Just viewed Better Tomorrow. Liked it, it was ok but not really that enjoyable.
Love
Bullet In The Head
Hard Boiled
Better Tomorrow II
Hand of Death
Didn't love
Better Tomorrow <------- should I think more of this?
The Killer <------- many will say I'm crazy though
Once A Thief <-------silly film, no biggie
Ok so I know Woo's a great director but what's splitting my fandom for him. Is it the writing? Or is it me? Hit and miss...or just me?
They're hit and miss for me too. Of the ones I've seen, in no particular order
Love:
The Killer: But it took two viewings. I now consider it Woo's best film.
Face/Off: Woo's film with most re-watch value. So much fun. Casting Travolta and Cage was a perfect choice. They ham it up so well.
Mission Impossible 2: It's a guilty pleasure, again is so much fun.
Like:
Hard Boiled: It has a similar feel to The Killer but with a weaker story, still good though.
Broken Arrow: Good fun, it feels like Woo is preparing for something bigger, which of course he was.
Only okay/I didn't like it much:
A Better Tomorrow: Basically boring
A Better Tomorrow 2: Basically boring but the ending is lots of fun. Pity it's just the ending.
Windtalkers
One day I'll get around to watching Bullet in the Head. I've had the HKL forever.
Red Cliff is one of the best movies of the last 10 years.Love the ABT trilogy,Killer,Hard Boiled,Bullet In The Head. Hand Of Death is only ok and Heroes Shed No Tears is mediocre at best.His american stuff is inconsistent but Hard Target is great,Face/Off entertaining tosh,Impossible 2 not bad.haven't seen Windtalkers.
Dodgy consistency in Woo it has to be said, but some classy films among the average ones. I think I own all his films (think!?), but hell some are not exactly quality.
The Killer and Hard Boiled still love me long time. He gave Hollywood Broken Arrow and Hard Target, still films I watch every year them 4.
Red Cliff as Salty says is lovely, love the size of it all. More on that scale would be a good thing, maybe with guns next time a nice return to America would be welcome, but this time someone stop his tossing cash away and just get Chow Yun Fat and Sam Jackson in the same film!
Yup Bad is hard to say in the same sentence as Woo. Even his worst films have something good in them, well maybe Paycheck is not the best haha but hell it aint that bad I guess.
He used to be my favorite HK director. But he was finished once the Hollywood era was rolling and when other HK directors started coming up at the same time. His comeback to Chinese movies prove he's still got it though.
Great
A Better Tomorrow - 5/5
The Killer - 5/5
Hard Boiled - 4.5/5
Bullet in the Head - 5/5
Last Hurrah for Chivalry - 5/5
Face/Off - 4.5/5
Red Cliff - 4.5/5
Above-average
Red Cliff 2 - 4/5
Hard Target - 3.5/5
Money Crazy - 3.5/5
Average
Plain Jane to the Rescue - 3/5
Heroes Shed No Tears - 3/5
Broken Arrow - 3/5
Mission: Impossible 2 - 3/5
Below-average
Once a Thief - 2/5
A Better Tomorrow 2 - 2/5
Just Heroes - 1/5
Hand of Death - 2/5
I LOVE Hard Boiled. It's just amazing. Absolutely love it. It was mindblowing when I first watched it, and it's one of those movies you can keep watching. The pacing is just great and the action fantastic.
Bullet in the Head was great as well. The 'bullet in the head' scene made me tear up the first time I saw it. Great performance by Tony, although Waise Lee and Jacky Cheung aren't great.
I really liked The Killer when I first watched it, but TBH it hasn't really aged well.
A Better Tomorrow is a very good movie, but just like The Killer, it hasn't aged very well.
Once a Thief I did enjoy, but it's pretty light. It's just a fun action flick which is fun to watch, even though you know it isn't going to win any prizes.
Haven't seen Hand of Death yet. Nor A Better Tomorrow 2.
Also still haven't watched the Red Cliff saga.
About his american work: I think they're all piss-poor, with the exception being Hard Target, which is very enjoyable.
Face/Off is just ridiculously pathetically bad in every way, and Misson Impossible 2 bored me to sleep. Didn't care for Broken Arrow either.
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
1. The Killer - 5/5
2. A Better Tomorrow - 5/5
3. Hard Boiled - 4.5/5
4. Bullet in the Head - 4.5/5
5. Last Hurrah for Chivalry - 4.5/5
6. Once a Thief - 4/5
7. Heroes Shed No Tears - 4/5
8. Hand of Death - 4/5
9. A Better Tomorrow 2 - 3.5/5
10. Red Cliff - 3.5/5
11. Hard Target - 3.5/5
Seen too long time ago, but think they were:
Very good
Face off
Good (approx 3/5)
Just Heroes
Broken Arrow
Passable
Mission Impossible 2
Bad
Blackjack
Once a Thief TV movie (I think this was a pilot for a TV show)
Have on dvd, but haven't watched yet
The Young Dragons
Much love for Woo. I consider the extended cut of The Killer to be the best action movie ever made. A Better Tomorrow is almost on par, an even more classic HK movie in my books (that is, it captures everything that I feel represent classic HK cinema of the era/genre). Hard Boiled is a gunplay movie never to be equaled in terms of action. Bullet in the Head is terrific, but I have a few problems with it, such as illogical scenes (it's difficult to identify with Jacky Cheung's horror of being forced to kill war prisoners, when just 20 minutes before he was blazing bad guys left and right with a smile on his face. This guy has killed at least 30 people in the film already, yet he almost cannot bring himself to kill when captured by the vietkongs.)
Once a Thief may be a small movie, but it's unbelievably entertaining. I was probably 16 when I first saw it... I watched it alone. Then I watched it with a friend the next day. On the third day I watched it with two friends, one of them being the same who saw the film with me the preceding day...
Heroes Shed no Tears of wonderful as well. It's very cool and violent junge actioner, one more for the exploitation and cult film crowd. But I love the Woo themes in this film too. Wounded Eddy Ko hugging his son and trying to smile with that scarred face of his... If girls cry watching Sleepless in Seatle, I cry while watching Heroes Shed no Tears. What a touching movie about being a man.
gasteropod wrote:None of you have mentioned Blackjack!
I was going to but seriously I cannot remember the film apart from Milk = Lundgrens downfall
I used to own it on Rental VHS (along with that Once A Thief Pilot/movie as well) sadly some idiot threw all my VHS tapes away recently
I think Holywood knows exactly what to do with Woo, you have to remember Woo is the one picking his films to do! so if anything it is his fault he is not making Hollywood masterpieces all the time, he has the power and producer status to ake anything he wants to and can get the cash, sadly he picks some odd films to make at times.
All I want is a classy old school action film, not a massive budget over the top CGI action film.
a nice return to America would be welcome, but this time someone stop his tossing cash away and just get Chow Yun Fat and Sam Jackson in the same film!
