Hard Target (Film Review)

1993 Universal Pictures
Directed by: John Woo; Written by: Chuck Pfarrer
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lance Henriksen, Yancy Butler, and Wilford Brimley
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 97 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

Something fishy is going down on the bayou. Homeless men with combat experience are going missing, only to show up dead. Unfortunately, most of the police are on strike, and the ones who aren't hardly care. Thankfully for Natasha, whose father has gone missing, Chance Boudreaux is one the case. Boudreaux is also out of work, but he's incredible in a fight, and really needs $217, which Natasha can provide. Soon the duo find themselves embroiled in a dangerous game, one where human beings are hunted for sport, Chance can precision kick a tick off a dog's nose, and not one single henchman can hit Chance with a shotgun, even at point-blank range. I guess that's because he's a...Hard Target.
If you value realism in your action films...Hard Target is not for you. If you value things like Jean-Claude Van Damme ramming a motorcycle into a car, rolling off the motorcycle and over the car, only to land behind the car, and fire upon it until it explodes, before pumping his fist and shouting "Yeah!!!" then this is your movie. Shakespearean actors playing crazy, over-the-top henchman who bark orders and rattle off one-liners like breathing? Wilford Brimley talking in a crazy Cajun accent, blasting foes with a bow-and-arrow and dynamite? I mean, c'mon, this movie reviews itself.
Director John Woo's work may have been tampered with here, resulting in some strangely edited moments. Van Damme is definitely NOT a Shakespearean actor. There are no deeper themes than kill or be killed. But what a hell of a dumb fun crawfish boil of an action film Hard Target is. More fun than using prepositions!