He'll be pedaling an imaginary bike as he flies, right?

+1 subby

brap: Hard Boiled blew my mind. There used to be a joint in Chinatown where people would recommend Hong Kong laser disc movies and give you a copy for a five spot. Thankfully, I had the sense to avoid such a sordid den of opium-slinging criminals.

Don't forget the 43rd Chamber. (43rd and 8th)

They sell flowers now. Sad.

John Woo to receive Venice Film Festival lifetime award while flying waltzing through the air, firing a gun in each hand amidst a cloud of white doves

Fixed it for Venice.

brap: T.M.S.: Don't forget the 43rd Chamber. (43rd and 8th)

They sell flowers now. Sad.

Thankfully I have NO idea what you are talking about.

P.S. I woulda paid top coin but your shoddy distribution pipelines made me a killer, damn you groovy Hong Kong, damn you to hell!

43rd Chamber was a killer store for Kung Fu movies. They went bust a few years ago.

+1

brap: Hard Boiled blew my mind.

You and me both, brother. That flick pretty much changed the way I looked at action movies. Well, that and that I spent most of college in the mid 90s hanging around with film school geeks.

Another Woo classic, sorely under appreciated 'round here:

Bullet in the Head.

I guess in the US you can only find it on bootleg. I don't even remember which version I saw, all I know is that it was on a grainy, nasty VHS with bad subtitles. Saw it twice, many years ago. Great flick. Worth seeing if you can find it.

/cool story bro
//yeah, yeah

Infamous Dr. X: brap: Hard Boiled blew my mind.

You and me both, brother. That flick pretty much changed the way I looked at action movies. Well, that and that I spent most of college in the mid 90s hanging around with film school geeks.

Another Woo classic, sorely under appreciated 'round here:

Bullet in the Head.

I guess in the US you can only find it on bootleg. I don't even remember which version I saw, all I know is that it was on a grainy, nasty VHS with bad subtitles. Saw it twice, many years ago. Great flick. Worth seeing if you can find it.

/cool story bro
//yeah, yeah

There we go. No, I have on occasion seen Bullet In the Head DVDs granted these may have been Canadian imports. That said, I saw it at the Seattle Art Museum with John Woo, WHO WAS INSANELY AWESOME to his fans. Thanks to Scarecrow Video for sponsoring the event! I would say Bullet In the Head is easily his best work. Hard Boiled obviously has the best action scenes.

/Trying to wait and see Red Cliffs cold.
//the way it was ment to be no doubt.

MI-II is underestimated and misunderstood. People came in expecting a continuation of the first one, and got something completely different.

I thought MI-II was pretty damn awesome. Sure, it was a little more over the top than the usual Woo fare, but c'mon - it's MI, for chrissake. But it was awesome. One of the coolest movies I have ever seen. The opening sequence just exuded cool, and I felt like the whole movie should have been in slow motion. And never has Thandie Newton looked better.

But then I really liked Broken Arrow and Face/Off as well, and many other Woo fanboys dislike those also because they aren't in keeping with the "purety" of Killer/Hard-Boiled/ABT.

The American Woo movies were just that: American Woo movies. I would have been disappointed if they looked just like HK Woo movies.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener:
Shame that Windtalkers focused more on Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater THAN THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS WHO WERE PRACTICALLY PUSHED TO THE BACKGROUND.

Well you have to admit that Nic Cage is a Hard Target to avoid when trying to film a movie!

Ahahaha

Rambino

You make an interesting point.

I kinda liked Broken Arrow, I thought Face/Off was okay (just okay) and thought MI:2 was just kinda meh, although it had some nice flourishes.

When I realized that Woo just wasn't going to ever really reach the "average" American audience member was when in MI:2, Cruise comes through the burning doorway guns blazing after a couple doves fly through...people in the theater were laughing at that scene.

The things that make Woo awesome just aren't all that awesome when a round-eye actor does them.

/there may have been a point here somewhere, I dunno
//time to drink more

Infamous Dr. X: Rambino

You make an interesting point.

I kinda liked Broken Arrow, I thought Face/Off was okay (just okay) and thought MI:2 was just kinda meh, although it had some nice flourishes.

When I realized that Woo just wasn't going to ever really reach the "average" American audience member was when in MI:2, Cruise comes through the burning doorway guns blazing after a couple doves fly through...people in the theater were laughing at that scene.

The things that make Woo awesome just aren't all that awesome when a round-eye actor does them.

/there may have been a point here somewhere, I dunno
//time to drink more

I'm in my late 20s and didn't really see any of the earlier Woo movies until much later. I saw Face-off and broken arrow before I saw the others. And I thought they were over the top cheesy suck fests. MI-2 wasn't bad... but it wasn't great either.

