Quarantine Movie Reviews 4: Searching for Bobby Fischer, Where the Money Is, and Scorpio

 Hello dear readers, 

I hope you are doing well, three more fun reviews, two movies I enjoyed and one I did not. Check out the reviews and if they spur you check out the movie. Thank you for reading, stay safe. (movie poster images from IMDB and Wikipedia)

Searching for Bobby Fischer (released 1993) Ryan's rating ✯✯✯1/2 out of four.

Inspired by a true story, and based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Fred Waitzkin, this film tells the story of a New York City sports columnist (played by the always reliable Joe Mantegna) whose young son turns out to have a natural gift for chess. The father then finds his young son a teacher (Ben Kingsley) and begins entering the boy in competitive tournaments around the country quickly losing sight of his son and becoming fixated on winning. This is the directorial debut of master screenwriter Steven Zaillian (he wrote Awakenings and Schindler's List at this time but has gone on to write a number of other great films) he gets strong performances out of his actors and great use of NYC locations, though the beautiful look of the film is most likely thanks to legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall. The real life chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, though name dropped in the title, really has very little to do with the movie aside from brief mentions of his career. Film critic Roger Ebert lamented that the film marketing at the time failed to make clear the movie is not a biography of Fischer. It really is an examination of how parents lose sight of being parents while living vicariously through their children and how parents can unknowingly use their children to fulfill their missed dreams. This is a must see film for any parent and a touching and very well acted story.

Where the Money Is (released 2000) Ryan's rating ✯✯ maybe two and a half...

Paul Newman plays an aging bank robber who fakes a coma to be moved from prison to a nursing home in the country in hopes of escaping custody. One of the nurses (Linda Fiorentino), who feels stuck in the dead end town, figures out his scheme and convinces him to help her rob an armored car route that runs through a number of stops in the nearby town. The film could/should have been much better, it plays more like an edgier Hallmark TV movie and no surprise that the film's director worked mainly in British television before making this film. I did enjoy the film because of Paul Newman. This was one of his last live theatrical films (he did a number of animation and narration in his final years) and he is a joy to watch. His charisma and obvious acting abilities carry the simple film, he can grin or wink and it carries more than some actors can do in an entire hour. I'm a classic movie fan so it is always nice to see one of the greats get to do what they do, I wish the overall movie was better but Newman makes it worthwhile, Fiorentino is also good as the nurse. It is interesting to note that Newman's longtime friend Robert Redford made a similar film (which was much better) in 2018, The Old Man and the Gun. If you are a Paul Newman fan this is a movie to check out especially with its short 88 minute running time.

Scorpio (released 1973) Ryan's rating ✯

This is a bad movie, it could have been good but it is not. Familiar story involves an aging spy/assassin (Burt Lancaster) who the American CIA believes is now a liability so they hire his French protege, named Scorpio (Alain Deleon), to kill him. What is set up as a thrilling chase is nothing of the sort, most of the movie focuses on office bureaucracy, the two assassins personal lives, plans of where the other may go, and faux discussions of morality. The two stars are good and it is filmed in Europe. There is a great action sequence right in the middle of the film involving a chase and fight at a construction site which is easily the highlight. Worst of all is the final showdown between the two assassins, it's a big let down especially after nearly two hours. Skip this one.

Until next time readers.

Quarantine Movie Reviews 3: Project Power, The Naked City, The Lost City of Z

Hello readers, here are a few more movie reviews for films I've seen during this pandemic. I hope you enjoy.

Project Power (released 2020) ✯✯1/2 (out of 4)

This Netflix original movie (that was on the autoplay preview right when you logged in a few months back) stars Jamie Foxx as a former soldier tracking a new street drug called POWER which gives its users super powers (the results vary by user balls of fire from their hands, super speed, healing powers, massive strength, etc) for only five minutes. He is tracking the drug to its source in order to rescue his kidnapped daughter who plays a key role in POWER's creation. Along the way Foxx teams up with a teenaged dealer (Dominique Fishback who played Darlene on HBO's excellent series The Deuce) and a New Orleans Police Officer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in full wisecracking cop portrayal). I have to say I found the movie entertaining though if you think about any of the plot it does not make much sense and there are holes galore in the story (for instance at certain points in the film they say the drug activates something in the user and they won't know until it is taken what power they will get, then later it seems there are specific pills that have specific powers). Also the superpowers that are created are not much different than what we see in the X-Men films I've seen some reviewers bemoan that lack of newness but that didn't bother me personally. The film benefits greatly from the three stars, especially Foxx's charisma and star power (no pun intended) as well as the location of New Orleans. If it had been set in Los Angeles it would have been too similar to too many other movies. There are a number of well staged fights and a fast pace which entertained me for the two hours, just don't think too much about the story while you're watching.

