Review: Hard Target

Yancy Butler comes to New Orleans in search of her long estranged war veteran father, who she learns had been homeless for a long while. Reluctantly agreeing to help her is Cajun drifter Jean-Claude Van Damme. They soon find out that daddy was the latest victim of a secret organisation that hires down-on-their-luck ex-vets to be hunted as sport for rich clientele, whilst New Orleans locals look on seemingly callously. This organisation is headed by music-loving Lance Henriksen, who along with his South African henchman Arnold Vosloo, doesn’t make the sport terribly fair for the veterans. Eventually Henriksen realises that Butler and Van Damme are on to them, and turns them into their next sport. Kasi Lemmons plays a NO cop, Sven-Ole Thorsen is a henchman, and Wilford Brimley appears briefly as Van Damme’s crusty, feisty old Uncle Douvee. Yes, Douvee. I’m guessing his dear departed wife was named Doona (Did they have a son named Blankie?).

 

Hindsight’s a helluva thing, folks. I wasn’t a huge admirer of this John Woo action movie back in 1993 when every critic was proclaiming it the one good Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. I’ve never been a John Woo fan, with all his stupid doves bursting out of nowhere and people firing two guns because they’re too shitty aiming just one, etc. “Mi2” was just laughably over-stylised, and “Face/Off” is an overrated, overacted piece of crap. But seeing this one again in 2016, perhaps because I’ve seen so much worse from both star and director over the years, this one actually looks pretty good today. In fact, it stands out as one of Van Damme’s better efforts, if way behind “Bloodsport”, “Wrong Bet”, and “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning”.

 

Scripted by former Navy SEAL commander (!) Chuck Pfarrer (“Navy SEALS”, “Darkman”, “Barb Wire”, “Red Planet”), it’s another loose retelling of “The Most Dangerous Game”, and along with “Battle Royale”, it’s probably the best such film, as well as being Woo’s best American effort. The flashy, loud and over-the-top opener certainly gets your attention, and the best thing is that there’s very few (if any) doves in the film at all. In fact, the only doves I saw were 30 minutes into the film, and then again at just over an hour. There are some pigeons thrown into the mix at times, as well. The pigeons make sense, the doves are just bloody stupid. But overall, that’s much less than expected. Actually, the best thing in the entire film really, is the immediately impressive, kick arse blues/rock music score by Graeme Revell (entertaining schlock like “Freddy vs. Jason” and “Planet Terror”). Like the direct-to-video “Surviving the Game” (an average film boasting a great B-cast: Ice-T, John C. McGinley, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, Rutger Hauer, etc.), this isn’t just a “Most Dangerous Game” variant, it’s also somewhat concerned with the plight of the homeless, which is quite unusual for an action film, but dealt with fairly well actually. It’s really quite disgusting what Lance Henriksen and co are doing here, but not to the point where it ruins the action entertainment of the whole thing. The issue is there, it works to get sympathy for the right people and hatred for the villains (who don’t play fair at all) and those with apathy to what is going on (I’m looking squarely at you, Ted Raimi you arsehole!). That’s probably the most shocking thing here, not the villainy and cruelty exhibited by Lance Henriksen and his clients, but the seemingly heartless apathy by the witnesses to that villainy and cruelty. However, it doesn’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, and the homeless war veteran angle is certainly a lot easier to take in this film than it was in the later Jason Statham oddity “Hummingbird”. It simply makes you think, and gives the film a little extra something without seeming like cheap exploitation or jarring. I must say, though, that the one flaw with the film is that Henriksen and co are not particularly subtle in their actions, which has things playing just a tad silly. That’s a pretty minor flaw, however.

 

Also giving the film a little extra something are the performances. Lance Henriksen rarely fails to deliver as an actor, and this film is no exception. He is straight up mean as fuck in this, but what’s amusing to watch is his slow progression from cool, calm and collected to a screaming madman by the end of the film. A pissed off Lance Henriksen is amusing to watch (unless you’re in kicking distance!), though it’s not a jarring transition. I’ve never understood why her first name has two Y’s in it, but Yancy Butler proves a pretty serviceable actress in her first major role. Kasi Lemmons is even better in the smaller role of an investigating cop. Watching this film again I seemed to remember the great Wilford Brimley having a bigger role than he actually does here. After an hour, hooch-drinking Brimley shows up to steal scenes, firing a bow and arrow in a Jean-Claude Van Damme film, for cryin’ out loud. Like JCVD he’s surprisingly convincing as a Cajun. Certainly he’s more convincing than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding pal Sven Thorsen as one of Henriksen’s goons. He’s noticeably dubbed by someone with an American accent. Anyone who has seen the shoddy “Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe” knows that Thorsen has a seriously thick Danish accent. Top acting honours surprisingly go to South African-born Arnold Vosloo in his first major American film. He has since gone on to mostly B-schlock (I never thought him to be terribly interesting in “The Mummy”), but here as Lance Henriksen’s sadistic henchman Pik Van Cleaf he does his best-ever work and definitely walks off with the film. I think it’s partly the accent, mostly just that he’s a bad arse mofo.

 

This is probably JCVD’s strongest performance of his pre direct-to-DVD era, and the Belgian star’s accent is somewhat successfully passed off as Cajun here, whilst a curly mullet actually serves him well. You can tell that he’s actually invested in this film somewhat, and his grasp of English here isn’t too bad. That weird bump on his forehead is visible here but not yet as gigantic as it would later become, and best of all he’s still at his spin-kicking best in this one. I bet this was physically one of JCVD’s more demanding films, he has a lot of action stuff in this, and he does a great job with it. He hasn’t gone the way of flabby, body double-using, lazy arse Steven Seagal in recent years, but you can definitely see an extra spring in his step back in 1993 that he is now lacking. John Woo’s style actually accentuates the action in this, rather than detracting from it. Yes, slow-mo is used a bit too much, but slow-mo isn’t exclusive to John Woo. There’s two examples of the ‘dive and fire’ thing, but thankfully on both occasions, only one gun is in JCVD’s hand, not two. It’s only in the climax that JCVD wields two guns, and by that point the film had already won me over, not to mention he’s also spin-kicking people at the same time! That and the bird nonsense is mild in comparison to the more indulgent Woo films after this one. Later JCVD kicks a guy off his bike, which is just plain fucking cool. Then he steals the bike. Brilliant. JCVD standing on the bike at full speed and firing a gun is a tad ricockulous, however. I think Woo knows it’s silly, though, which sets the film apart from some of his other films where he clearly thinks he’s genuinely cool. I mean, JCVD catching a rattlesnake in his hand is one thing. Punching it in the head is just hilarious to anyone with a sense of humour. Meanwhile, ending a film with CCR’s ‘Born on the Bayou’ is never a bad thing. They’re my all-time favourite band, and the song fits in with the Cajun/blues-rock vibe of the whole film.

 

An overly stylish, but undeniably cool and entertaining mixture of martial arts action, “Most Dangerous Game” plotting, and social conscience, it’s hard not to be entertained by this, perhaps the last cinematically-released hurrah for the Muscles from Brussels. A rock solid cast and cool soundtrack/score also give the film a lift. Here’s the one time John Woo’s style didn’t get in the way of a film’s entertainment value, and at times enhanced it.

 

Rating: B-