Also has anybody seen Red Cliff? It's supposed to be pretty good

The All-Powerful Atheismo: Also has anybody seen Red Cliff? It's supposed to be pretty good

It is tremendously good, but you have to have an appreciation for what Chinese "Mythological" history is - a blend of the ridiculously impossible and the historically accurate. It is a wonderful interpretation of drama and warefare, but it is also ridiculously over the top. I highly recommend getting the chinese "two part" series vs. the american "one movie" version.

Fuuuuuuuuuuu-

I just realized I've only seen ONE John Woo movie and it's Face/Off.

Seriously.

I've seen so, SO many imitators/people inspired by John Woo, so I still LOL'd at the headline.

Time to rent some DVDs.

Infamous Dr. X:
When I realized that Woo just wasn't going to ever really reach the "average" American audience member was when in MI:2, Cruise comes through the burning doorway guns blazing after a couple doves fly through...people in the theater were laughing at that scene.



... and I thought that scene was awesome. Over the top? Yes. Cheesy? Absolutely. But this is JOHN FREAKING WOO. That's his stock in trade. Over the top visual imagery is what he does. He is the Shyamalan of action shooters. You cannot judge John Woo imagery my the standards of Michael Bay.

In Face/Off, Nicolas Cage gets off a plane, wearing a trenchcoat (of course), but he gets off the plane in slow motion. Why? Because that's just how cool guys in trenchcoats move in John Woo's world. And then, just to drive the point home, the camera catches the bottom of the trenchcoat flapping in the wind - in slow motion, complete with slow-motion whip-cracking sound effect. Who knew a trenchcoat could make a sound like that in slow motion? Woo knew, that's who.

Killer et al were just as cheesy in their own way. They only seem non-cheesy because we (most of us) can't understand the original dialogue, and we cut the movies slack because they are foreign and all. That, and we don't want to admit that we can't tell the actors apart (except for CYF - that's why we like him: we can tell him from the other Chinamen).

If you watch those movies objectively they are very cheesy indeed, and completely over the top. Try to count the shells flying in the final scene of Killer (or was it Hard-Boiled? I forget) - that scene makes Weird-Al-as-Rambo seem downright restrained.

Tickle Mittens: Infamous Dr. X: brap: Hard Boiled blew my mind.

You and me both, brother. That flick pretty much changed the way I looked at action movies. Well, that and that I spent most of college in the mid 90s hanging around with film school geeks.

Another Woo classic, sorely under appreciated 'round here:

Bullet in the Head.

I guess in the US you can only find it on bootleg. I don't even remember which version I saw, all I know is that it was on a grainy, nasty VHS with bad subtitles. Saw it twice, many years ago. Great flick. Worth seeing if you can find it.

/cool story bro
//yeah, yeah

There we go. No, I have on occasion seen Bullet In the Head DVDs granted these may have been Canadian imports. That said, I saw it at the Seattle Art Museum with John Woo, WHO WAS INSANELY AWESOME to his fans. Thanks to Scarecrow Video for sponsoring the event! I would say Bullet In the Head is easily his best work. Hard Boiled obviously has the best action scenes.

/Trying to wait and see Red Cliffs cold.
//the way it was ment to be no doubt.


You guys may or may not know that there are two versions of Bullet in the Head - different endings.

And as far as I know, only the Special Edition 2 discer from the UK has both scenes. The theatrical cut, and the other scene as an extra.

/have met John Woo, and got his autograph.
//love his films but his Hollywood stuff is patchy - only Face-Off is near his HK calibre of films.

Face/Off f*cking rocked.

Look out, if you're not careful AgentOrangeDrink will come to this thread and proclaim that John Woo's simple shoot-'em-up movies aren't sophisticated enough to be enjoyed.

/loves The Killer and most all of John Woo's work

Saw Red Cliff Pts. 1 and 2 in Taiwan....hear the U.S. version is shortened. Would definitely recommend the Chinese, full version...great film and story.

DjangoStonereaver: As much as he deserves the accolade, he created a blight on film cinema that
will forever taint his legacy: the whole turn the gun to the side when you
shoot thing that every stupid ass ghetto gangbanger or Tony Montana wannabe
does. It is STUPID, it doesn't look good, and it a sure way to break your
wrist if you were actuall a tool enough to do it in real life.

But, BULLET IN THE HEAD does ease that pain for sure.

Not to go full-geek or anything... but John Woo didn't invent gangsta-style gunplay in movies, not by a long shot. Heck, there was even an article here about that last week some time.