The Naked City (released (released 1948) ✯✯✯

Classic documentary style film capturing basically a step by step police investigation, opening with the murder of a young woman and continuing through the capture of the suspect. Barry Fitzgerald plays the wily Irish NYPD detective on the case and he gives an excellent performance. The film is dated largely because every police television series even to this day has copied the format: show the crime, call in the detective, collect evidence, interrogate suspects, eventually find the culprit in a chase scene. This film was produced by a NYC newspaper crime columnist who wanted to create a film that captured the day to day of an investigation and what was so trend setting about the film is that it was filmed entirely on location in New York City. Though it is common place in present day movies to film on location, at the time most movies were filmed at the studios in California on elaborate sets and never setting foot on actual locations. For instance the film An American in Paris was filmed entirely on MGM studio sets where they recreated full streets and even the banks of the Seine river as opposed to flying to the actual Paris locales.  If you are interested in history this film will give you a snapshot of New York in 1948 through its black and white Oscar winning cinematography and it will also show you where all those crime shows we love so much came from.

The Lost City of Z (released 2016) ✯✯

This historical biopic tells the story of Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), a British explorer and cartographer, who made several trips to the Amazon jungle in search of a mythical city of gold. The film harkens back to 1950s adventure films like King Solomon's Mines (1950) though the historical nature of the movie makes it very episodic and ruins the grand adventure the audience is expecting. Fawcett travels to the Amazon and back to England several times over the course of the movie which makes the actual drama and difficulty of his journey far less exciting. The film is very lavish but the dark cinematography gives it a melancholy feel so when there are triumphs in Fawcett's career we do not feel them. It really should have been a grand adventure but it comes off more as a series of bland scenes. 

Quarantine Movie Reviews: Comes a Horseman, Saving Mr. Banks, 52-Pick Up

 We all have long lists of movies we've been meaning to watch, I've been catching up on films during this pandemic while staying inside. Here are three more of the films I've seen I hope you enjoy. -Ryan

Comes a Horseman (released 1978) ✯✯✯ out of four

A majestic film about the "modern" American West set in the 1940s during the waning days of WWII. Jane Fonda plays a widowed rancher struggling to keep her land and round up enough cattle to pay the bills. One day a neighboring rancher (James Caan) is found wounded and is nursed back to health by the widow. They reluctantly decide to become partners as they are the last two independent farm owners in the area, to round up a herd of cattle for sale to fend off the big land baron (Jason Robards) who wants to own the entire valley and drill for oil. The team of director Alan J. Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis (who previously worked on Klute and All the President's Men among others) create truly beautiful images here that are unlike anything they previously have done as a team before. They usually work in urban city environments so it makes this film all the more impressive as they capture the majesty of the mountains. plains, forests, and ominous clouds, these are truly paintings on film. The story is simple in the extreme and the film is slow paced and quiet, sometimes to the point of nothing happening except pretty images, which may lose many viewers. I was not bothered by the leisurely pace I was bothered by the heavy handed villainy of the Robards character, his performance is commanding as usual, but the script gives him very little to work with. As well the big climax seems to come from a completely different movie and almost feels tacked on, it feels out of place in the film. Overall I have been wanting to see this film for a long time and I am glad I saw if just for the beauty of the filmmaking and acting.

Saving Mr. Banks (released 2013) ✯✯1/2

This Disney historical fiction, depicts the pre-production of the studio's classic 1964 film Mary Poppins and specifically the process of convincing and securing permission from author P. L. Travers (wonderfully played by Emma Thompson) to use her characters for the film. That is the basic story but as the title implies it really is about Travers coming to terms with the long ago death of her dreamer/banker/alcoholic father (Colin Ferrell) who is the loose basis for the Poppins character Mr. Banks. There's also Tom Hanks playing Walt Disney (the person not the company) and despite his high billing he has more of a supporting role, but when he is on screen the movie really shines it's a shame he is not in more of the film. This film actually harkens back to the live action Walt Disney Pictures films of the 1980s and early 1990s, such as Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Never Cry Wolf, which were more adult oriented but still family entertainment though young children will probably be bored by any of these. Overall, though the whole first hour is mostly set up which makes it a little slow going since we all know where the story is headed, the period detail excellent, the actors are perfectly cast, and it is an entertaining story.

