Hard Target

You should know better!

(the "I know you are, but what am I?" of action movies)

LOVE IT!

Face/Off is superior I think.

Even though Jean Claude is sporting one ugly mullet, this flick kicks snake ass!

I also prefer "Face/Off" but "Hard Target" is an action classic. It's one of a few choice movies in which Van Damme is really good, not good in a "Lionheart" cheesy way but genuinely good and convincing as a badass. I've heard there is a director's cut floating around, I hope it ends up as a DVD someday.

"God, why didn't he go fishing?"

It's showing right now on USA. Such a watchable film.

Someday, just for fun, I'm gonna count the number of wink/head tilt combos that VD does in this movie.

I guess I like "Face/Off" better because it's sort of like the action version of "Heat." Its got a real epic feel to it, both because of its length and because of its stars. Say what you will about Cage and Travolta lately, but when "Face/Off" came out they were both in top form.

Is it agreed that "Hard Target" contains Henrickson's best role as a villain? He rocked in "Stone Cold" and "Johnny Handsome" but I think he was playing in Hans Gruber's league in "Hard Target."

"Sorry bout da shirt"

Personally I'd rate Henriksen way above Gruber/Rickman (though respect to him too, of course)

Henriksen at boiling point is a man to be feared. You know the burning jacket scene was a mistake that only got into the movie because Henriksen was too far into character and just kept going?

At least that's what I heard...

The UK disc has extra violence and more dialogue exchanged between Chance and Fouchon at the end. "You can't kill me! I'm on every battlefield!" The number of bullets fired is ridiculous.

and then of course there's the workprint, which rivals his HK stuff for that sea of empty shells feeling.

Thing about this movie is, VD is actually COOL in it.

Can't believe this is the same goofy idiot banging his head to the music at the start of Knock Off (on USA right now )

There's no question Hard Target is his best film.

I can't believe they dubbed over Sven-Ole Thorsen's voice. Great movie, though.

I knew this movie was going to be classic when it came out. I'm glad to see the love it's getting and hope that woo does indeed release a director's cut though I think Khitch has said that that cut is nothing special.

"Randall, Randall, Randal...You were going to leave without saying goodbye..."

Director's cut = better. The question is what's the better death of Lance?

Actually, the UK cut (I think the Japanese disc is the same) is about perfect. It has most of the violence from the workprint - The extended factory finale & more violent opening chase with Chuck Pfarrer - but it keeps the grenade "oops" bit that everyone loves. If it had the workprint's piano playing/safari slaughter montage, it would be sublime.

I would love to see an anamorphic special edition of this baby. Or hell, just the UK/Jpn cut in a region 1 NTSC disc.

I like that old cajun guy.
"OWH SHOH BOH BOH CHON!"
-Cajun man

So still no DC news huh?

And the UK/Japanese disc has more?

Interesting...

The DC is great (Domo, Dre-san), and has a cute love scene as well. But I prefer the Japanese R2 cut, for the smoother flow and punched up action scenes. I lliked the "Ooop!" demise better, which added a nice touch of whimsy.

Henriksen's best villain role (tho I'm partial to Johnny Handsome and Stone Cold as well), just a perfect fit to Woo's aesthetic and style. Loved that mad dog look (with a faint hint of a smile) he gives the camera as he exits his Jag in Woo slomo.

Vosloo - Van Cleef! That fiery somersault/tumble in the warehouse was all him, too bad the editing didn't take advantage of it. Looked awesome as is in the Making-Of included in The Killer CAV LD's extra bonus features.

R_V, the R1 Universal disc is a decent, anamorphic widescreen cheapie (I bought mine for $8 at Circuit City). With that awesome trailer "Deep in the heart of Dixie..." included.

So you've seen the DC Mike?


And would recommend the Japanese R2?

How do I get my hands on that anyways?

Cdjapan sells it for $35 and change, but I think it's non-anamorphic, for some odd reason.

Yes, that explains the protective gel on his hair and coat. wade, you should know better than to trust the IMDB.

Anyone who saw the Criterion Hard Boiled CAV LD would know that.

"Only for John Woo."

"Will burn..."

(smiles)

Heh. Weirdly I just watched my VHS copy of HT a week ago. It still has great action and the villains were good. Something just seems to lack about it now though. I chalk that up to it not being Woo's cut. Universal should do a stacked SE of it with JW's directors cut. I'd spring money for that dvd in a heartbeat.

