Hard Target (1993 film): Terrible, but entertaining JCVD film

I have to admit that I find Jean Claude Van Damme films to be a guilty pleasure. Nearly every movie that he is in has basically the same plot sequence yet the people back in the late 80's and early 90's flocked to cinemas to see them every single time. This film made 50-60 million dollars in profits (before marketing) and back in those days, this was about what you could expect from all Van Damme films.

JCVD is NOT a good actor but he has a certain allure to him that worked in the 90's. Unlike a lot of other action film stars, he is actually a very good cinematic martial-artist and performs a lot of his own stunts. If you have seen Hard Target you realize that there is no chance he did some of the stunts because they would have killed him.

This is not a good movie unless you appreciate bad and cliché action cinema from the 90's and I do.


src

This particular film comes from the "greasy mullet" portion of JCVD's career and his persona and acting is just laughably bad in this one. This didn't seem to matter much to audiences though and literally no one was claiming they went to see his films because of his award-capable acting. I don't even know anyone who thought he was good looking, he was an anomaly for sure.

In this film he plays the role of Chance Boudreaux, a homeless dude that just happens to have exceptional martial-arts skills and he gets dragged into the dealings of a criminal group arranges "hunts" for humans for the ultra-wealthy because he randomly meets a pretty girl who is in trouble in the street getting mugged.


src

Even though he kicks the shit out of a group of 5 people in broad daylight with tons of witnesses and breaks a store window in the scuffle, there doesn't seem to be any consequences for these actions for the muggers or for him. This lack of enforcement is later weakly explained by the fact that a police strike is currently taking place in New Orleans.

The over-the-top action is what lures me into this and many other JCVD films although even by Van Damme standards this movie is riddled with impossibilities such as there being no reaction from the public regarding machine gun fire that ravages the streets even in popular and populated areas. Whether or not the police are on strike, if a city turns into a war zone of this magnitude someone would intervene.

The idea of a group of rich folks hunting humans is nothing new either. This has been used in many other films and all of the ones that I am thinking of, at least from a script point of view, are better than this one.


src

One of my favorite impossible stunts in all of cinema occurs in this movie when Chance (JCVD) rides towards an oncoming vehicle that has multiple shooters with automatic weapons firing at him, then stands on the motorcycle as he jumps over the vehicle and of course the bike explodes turning the entire crash into a massive fireball. If you know anything about the flash point of gasoline you know that this is not what would have happened but that is what makes it fun.


unnamed.jpg
src

The best and perhaps only "good" actor in the entire film is Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Alien(s)) who is the leader of the baddies and despite the fact that he has what appears to be every military-grade weapon at his disposal his weapon of choice is a pistol that fires a single bullet at a time.

The climax of the film is one of epic ridiculosity (and no, that isn't a word.) They find themselves in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere with Chance, his Uncle (The Diabeetus guy Wilford Brimley who speaks in a horrible fake French accent) and of course a hapless female are being stalked by 20+ henchmen including a henchman named Pik (Arnold Vosloo or The Mummy from The Mummy films).


src

This warehouse contains a world of things in it that can be flipped over and used for cover and of course almost everything in there is explosive when Chance (JCVD) wants it to be. One scene where he floats down from the ceiling on a gigantic paper mâché falcon and takes out half of the attackers is particularly funny seeing as how he is completely exposed but these "expert hunters" don't manage to hit him at all despite having 20 guys with automatic weapons. It reminds me of UHF when Weird Al was playing the role of Rambo and no one can hit him.

community_image_1420738767.gif
src

The movie carries on exactly how you would expect it to. It was also John Woo's first ever foray into American cinema and it shows. Woo would later lament about the poor script but was proud of his action sequences: Critics generally agreed with this sentiment.


This fan-made trailer is actually much better than the official one

Should I watch it?

If you are expecting it to be a great or inventive film then I would say no. This is a cookie-cutter film that was basically every Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Van Damme film of the early 90's. The action is good only because it is so completely unrealistic and that is kind of a staple of Woo films anyway. This is one of those movies that can (and has been) turned into a drinking game where you have to have a drink whenever any of these things happen

  • Every slow-motion shot
  • Motorcycles and motorcycle stunts
  • Any time you see an arrow or a character uses one

If you have a drink every time one of these things happen you might die by the end of it, so be careful and definitely don't use hard liquor or you wont make it through the first half hour. I enjoyed this film but I seriously don't think most people would unless they appreciate "so bad it's good" cinema.


50119633_m.jpg
22.png

H2
H3
H4
3 columns
2 columns
1 column
13 Comments
Ecency