52 Pick-Up (released 1986) ✯✯

A wealthy Los Angeles inventor (Roy Scheider), whose wife (Ann-Margaret) is a candidate for public office, has an affair with a young model (Kelly Preston) and as the film begins he is blackmailed with videos of his liaisons with the young woman by three men hooded men with guns. The inventor decides to turn the tables on the blackmailers and fight back. Based on a book of the same name by Elmore Leonard (who also co-wrote the screenplay) we have the usual snappy dialogue, and the plot is good, though like some (most) of Leonard's work we spend over half the film with the sleazy villains and after a while there is no enjoyment there it just makes the viewer feel lousy, on top of that the big climax is a big let down. The blackmailers (led by John Glover at his slimy best) work in the world of low budget pornography and prostitution clubs of Sunset Strip, which features a continual abuse or degradation of women that makes the movie hard to watch (Preston's character is tortured, Ann-Margaret's character is kidnapped and then pumped full of heroin, etc). The only reason I gave it two stars is because of the strong cast and it is directed by John Frankenheimer whose excellent eye and use of LA locations bump it up a little, other than that it is a hard ride.

 

Quarantine Movie Reviews: The Organization, Fatal Beauty, and Love Letters (August 2020)

 Dear Readers,

The COVID-19 Pandemic and resultant stay at home regulations have, for better or worse, given me, like many of you the opportunity to watch a large amount of television and movies at home. Here are reviews of three of the movies I've watched, hope you enjoy!

The Organization (1971) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯ (out of four)

Three years after the success of In the Heat of the Night Sidney Poitier reprised his role as Detective Virgil Tibbs in two back to back films, 1970s They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and this 1971 film, his third and final time playing the character. These sequels have very little to do with the original Academy Award Winning hit aside from Poitier's presence and the character being a brilliant detective. As in the previous sequel Tibbs is a San Francisco Detective with a wife and little boy (all of which is different from the original film). The convoluted story involves a robbery in which a man is murdered, a young revolutionary group contacts Tibbs says they committed the robbery but not the murder. Tibbs believes them and works to find the real culprits. I enjoy movies like this, old fashioned police investigations that are filmed on location creating a kind of time capsule. The film will probably seem dated as many police TV shows have taken these elements and used them to death but Poitier is always good to watch.

Fatal Beauty (1987) Ryan's Rating ⭐⭐ 

I first heard of this movie when I was in elementary school. During summer break I would stay with my grandparents during the day because both my parents worked. Every Thursday afternoon around 4:30pm (Hawaii time) TBS would show a movie, sometimes part of the "Dinner and a Movie" series other times just a Thursday night movie, the films were usually from the 1970s and 1980s and usually action or thriller movies. My parents would always arrive to pick me up at around 5pm, so I would inevitably only see about thirty minutes of any film. I remember being very drawn to the beginning of this movie but never saw the whole movie until now.

Whoopi Goldberg plays LAPD detective Rita Rizzoli, working to bust a drug ring. She drives a pink 1960s Mustang convertible, wears bright colored 1980s clothes, has a silver Beretta she carries in a shoulder holster. Also Sam Elliott is here as a mercenary with a lot of cool guns who is hired to kill Rizzoli but ends up falling in love with her. I can see why my childhood self was excited about this movie, my adult self is less enthralled. The movie shifts in tone from an action comedy in the Beverly Hills Cop mode, to violent starring vehicle closer to Sudden Impact or Cobra, along the way tries to put in some anti-drug drama, most of which plays like an after school special. Through all the style shifts Goldberg is very good and could have done more police action films if they had come her way.

Love Letters (1983) ✯✯1/2

A low budget drama that I first caught in high school on one of those movie channels like Flix, but again never saw the whole film until now. Jamie Lee Curtis (in her first non-horror starring theatrical film) plays a young Los Angeles public radio host who discovers a box of love letters from her recently deceased mother. The letters detail an extramarital affair between her married mother and a married older man, this then coincides with Curtis having her own affair with an older married man who is one of the sponsors the radio station (played by James Keach). The film sometimes feels like a repertory theatre company performing original work that is not quite finished, the acting is natural and strong but sometimes falls into melodrama and the script sometimes meanders. Curtis though is excellent in the lead and one can see why she became a big star. Writer/director Amy Holden Jones would go on to write such popular films as Mystic Pizza, Maid to Order, and Beethoven as well as creating the recent TV series The Resident.