" Now you know why we ask for payment up front! "

I never noticed any protective gel in that scene... will have to check it out again. Even if there was gel, maybe it was just precautionary measure or something that all the actors around had (it is a John Woo film after all- you're gonna get pyrotechnics)

And IIRC Impact magazine printed something about this too, not just imdb.

But it's not a huge deal. I'm just interested in finding out how much of a nutter Lance is.

It's really too bad VD never surpassed any of his output with HT. He is truely one charismatic motherfucker. He can act and I really believe him when he kicks all kinds of ass. The best part, I don't laugh when he shows up wearing that mullet. Again, thank Woo for that.

Hell, if I met him as the character of Chance I would'ld fuck him. Just kidding.

Then again, just goes to show you how cool Woo is. He can make anyone appear cool. Look what he did with Travolta and Cage.

I just wish VD would find another project as cool as this. Maybe get Woo involved again. His time is probably up by now though.

I too would love the DC of this.

Adam, do you have The Killer CAV LD? Check out the last disc. The bonus feature shows them shooting an entire take, starting from when one of the prop guys set Lance on fire with a torch, to him screaming his lines ("Damn this guy is good! Goddamnit, I wanna take his goddamn head off. What the hell are you waiting for, you sonsofbitches? This is what you paid for!", etc.) all the way thru until Woo yelled cut.

A smiling, and clearly buzzing, Lance walks out of frame and is met with cheers and applause from the crew, and Woo even lovingly taps the flame retardent gunk off of the back of Lance's head.

Nic Cage must be a fan of JC's work in "Hard Target." He certainly did a nice Chance impression in "Con Air." Universal loves to make DTV sequels to even their modest hits, can't they muster up the low 7 figures it would take to get Van Damme to don the mullet once again. Obviously they couldn't get Woo but if Sam Raimi had some type of involvement as he did in the original I'm sure he could hire some stylish young director to provide some cheap action thrills.

How nuts is Henricksen? I heard he actually became an andriod before shooting "Aliens."

Oh ok. The laserdisc thing skipped me by (those suckers were a little too expensive). I do own the Criterion Killer DVD but I guess it doesn't have that extra. Or maybe I just missed it.

Anyway, Hard Target is definitely Henriksen's best bad guy. He's just a bundle of seething contempt- for the homeless, for his "customers", for Pik. What's that whole thing he spits out to VD's friend? "With this money you can clean yourself up... look a man in the eye". Must have seen this movie a hundred times, still can't get exact quotes. Fucking swiss cheese brain.

Also as I said, without a shadow of a doubt VD's best. I was lucky enough to see Woo talk about this in London just after he made the movie, you could tell he didn't much enjoy working with VD. He kept mentioning how VD was always obsessed with his appearance on set, always making sure his mullet was perfect. Still, at least he manages to pull off the look, which is more than can be said for Cage (Cage's face is too weird looking for a mullet and it's all frizzy at the back, makes him look like a Sharon)

Also, Vosloo's best. That man ties for the most naturally EVIL face on earth, along with Bruce Payne (Divoff, Ironside, Silva bubbling under). Love that stareout that Pik and VD have upon first meeting, and the way VD chooses to be the bigger man and look away first cos he knows he could kick Pik's arse when it comes down to it. "We were just leaving".

Woo's best American job by a bayou mile.

Brimley's second best, just behind The Thing. "Ahhhh'll kill yew!"

You know, having read this thread I just ordered the R2 Hard Target for a fiver. I do find myself buying far more action films these days. Obviously JFK is a better film than Hard Target but I know which one I'll play with a few beers and some chicken wings in me!

Strange, that's the third JCVD film I've bought this week for a fiver having never bought one before. Hmmm.

Adam, I believe the line Fouchon said to Elijah was:

"Maybe you like being the object of pity, listening to a half hour of fire and brimstone for a bowl of soup. Think of what $10,000 can buy you. You can clean yourself up, buy some clothes, look men in the eye when you pass them on the street. This money can make you a man again, instead of the shadow of your former self."

Or something like that. It's been a few months since my last viewing.

That Van Cleef eye stare was breathtaking. Guy looks like a demonic gargoyle come to life.

Hahah, "Most naturally evil face on the planet".. I like that. I gotta use that one on people one of these days. Any you're right, too. He was born to play bad guys.

