Chow Yun Fat & Unidentified baby…

For some reason John Woo takes good old fashioned gun violence films and fills them full of things that don’t belong, jazz music, blinded victims who fall in love, white doves. Call it juxtaposition all you want, I call it making a good film longer for no good reason.

I didn’t read the back of the DVD cover despite it being my own personal copy that I have owned for near 10 years. I don’t need to as I’ve seen the film a dozen times.

But if I had to come up with it myself it would go something like this;

Jumping over…

“John Woo films three of the most epic gunbattles featuring some of the highest body counts in cinematic history.

Chow Yun Fat is cool as hell and practically revives the old Western standard of firing two pistols while jumping over, skidding under or sliding down various things that seem purpose built for jumping over, skidding under or sliding down, (and he never seems to run out of bullets).

Tony Leung is the good looking other guy that will keep you wondering “Just who is that good looking other guy that keeps showing up near Chow Yun Fat?”

The whole thing is about hard working cops and undercover cops, and bad guys trying to steal each other’s turf… Or something. Just rent this and watch the fucking thing!”

…sliding down.

If I read that back cover blurb and it said that I would rent it with no hesitation. And you should too.

Vital stats

Tequila = Chow Yun Fat

Guns –  Usually 2… Each.

Alan = Tony Leung

Guns – Usually 1

Big Stunts – Lots

Explosions – Countless

Massive over-the-top shootouts – Three

1st Shootout – The Teahouse Battle

Body Count                                                        31 (1 cop, maybe 10 bad guys, 20 civilian)

2nd Shootout – The Raid on the Workshop

– 1^st Wave                                                         38

– 2^nd Wave                                                       13

– 3^rd Wave Tequila Shows up 22

– 3.2 Wave Tequila & Alan chat 6

3rd Shootout – Big Finale at the hospital

– Pre Shootout warm-up killings 3

– 1^st Wave                                                         25

– 2^nd Wave Alan & Tequila join in 43

– 3^rd Wave                                                       64

Total Bodycount (By my reckoning)    250

Final Rating – 8.5 / 10. 4 minutes of realistic battles repeated ad nauseum for about 60 minutes, with another 60 minutes of filler thrown in. That’s not bad, that’s AWESOME! Video games have less killing.