That's all for now I've been watching a lot of movies so I hope to be back soon with more reviews.

Spenser Confidential, rebirth of the hero

Spenser (his first name is never revealed) first appeared on bookshelves in 1973's The Godwulf Manuscript written by Robert B. Parker and starred in forty more books before Parker's death in 2010.

The book series gave way to the TV series Spenser for Hire (1985-1988) with the perfectly cast Robert Urich and Avery Brooks as Spenser and Hawk.  That was followed by four lifetime TV movies in the mid 1990s.

Joe Mantenga starred in three A&E TV movies and also performed several series audio books in the early 2000s.  With the passing of Parker author Ace Atkins took over writing the novels in 2012.

Fans of those previous incarnations of the character (like myself) will find a very different Spenser in the new  Mark Wahlberg movie Spenser Confidential which premiered this past Friday on Netflix.  While much has changed there will be a number of familiar elements for longtime fans.

In this new film directed by frequent Wahlberg collaborator Peter Berg (Patriot's Day, Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon) we find Spenser as a former Boston patrol officer sentenced to a five year prison term for beating up corrupt police Captain Boylan (Michael Gaston).  Upon his release, Spenser is taken in by his old boxing coach Henry Cimoli (a perfectly cast Alan Arkin in the one character taken unaltered from the books) and becomes roommates with aspiring MMA fighter Hawk (Winston Duke).  All Spenser wants is to get his truckers license and move to Arizona to start his own shipping business, yet fate intervenes when Captain Boylan is brutally murdered and an old friend of Spenser's is framed for the crime.  It's time to put those old detective skills to use to clear a friend and stop the bad guys.

Loosely based on Ace Atkin's 2013 novel Spenser: Wonderland the adaptation is written by newcomer Sean O'Keefe and Oscar Winner Brian Helgeland (he also wrote screenplays for the adaptations of LA Confidential, Blood Work, and Mystic River).  The film is entertaining and fast paced, director Berg knows how to stage a fight scene, and is really modeled on the thriller/mystery starring-vehicles of the 1980s and 1990s like Stallone's Cobra, Arnold's Red Heat, Bruce Willis's Striking Distance, and Clint Eastwood's Tightrope to name a few.  It is the kind of movie where a character gets stabbed in the ribs with a shive, then he puts a Band-Aid over the wound and it's like it never happened.

Wahlberg's Spenser is truly a Boston everyman no longer a professional private eye (originally inspired by Chandler's Phillip Marlowe) he is closer to the characters Wahlberg has played in The Fighter and Four Brothers. Retained from the books and previous TV incarnations he is a former boxer with an Arthurian moral code for doing what he believes is right.  Here Spenser is still finding his way whereas in the books he arrived fully formed and changed very little through the years.

Winston Duke's Hawk is a completely new incarnation no longer the ultra smooth fine silk wearing mercenary, here he is a up and coming MMA fighter being trained by Spenser and Henry.  The son of murdered community activists he enjoys organic salads and oat milk and has Spenser's moral code for helping the helpless.

It would be remiss if I did not mention Iliza Shlesinger's scene steaming turn as Cissy, Spenser's former/current girlfriend. Gone is the stuffy psychologist Susan Silverman, in her place is the hard talking take no prisoners small business owner who can argue as well as Spenser can punch.

I hope they make more of these films, as a longtime fan of Spenser.  Parker's novels were what really got me into loving books and pleasure reading, I was a late bloomer in that respect as it was not till the early 2000s when I began gravitating toward traditional novels.  Spenser and Hawk are like old friends that make right what once was wrong and life is just a bit better with Spenser around. 

Revisiting The Big Chill

The Big Chill is a 1983 ensemble drama comedy, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and written by Kasdan and Barbara Benedek (for which they received a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination)

The story centers around a group of seven (originally eight) 1960s idealists who were close friends at the University of Michigan but have drifted apart since graduation. It is now 1983 (about fifteen years since their college days) and the seven are drawn together for a funeral when the eighth member of their group, the never seen Alex, kills himself.  After the services the seven friends, most of them spouseless, spend a long weekend in a large southern vacation home straight out of Pat Conroy. During their stay they have long talks, reminisce, drink wine, rekindle relationships, wonder about the dreams of youth, and wonder what drove Alex to take his own life.