What're you trying to say about Darkman?

We joke, but we cannot deny that Van Damme achieved the flawless mullet.

It was 1993. In a sea of flat tops, crew cuts, and center partings, Van Damme spotted an opening in the untapped action movie mullet market. So he set out with a clear goal in mind to redress the balance.

In business school we call that vision.

Yeah, that's the one. One sales pitch for the customer, another sales pitch for the product.

Another thing I love about Vosloo is the South African thing. It's often said that British accents make the best bad guys, and that's true. But I think the Afrikaner accent is up there too. Lethal Weapon 2 tried to exploit this, with some success. But Vosloo took it to a whole nother level. Plus he so obviously ENJOYS his work. You can just imagine what sadistic stuff his character got up to back home, torturing and killing the undesirable "blicks".

Him and Henriksen make a great couple of scumbags.

Picked up the R2 French/Euro cut DVD a few months back and fell in love with the flick all over. It's not the director's cut but it reintegrates a ridiculous amount of additional violence. At one point he pumps a full pistol clip into a guy, reloads, and fills him with another mag. Easily Van Damme's best, though I still hold Face/Off in higher regard as it's the closest Woo (in the States) has come in style and theme to his HK stuff.

Having seen both The Director's cut (which btw is not really a director's cut but simply a test print with a temp score and no "oops" bit at the end) and the international uncut version repeatedly over the years I must say that I prefer the intertanional cut. It adds all the awesome violence but thankfully removes the love scene with Yancy Buttler. As stated by someone before me,this cut would be sheer perfection if only a few shots were added from the test screening print.

1. The piano/safari montage with Henriksen.
2. The unedited ear mutilation. (even in the super violent international cut this shot is still missing)
3. Kasi Lemmon's slo mo entrance when she confronts the coroner.
4. A few extra Vosloo moments peppered throughout the film.

Was reading through some old threads for Woo movies and learned about this special behind-the-scenes footage for Hard Target that was on a Criterion laserdisc for The Killer (how does that work!?). And I found it! Planned or not, it's fun to see Henricksen so jazzed about that shot.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAAXaldjaeE

Always felt that this was the best American film that John Woo and Van Damme were ever involved with. Some say Face/Off but this had the most impressive gun battles and stunts whereas Face/Off is kind of overblown,

 

Van Damme actually gives something approaching a performance

My favourite Van Damme flick of all time (I even have the novelization). I've seen the Director's Cut and on the whole I like the Theratical Version better. The fights scenes are longer and better edited. Wouldn't have minded them adding in the Yancy Butler love scene though.

Felix,  I enjoy...Hard Target, but prefer...Bloodsport and Street Fighter!  I would rate,  Hard Target behind...Face-Off, and Windtalkers, but ahead of, MI:2!

For sheer entertainment value, Sudden Death, Timecop, and Universal Soldier both have the upper hand on Van Damme's filmography, and Bloodsport is the best fighter tournament action movie ever made.

 

Hard Target, however, is no doubt the best thing Van Damme's ever been involved in. What could have been just a run-of-the-mill, high-concept Van Damme vehicle is turned into an operatic and HARDCORE heroic-bloodshed art action film. Typical elements are there (Henriksen massacres the hypothetical buffet of scenery), but the cruelty and intensity of the way Woo stages his anarchy makes it a chaotic and ruthless alternative to what we'd seen Van Damme do before.

Heh, old thread.

 

Few months ago I saw ELIJAH!! in a commercial for Prudential. I was happy to see him cleaned up and in nice new clothes. I bet he can look men in the eye when he passes them on the street now.

 

 

His classic gun flicks are so weirdly chaste, and I like em that way. I'm glad that removed love scene exists though, just because it's funny to see how Woo (the master of the action sequence and homoerotic bromance) would do a guy/girl love scene for the American audience. Awkward and adorable.

Hey the search function works!

Still think this is John Woo's best American movie.

Van Damme and Henriksen's verbal sparring at the end of the movie still gives me de chills.

 

Lance: RRRARRARARRRGGUGUGUGUG YOU WANT SOM MORE OF THAT?????????

JC: Yeah!

 

And I think I saw screenshots of the deleted Hard Target "love scene" years ago. JC and Nancy kiss in some dirty room while surrounded by candles.

Hotttt