Legendary Hong Kong director John Woo was much admired in the 80s for his so-called bullet ballets by those with a penchant for stylish violence. When, like so many other talents from the Colony, he left to seek his fortune elsewhere before the Chinese takeover in 1997, he pitched up in Hollywood where he has never quite re-attained his status, no doubt largely because of the different approaches of the two areas to film-making. In Hong Kong he was very much in control of the product and despite lower budgets, could somehow finalise his vision. I do not doubt for a minute that in the States, the "suits" had the last word. What is certain is that he was forced to make numerous minor cuts to get this, his first U.S. movie, certificated, and even then it was pooh-poohed by the critics as not being a patch on his earlier work.
Not having seen it for a while, I thought it might be overdue for re-evaluation and it really is a slam-bang action corker. Woo was probably not helped by having Jean-Claude Van Damme as his lead, but he managed to hone something of a performance from him and it is probably one of the "Muscles from Brussels" better efforts. Similarly the female lead Yancy Butler is really at best just a TV actress and her part neither adds nor detracts. Where Woo lucked out was in getting Lance Henriksen as his villain, although back then it is a role that the actor could have played in his sleep -- yet his cultured evil is tangible. He is aided by an equally villainous turn from Arnold Vosloo as his murderous sidekick. What the film boils down to is yet another version of "The Most Dangerous Game" where bored hunters pay to chase down the most satisfying prey: Man, here in the colourful streets, cemeteries, and bayous of New Orleans. It may be an oft-told tale, but Woo manages non-stop and quite stylish fireworks and bloodshed and even has some shots of his trademark birds. The final half-hour's gunfight in a Mardi Gras storehouse, amongst the oversized heads and grotesque carnival paraphernalia, is the product of a director with a brilliant visual approach. One only wishes one could have viewed the original, uncut conception of this unfairly-dismissed movie.
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