Hard Target? Even more difficult to enjoy. (Hard Target (DVD))

Member Name: RussellsReviews

Product:	Hard Target (DVD)
Date:	02/09/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plot

Disadvantages: Van Damme manages to ruin it

Van Damme stars as a mysterious homeless man in Hard Target teaming up with naive out of towner Nat on a hunt to find her recently rediscovered father. When his body is found they realise they have stumbled onto something a whole lot bigger than just murder...

Sounds pretty thrilling right? In theory... The story is quite a compelling one and at points I found myself waiting for the glorious plot reveal but somewhere along the long there was a bit of an anti climax. Once Van Damme discovers the hideous secret of Nat's father's death there seems to be about 40 minutes of film in which Van Damme sets various elaborate rouses in which to unsettle his pursuees before killing them in a series of similarly elaborate ways. I found the constant back flipping particuarly superfluous... Oh and not to forgot his bow and arrow wielding uncle which is an interesting addition to the usually cliched fight scenes.

It is obvious that what acclaimed director John Woo has attempted to do with this film is to make it more of a film rather than a series of fight scenes. Hard Target sees Van Damme having to act and whilst what John Woo has tried to do is admirable it's not what Van Damme does best and it leaves Van Damme's character looking like an unsociable and emotionless man which is hard to sell when he is supposed to be romancing his co star leaving you to wonder why on earth would a woman fall in love with such a rigid sort of a man.

Another of Hard Target's pitfalls and perhaps many of similar action films of the period were the slow motion scenes. Whilst these are often short and far between they are not effective. As if the action scenes weren't long enough they put short segments of them in slow motion.

But perhaps this in unfair, there are some good fight scenes. One notably impressive scene saw Van Damme kicking a man clear off a moving motorcycle.

In short Van Damme has plot and action, but our star is only good at delivering one thing. And delivering similar efforts is one thing he will continue to do.

Summary: For die hard Damme fans.