When I learned that legendary action director John Woo was out with a new film that promised to be in the same style as classics like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", I was pretty pumped. But my feelings at the end of my viewing of the movie were much less subdued. To be fair, not all of the downfall of the movie can be put on Woo's shoulders. When characters in speak in English, they seem to be badly dubbed with awkward sounding dialogue that doesn't sound natural at all. Even worse is the script. The story has more than its share of incoherent plot turns, and many linking scenes seem to be missing (though Woo might be to blame for that last one.) Also, there are some plot turns and developments that are... well... just pretty stupid. If the characters had been a lot smarter, the conflict would have ended a lot quicker.
As for Woo's contributions to the movie, he doesn't manage to be able to do much. To be fair, he keeps the movie moving at a pretty fast pace, enough that you might not notice some of the poor scripting. But when it comes to action sequences, the action is just not up to the action in his past efforts. The farmhouse shoot-out and the climatic action sequence have their moments, but even those two moments don't really hold a candle to what Woo did in the past. The other action sequences, while not really bad, seem pretty routine for the most part.
In the end, the movie is kind of a disappointment. Those who are really into Asian action movies may get some enjoyment out of it, but I think even they will see its many weaknesses, and see why it was released directly to Netflix.
As for Woo's contributions to the movie, he doesn't manage to be able to do much. To be fair, he keeps the movie moving at a pretty fast pace, enough that you might not notice some of the poor scripting. But when it comes to action sequences, the action is just not up to the action in his past efforts. The farmhouse shoot-out and the climatic action sequence have their moments, but even those two moments don't really hold a candle to what Woo did in the past. The other action sequences, while not really bad, seem pretty routine for the most part.
In the end, the movie is kind of a disappointment. Those who are really into Asian action movies may get some enjoyment out of it, but I think even they will see its many weaknesses, and see why it was released directly to Netflix.