[Side Note: Kevin Costner, one of my favorite actors, was cast as Alex and that is him as the corpse in the opening scenes. There were originally flashbacks with Costner but Kasdan eventually felt the flashbacks did not add to the present day story and cut the scenes]

I first saw the movie in the late 1990s, I was in middle school or early high school.  My parents gave me the 15th anniversary edition VHS tape for Easter (pictured above).  My mom and I watched it later that day, I was excited because my parents had repeatedly told me how much they liked the film and how good it was. During my first viewing I was less than enthralled, I did watch it all the way to the end, but I remember not enjoying it. Memory fails me as to why I did not care for the movie back then, it could be that the film is more of a character study and a series of scenes than a traditional narrative. It is not structured with a truly forward moving plot and when the vacation ends most of the characters return to the lives they had at the start of the film (except William Hurt's character, the pill popper, who decides to clean up his life) there is not a lot of change. Which may be Kasdan's point.

Several of Kasdan's films are what could be called concept stories where the audience is left to find the catharsis or climax on their own. For instance Continental Divide (1981), which he wrote but did not direct, about a cross country romance has a long drawn out ending where the characters keep catching trains extending their romance but end up exactly where they started promising to cross the country again. Wyatt Earp (1994) ends with a flashback that I believe is supposed to bring up the questions of legend and the history of the West but seems an odd climax to such a long film (I will say without the flashback the film would have no ending at all). Yet in Grand Canyon (1991) when his cast of characters finally reaches the natural wonder of the title the final shot and the looks on the actor's faces provides an immense catharsis for the viewer and I myself cannot explain why that ending works as well as it does.

Anyway back to The Big Chill, in the past few months of 2019 I caught the film on one of those unedited and without commercials TV channels. It was just starting with Glenn Close's character getting the phone call and segueing into the "Heard it Through the Grapevine" montage which expertly introduces each of the main cast. I sat and watched the entire film for the first time since that Easter Day of my youth and I was completely enthralled, even moved by the film.

I am sure this newfound connection is cause by the fact that I am now an adult and closer in age to the characters in the film than when I watched it as an adolescent. I have had a number of experiences and met people very similar to those depicted in the movie.

[Side Note: the characters are all caucasian, educated, upper class individuals. I have a feeling if you are a member of this demographic the film will hit you, it may be a miss if you are not I'm not sure.]

Kasdan and Benedek have created a group of seven characters so familiar that they are able to embody any number of real people that the viewer has known from their own past, which some critics have deemed causes them to be cardboard or shallow. The shallowness is most likely on purpose because all the characters have sold out to become upper middle class yuppies

Another major benefit is that Kasdan and his casting director selected a group of actors who became engrained in the popular films of the 1980s and 1990s (this film was at the start of many of their careers so this was also a bit of luck). For instance I cannot for the life of me remember any of the character names, I see them simply as William Hurt, Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and Jeff Goldblum. Each brings their everyday charm to their roles and considerable screen presence while still seeming like your next door neighbor.

The camaraderie of the cast shines through and while watching the film I truly believed they were all friends in college. This bond that comes through the screen is a credit to the filmmakers since none of the actors had previously worked on film together and save for Hurt none had worked with Kasdan before filming. This would be the beginning of a collaboration between Kline and Kasdan that to date has produced six movies together. The friendship depicted again conjures up my own memories of friends I could talk to all night, and stay in a vacation home with.

This movie more obviously than his other films, encompasses Kasdan's love of the past and a longing for an earlier time that runs through all his work. His screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) called on the Saturday Matinee Adventure Serials of the 1950s. Body Heat (1981) fully recreated film noir of the 1940s and 1950s and help solidify the neo-noir boom of the 1980s. Silverado (1985) was the first major studio western in nearly a decade and kickstarted the genres brief resurgence in the 1990s. The Bodyguard (1992) was conceived and written as a 1970s Steve McQueen vehicle, it would have sat nicely next to Bullitt and The Getaway. His most recent film Darling Companion (2012) focuses on a long married couple who must examine their past and forgive each other during a vacation weekend and could be seen as a bookend to The Big Chill.