And as for the rest - well, your views on the aesthetics of gun orientation are your own, of course, although many people obviously disagree with you. But I will note that I have shot many a handgun with a sideways grip, and my wrists both appear to be just fine. Maybe that just means I was born to the thug life. dunno.

...in slow motion. Don't forget the slo-mo.

CTRL+F, "The Big Hit".

No results found.

Woo gets a pass for farking life for The Big Hit. He could rape a puppy and I would look the other way because of that movie.

GavinTheAlmighty: CTRL+F, "The Big Hit".

No results found.

Woo gets a pass for farking life for The Big Hit. He could rape a puppy and I would look the other way because of that movie.

He only produced that. Same went for The Replacement Killers. I thought The Big Hit was a really fun and over-the-top cheesy guilty pleasure, though.

I really think they could've picked a better title than "M:I2" in the article's introduction, however. It's unfortunate that it's his most widely known American film and also the most ridiculed. Most of it turns his signature style into self-parody. Some great moments, however, especially the non-faked near-miss knife to the eye scene that Tom Cruise insisted on. Scientology, closets, and couch jumping aside, that man has brass balls for wanting to do that for the sake of his craft.

Woo: "Birds! Wind! Fire! Sro-Motion! Set the birds on fire!"
SFX Guy: "Mr. Woo, I already told you; we can't set the birds on fire."
Woo: "I say I want Sro-Motion Fry-by, Birds on Fire!"
SFX Guy: *sigh* "I'll see what I can do in post-production."

Toquinha: He only produced that

Ahh, how right you are. I always thought he directed that one. My bad.

The American version of Red Cliff is terrific. One of the best foreign films of the decade.

//And I'm not a Woo fan.

None of this means anything without the best John Woo film of all time, A Better Tomorrow (new window)

Dude. Like seeing all your sunsets flash before your eyes, with death just around the corner.

Did anyone mention Hard Boiled yet?

I wasn't able to enjoy Hard Boiled very much because I was busy wondering if they were EVER going to reload their guns. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but when they fire 50 rounds from a pistol without ever reloading, something is off somewhere...

Same thing goes with MI-2 and the fight at the end. I could go with it for a while, but eventually it got to be a point where I was going 'Come on, you'd both be dead by now 12 times over'

//Face-Off was awesome. Where else do you get 2 actors who chew up scenery like Travolta and Cage?

GavinTheAlmighty: Toquinha: He only produced that

Ahh, how right you are. I always thought he directed that one. My bad.

It was still awesome.

/I mean businesses.

schattenteufel: Woo: "Birds! Wind! Fire! Sro-Motion! Set the birds on fire!"
SFX Guy: "Mr. Woo, I already told you; we can't set the birds on fire."
Woo: "I say I want Sro-Motion Fry-by, Birds on Fire!"
SFX Guy: *sigh* "I'll see what I can do in post-production."



/oblig
//Have Asian DVDs of Red Cliff waiting to be opened.
///Pretty sure they're legit

schattenteufel: Woo: "Birds! Wind! Fire! Sro-Motion! Set the birds on fire!"
SFX Guy: "Mr. Woo, I already told you; we can't set the birds on fire."
Woo: "I say I want Sro-Motion Fry-by, Birds on Fire!"
SFX Guy: *sigh* "I'll see what I can do in post-production."

http://www.pixagen.com/storage/b3s/AsianThatsRacist.gif
(copy and paste)

/can't hotlink images

Bathia_Mapes: bobbette: Fuuuuuuuuuuu-

I just realized I've only seen ONE John Woo movie and it's Face/Off.

Seriously.

I've seen so, SO many imitators/people inspired by John Woo, so I still LOL'd at the headline.

Time to rent some DVDs.

Seriously, rent "Hard Target". It's my all-time favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme's movie & Lance Henriksen is a wonderfully nasty villian.

"Looks like we missed de party..."

Tickle Mittens:
/Trying to wait and see Red Cliffs cold.
//the way it was ment to be no doubt.

It will BLOW YOUR EFFING MIND. My Three Kingdoms-reading, Dynasty Warriors-playing heart loved every last minute of it.

Zhuge Liang being one of my favorite hot actors helped as well.

/watched the whole damned thing beginning to end a month ago.
//took me two nights, I had that stupid distraction called 'work'.

John Woo is an abomination.

His action scenes are both pointlessly unrealistic and shallow.

His attempts at "gun-fu ballet" are less stylish and more idiotic.

And don't even get me started on the BS of holding two guns.

Red Cliff is RETARDED. Seriously. Ten-year-olds may think it's cool, but goddammit what an embarrassingly bad film.