Hard Target (1993)

(On TV, June 1998) Take possibly the best action director on the planet at the time (John Woo). Take one of the blandest action “star” of the moment (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Take one of the most routinely average B-movie action script possible. Mix’em up together and you get Hard Target, possibly the most beautifully directed action B-movie ever. It’s far beyond ludicrous, it doesn’t have any surprises, it’s impossibly outlandish, but even then the directing is so compelling that it elevates the whole to a watchable state. Woo couldn’t make it any good, but he could make it impressive. A portentous fore-runner to Broken Arrow, and the superlative Face/Off.