While I may not see my own group of young friends often or ever again, when I watched The Big Chill they are enlivened on the screen in the words and faces of the actors.  Here Kasdan with his love of the past has created a film that speaks to a whole generation of Baby Boomers (and seemingly generations to come) that were and are wondering where the days of youth have gone.

Film Review: Manhunt "John Woo is Back!"(Released 2017)

Manhunt
Released 2017
Directed by JOHN WOO!
(Ryan's rating ★★★1/2 out of four)

I have to come right out and say it, I love John Woo.  As a boy growing up in the 1990s his Hong Kong urban action films were my favorites.  So this review may be a little biased.

Woo's lyrical film style where every main character carries two guns (usually Baretta 92FS) was termed by critics as "Bullet Ballet" or "Gun Fu" due to its stylized violence, choreographed like a dance sequence.  While characters jump, spin, tumble, and slide through the action scenes there is always an air of reality to the dance and that is Woo's gift, he takes things that are so over the top they should be terribly unbelievable but they become commanding in his hands.

Manhunt (released in Asia in 2017 and currently available on Netflix streaming) is Woo's first action drama in nearly twenty years.

The story follows Du Qui (Hanyu Zhang), a high powered corporate lawyer whose client is the giant Tenjin pharmaceutical company. The film opens in a bar (strikingly similar to the bars in The Killer and A Better Tomorrow) where two characters discuss how classic movies are sadly falling out of style. In a wink to the audience this will be a classic style Woo film. I do not want to reveal too much but a an exhilarating gun battle explodes so seamlessly I was hooked. 

After the opening credits we shift to several years later as the owner of Tenjin pharmaceutical appoints his ne'er-do-well son as the future head of the company during a large celebratory gala. Du Qui has also won several lawsuits in the company's favor.  He is planning on leaving Japan, but the company sends a beautiful woman to make sure Du Qui stays put.  Yet the next morning he wakes up next to the murdered woman and is quickly framed by some corrupt police officers.  He escapes and goes on the run to prove his innocence.

Enter Masaharu Fukuyama as the dedicated detective who is reaching his breaking point (in the same vein as Danny Lee in The Killer or John Travolta in Face/Off) who soon realizes that Du Qui is innocent.  This sets up one of Woo's most common themes, the similarity and/or eventual partnership of two men on opposite sides (usually of the law).  The detective and the lawyer team up with a woman they both know from their past and take it on the run to prove Du Qui's innocence and Tenjin's illegal activities.  The trio of two men and one woman is another common Woo theme (see Once a Thief and Hard Boiled).  The plot gets too complicated to recreate here but is surprisingly easy to follow while you are watching with all its additional information.

The Media Asia logo at the beginning is straight from those 1990s VHS tapes I watched growing up.  The film has a feeling of coming home while still being current and exciting.  If you are not a Woo fan or a fan of Hong Kong action cinema this may not be for you.  More cynical viewers will also need to put their mind into a place where jumping a few inches to the left allows you to avoid a massive amount of machine gun fire and a gunshot wound to the shoulder does not slow you down until the story needs you to slow down.   

But such is a John Woo film.  He rose to fame in Hong Kong in the 1980s and early 1990s with such classics as A Better Tomorrow, Once a Thief, and especially The Killer and Hard Boiled.  The latter two influenced countless film and filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and The Matrix to name a few). Less talked about in America is the harrowing Bullet in the Head which takes place during the Vietnam War as three friends try to use the war as a way to get rich quick in the smuggling trade through Hong Kong.  The popularity of these films in Asia and on home video in America led Woo to Hollywood in 1994 with a series of financially successful though often critically panned films (Hard Target (far better than it is given credit for), Broken Arrow, Face/Off (his best in America), and Mission Impossible 2).  After Paycheck (poorly received) Woo transitioned to making epic historical films, the first taste was Windtalkers, and returned to Asia to make Red Cliff and The Crossing (both of which were so long they were split into two theatrical films each).  As well as the video game Stranglehold (which I personally love and is a sequel to Hard Boiled).

Manhunt is a tribute to a Ken Takaura (the Clint Eastwood of Japan), one of Woo's heroes.  It is a true return to form and a tribute to everything I love about John Woo's filmmaking. While the plot is overly familiar, like many of Woo's films, the fast pace and Woo's touches keep it fresh.  Now don't get me wrong this is not a director going through the motions of the things that made him famous this is a director rediscovering his calling.