Extras : Scene index, Cast and Filmmakers' Notes, Trailer, Production Notes
Director:
John Woo
(A Better Tomorrow, Blackjack, Broken Arrow, Bullet in the Head, City on Fire, Face/Off, Hand of Death, Hard Target, Heroes Shed No Tears, Just Heroes, The Killer, Mission: Impossible 2, Once A Thief, Rich And Famous, Violent Tradition
)
Producers:
James Jacks and Sean Daniel
Screenplay:
Chuck Pfarrer
Cast:
Chance Boudreaux: Jean-Claude Van Damme (A.W.O.L., Bloodsport, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Desert Heat, Double Impact, Double Team, Hard Target, Legionnaire, Knock Off, Maximum Risk, Nowhere To Run, The Quest, Streetfighter, Sudden Death, Timecop,
Universal Soldier, Universal Soldier: The Return)
Emil Fouchon: Lance Henriksen (Dead Man, Hard Target, House 3, Jennifer 8, Johnny Handsome, No Escape, The Quick and the Dead, The Right Stuff, TV: Millennium, Tales From The Crypt)
Natasha Binder: Yancy Butler (Drop Zone, The Ex, Fast Money, Hard Target, The Hit List)
Pik Van Cleaf: Arnold Vosloo (Darkman 2 & 3, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Hard Target, The Mummy, The Progeny, TV: American Gothic, Nash Bridges)
Uncle Douvee: Wilford Brimley (Borderline, Cocoon 1 & 2, The Firm, Hard Target, The Progeny, Tender Mercies)
Fat man: "I was only joking when I said I wanted cosmetic surgery done quickly !"
Hard Target
is one of Jean Claude Van Damme's biggest films to date and certainly
one of his most enjoyable, but for my money there's only really this and
the original Universal Soldier which I could watch more than once.
The basis of the plot was ripped from a French film, if I recall correctly,
the name of which I don't know, but I presume it wasn't meant to feature the
'Muscles from Brussels' getting his lips badly twisted around some dodgy
dialogue albeit a script that does contain some clever one-liners.
In a game of cat-and-mouse Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen) sets up games
for bored tycoons to play. It involves strapping a huge wodge of cash round
the waist of a Vietnam veteran who has nothing left to live for, then telling
them to run. All they have to do is get to the perimeter of the game area
first and they keep the money. Sounds simple - but not when you're being
chased by very rich men with very big guns, since you're more likely to die a
horrible, violent death than to escape with the loot.
For reasons that don't really matter, drifter Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude
Van Damme) sticks his foot in and intends to pick off the bad guys one by
one. You know he'll start with the small fry and end up with Henriksen at the
end. This was John Woo's first action film for Hollywood and his
double-handed bullet-ballet techniques come into play several times very
violently as a result, not to mention his exceptional slo-mo shots.
It's fun to compare this film with the heavily-censored version that BBC1
occasionally show. On there, men die after three bullets a piece rather than
the 300 they seem to absorb here.
There's also a love interest in the form of Denise Richards-wannabe Yancy
Butler who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag and as most of the main
characters want to pretend to be French, it's anything but a French accent that
Wilford Brimley puts on as Chance's Uncle Douvee.
While Henriksen makes for a fine adversary, there's an even better performance
with even better one-liners from Arnold Vosloo as his right-hand man
Pik Van Cleaf, one of his show-stealing scenes being in the car scene pictured above
and below this section.
Pik: "I've almost perfected the 'Daniella Westbrook' nose-job."
The picture is presented in the original 1.85:1 ratio with no obvious artifacts, but
it is not anamorphic, which is a great shame as the Region 1 DVD is and it
could've made a brilliant action film look at its best. The average bitrate is
a superb 7.91Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 for English and French languages, while the
rest get short-changed. Whatever sound format you use, make sure it's loud
and throughout every part of the film it never fails to impress. The neighbours
had better not be light sleepers!
The attempt to recreate Smith & Jones head-to-head sketches was laughable.
Extras :
Chapters :
Only 16 chapters, the usual Universal-via-Columbia offering, so could
use more.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and subtitles for the same language.
And there's more... :
But it's the standard fare - a Theatrical Trailer, a few pages of
Production Notes and the Cast and Filmmakers' Notes are brief
biogs and filmogs for director Woo and the other cast members listed atop
apart from Vosloo.
Menu :
A static and silent menu with a shot of Van Damme looking mean and moody
on the front cover, plus the basic options. No alarms and no surprises.
If you ever have a grenade down your trousers and this happens when you
try to disable it... you've got problems!
Overall, Hard Target was never going to win any Oscars for best
adapted screenplay or acting ability, but for sheer entertainment value on a
Friday night it's very hard to beat, even seven years on.
It was one of the first PAL Laserdiscs I ever bought and now I'm glad to have
it in my DVD collection. Just a shame it isn't anamorphic and wasn't treated
to any more extras than the standard fare dished out by back catalogue
Universal releases, published via Columbia TriStar.
DVD Trivia: Early posters for this film credited the directorial
efforts to one "John Wood" (!)
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
