the cinemas in the 1990's and I was recently given a copy as a gift for my birthday.
At first I wondered why I had been given this as a gift since I have never professed to being a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan at all. The friend who bought it for me explained that the director of the film, a certain John Woo is hugely famous and acclaimed for his action films, especially in Japan. Now since I am a big fan of action films they thought I may like this.

Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme)
Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler)
Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen)
Pik van Cleef (Arnold Vosloo)

A young woman, Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler) is desperately trying to find her missing father and travels to New Orleans in her search for him. As her search goes on she discovers that her father, an ex-Vietnam veteran has recently been living as a homeless person on the streets. In order to find him she enlists the help of a Cajun sailor Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and together they stumble upon a sinister game of cat and mouse. Wealthy business man Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen) aided by his equally evil enforcer Pik van Cleef (Arnold Vosloo) is paying and recruiting homeless combat veterans to be hunted down like animals by bored rich clients for their amusement. The problem is the client invariably wins and the homeless person is brutally, humiliatingly and sadistically killed.
As Natalie and Chance find out more and more they are determined to end this cruel game. This leads Emil Fouchon to find his most challenging target of all- Chance Boudreaux.
The plot was quite clever although unoriginal and was sufficiently weak for an actor of Van Dammes calibre to be able to cope with it. For an action film there was actually a plot- this was not a film of just fight scenes linked together. There are also certain dry funny parts in the film (and not just those where you are unintentionally laughing at Jean-Claude!).
This is a pretty violent film- there are numerous fight scenes as well as shootings, stabbings and ear cuttings! I would definitely adhere to the certificate 18 warning with this!

Yancy Butler, an actress I had never heard of before, did an admirable job of acting as the distraught daughter and helpless female alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Lance Henriksen was absolutely first class as the sinister Emil Fouchon -his acting was by far the best in the film and he portrayed the character perfectly. Arnold Vosloo, as his psychotic side-kick was also brilliant.
I am sure that absolutely no one will be surprised by my next comment- Jean-Claude Van Damme cannot act! Throughout the film he is wearing bizarre slicked-back hair extensions and a long floating black coat although you do see several shots of his rippling muscles. His acting unsurprisingly is wooden from begining to end and his name is stupid. However since this was primarily an action film it didn't detract from the plot at all.

As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, I am not a great expert in commenting on film direction. However in this fim I feel it is important that I at least write something since the director John Woo is famous in this film genre. The film is filled with slow motion shots of Van Damme staring moodily in the distance and there are also several close-ups of his eyes and mouth only. Whilst this all looked very artistic I just found it a bit silly in such a violent film and it actually made me laugh. Perhaps if the lead actor could actually act, all this artistic direction would not have looked so daft.
The fight scenes are very artistically shot in the film- slow motion scenes of Van Damme high kicking, floating in the air and punching. Again in action films I'm not particularly interested in a fight scene looking artistic, however I do like them to look realistic. Some of the scenes were totally over the top in this film- Van Damme on a motorcycle, both feet on the seat and both hands off the handle bars whilst he shoots with a gun in each hand. Yes that's possible. Again I don't think the director expected this to be found funny although I laughed for ages.
Overall the direction although good, may have been better in a different type of film.

Certificate 18
Running time: 95 minutes
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spansh, Czech.

Theatrical Trailer for the film
Cast and Filmakers
Here there is a very short written summary on the key actors and director.
Production notes
Here there was a very short written summary on the film's production.
In my opinion these extras were not worth having.

If you like violent action films then this film is definitely worth watching- it does hold your attention from beginning to end. If you take it as just an ordinary action film it does very well. If you watch it as "art" it fails miserably.
The fight scenes although over the top were still very entertaining and beautifully choreographed. I will definitely watch more of John Woo's films in the future as I think his style of direction would work better with a different lead actor.
Although the DVD extras were poor I wasn't really interested in watching them anyway. Also, although this DVD was given to me as a gift it does only cost about £5 at choicesdirect.com which is a fair bargain.
Overall it was enjoyable to watch and I would definitely watch it again.

...less