5th September, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Hard Boiled (1992) DVD Review
Hard Boiled (1992) DVD Credits:
Hard Boiled (1992) Directed by:
John Woo
Hard Boiled (1992) Written by:
Not available at this time
Hard Boiled (1992) Cast:
Yun-Fat Chow, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang
Hard Boiled (1992) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Hard Boiled (1992) DVD Release Date:
23rd July 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Hard Boiled (1992) Synopsis:

Mobsters are smuggling guns into Hong Kong. The police orchestrate a raid at a teahouse where the ace detective loses his partner. Meanwhile, the two main gun smugglers are having a war over territoriality, and a young new gun is enlisted to wipe out informants and overcome barriers to growth. The detective, acting from inside sources gets closer to the ring leaders, and eventually must work directly with the inside man.

Hard Boiled (1992) DVD Review:

John Woo quickly made a name for himself in Hollywood, able to create the most stylized and slick action as good as anyone else. While others fiddled with realistic action, Woo easily brought his style to Hollywood filmmaking and continued face-offs with two opposing characters crossing guns. He hasn’t stopped the intensity, but the freshness of his early Hong Kong work is unmistakable in Hard Boiled. One of the greatest action films, Hard Boiled also enters into the international category as well, paired with films like El Mariachi and La Femme Nikita. Each country seems to have a defining action film, star, or director easily marketed internationally. John Woo became that person perfectly and Hard Boiled is one of the reasons why.

Essentially this film is just another undercover cop film, and if it weren’t for the action sequences it might be easily dismissible. The plot is so familiar that the outcome is somewhat of a Infernal Affairs on speed. Every single action sequence allows for a shower of bullets coming from guns that don’t need to be reloaded nearly as often as you might expect. John Woo certainly has made a name for himself, starting with these early Hong Kong action films that are filled with so much style and non-stop action it is surprising he wasn’t snatched up by Hollywood sooner. Recently Entertainment Weekly rated the best action films of all time and it is no surprise that Hard Boiled was on the list considering the body count has got to be higher than all of the Die Hard films combined.

Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) stars as Tequila, a cop who has just lost his partner to gun smugglers. Feeling guilty for the death tequila pours all of his energy into stopping the smugglers, even when his job is at risk. Going renegade he teams up with an undercover cop in the operation, played by Tony Leung of Infernal Affairs, a film which shares a lot of similarities to Hard Boiled. The two cops each struggle with their individually unique situations despite their common goal and all along the way the Triads are suspicious and constantly testing the undercover cop with assassin tasks.

The re-release of Hard Boiled as Dragon Dynasty’s fifteenth film, Hard Boiled is given a two-disc ultimate edition treatment. Disc one contains the film along with an additional commentary track with Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan. Disc two contains an assortment of special features, with both old and new footage. There are three interview tapes, with producer Terence Chang, co-stars Philip Chan, and Kwok Choi. There is also a location guide for the film but the best special feature is the featurette with John Woo, “A Baptism Under Fire”. There is also a trailer gallery including both international and Hong Kong trailers for the film.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Hard Boiled (1992) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development