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Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my favorites!
Review: At the sound of the title ringing in my ears when I rented it, I didn't think I would like it. But I did, and boy, did I like it. I watched it twice before it had to go back to the video store. And why is it so good? I'll tell you why.

Before I saw this movie, the only John Woo film I'd seen was Face/Off, but I'd seen plenty of Samantha Mathis, John Travolta, and Christian Slater movies. All three of the actors listed above gave awesome performances, and this isn't just a film done for action, as it seems to be. It has drama, action, romance, all the genres in one! Deakins (Travolta) and Hale (Slater) play military co-officers at good terms at each other, sparring in the boxing ring as the movie opens, but as the film progresses, Deakins betrays his friends trust by trying to steal two nuclear warheads for his own personal benefit. Even a park ranger named Terry Carmichael (Mathis) comes in the play to add a little flavor. But the problem always remains: will Hale do what he has to to take the warheads back into his possession, even if it means going against Deakins, or will he not, and fail his mission and his obligation to Terry?

Being one of my fave movies, I'd have to say this movie has only a few minor flaws.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Broken Arrow
Review: If ever there was a must see this is it.Broken Arrow is a fantastic film i kid you not.Two military airforce pilots vic deakins(travolta)and riley hale(slater)are assigned a stealth training mission carrying two nuclear warheads.it's supposed to be a routine mission until deakins tries to kill hale and steals the two nukes.What ensues is fantastic action scenes with deakins always being two steps ahead of hale.Deakins is not your ordinary bad guy hes beliavable!!.He's cocky,arroggant and extremely smart whereas hale is naive, decent and honest.From the very first scene we can see deakins is a dark character from the look in his eyes and here he shows his supperiority to hale by kickin his ass in the ring.Deakins also doesn't have pathetic lines such as "im going to rule the world" no we get great lines such as "goddamn what a rush" "would you mind not shooting the thermonuclear weapons?" and "ain't it cool".Its not just the acting or the scenes which are great but the music is great and is the soundtrack.The music encompasses so many elements its sad the full of energy.It has the guitar theme which we first hear when deakins puts on his uniform and looks at himself in the mirror and you just have to laugh because he is the man.John travolta definately delivers the goods as deakins in the film
as a bad guy.Overall this is a must buy as is the soundtrack

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Action Flick
Review: First let me get this out of the way: I'm not what you'd call a John Woo fan or affictionado. The only other movies I have seen by him are MI:2 and Face/Off, and all I can say is I'm not impressed. Of course, I'm very aware that MI:2 is often labled as one of his worst movies, but I digress.

Having said that, I really like this movie. Of course, it's not Shakespeare, but if you rented this movie to see character development or a deep, unflinching gaze into the dark side of the human soul, you rented the wrong movie. Heck, you were probably in the wrong aisle to begin with.

All the actors play their parts very well. Travolta is the oh-so-cocky Major Deakins and Slater plays the straight-laced Captain Hale. Samantha Mathis is Terry Carmichael, the somewhat inexperienced park ranger caught in a crazy situation, and does a god job. The movie has a bunch of great one-liners and some really neat action sequences involving fights on top of a train, helicopter shoot-downs, a hummer chase across the desert, a shoot-out in a mine shaft, and a nuclear detonation. What more could one ask for?

Sure, its got some noticeable plot holes (the really roomy B-3 cockpit, Mathis hiding under a blanket on the motor boat, the still incomprehensible bomb-arming sequences, etc), but they're not so big as to ruin the experience (which is more than I can say for either Face/Off or MI:2). Over all this is a fun little ride in the desert and definately what I expect an action film to be. A rip-roaring gunbattle with energetic characters, a couple of good jokes, wonderful special effects and beautiful scenery thrown in.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun for action fans!
Review: Fer cryin' out loud ... when did it become a faux pas to have *fun* at the movies? "Broken Arrow" won't win any Academy Awards, but it's non-stop action, fun and a little hey-we're-in-this-together-and-if-we-survive-we're-gonna-have-to-go-out-on-a-date romance (isn't this standard fare for action movies?) ...

Poor Christian Slater ... c'mon folks give him a break ... This was one of the first movies where I really started to *like* the guy (check out "Hard Rain") ... He does an excellent job as an Air Force pilot ... John Travolta plays over-the-top as usual ... ummm, is anybody surprised by this after "Welcome Back Kotter" and "Saturday Night Fever"? Howie Long? Hey, he's a football player and sportscaster ... Bob Gunton is a bad guy here, much like his bad guy in "The Glimmer Man" ...

The film is typical John Woo fare ... lotsa slow-mo action scenes ("Hard Target" etc.) ... now there are a few technical errors ... and the B-3 bomber (that's not a typo) has room for a living room sofa in the cockpit ... the control stick in the B-3 is suitable for a midget ... the B-83 nuclear bombs do have the frangible impact nose represented in most drawings and pictures, but they're a little small compared to the statistics of real nukes (reported to be several thousand pounds) ... but the underground nuclear blast sequences were pretty good ...

Fortunately, Travolta's high-tech mercenary buddies are terribly inept, allowing Slater and his new park-ranger friend to overcome their terrible plan ... Nice cinematography in more than a few places ... and a bit of CGI because there are crashes and explosions galore ...

And there's some fun stuff ... George Costanza's (Seinfeld) boss, Kruger (Daniel von Bargen) is an Air Force General here ... French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) is an Air Force infrared detection and imaging systems operator as "Frenchie" ... Slater brings in Samantha Mathis from his 1990 "Pump Up the Volume" ... Delroy Lindo ("Gone in 60 Seconds" 2000) turns in a good performance as the Air Force tough guy (his helicopter pilot needs a bit more flight training though) ... and Kurtwood Smith (Federation President "Star Trek VI") is the nervous Secretary of Defense ...

OK, it's not the nuclear thrillers that "Fail Safe" or "By Dawn's Early Light" are ... but it's a fun, action-packed movie ... don't take it too seriously and you might have some fun ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Travolta makes a great villain
Review: Up until Broken Arrow I hadn't seen a single Travolta film that I had enjoyed but this break from his usual fare was fantastic. He was perfect as the villian. The pacing and special effects are great too. Over all it's a great, fun and fast paced film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: XCELLENT!!!!!
Review: This is the best John Woo movie ever.It is far much better than face-off believe me!Those who found this movie dissapointing well I don't know what they were looking for.Face off had too much action that's were they ruined it for me.John's portrayal of the villain is impressive.Though he's shady he's a likeable rogue and keeps the film above par.Personally one of the best action movies I saw of the last decade.Goes right up there on the top of my list together wiyh the likes of Speed,Die Hard III,True Lies etc etc

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Typical hollywood brain-dead action shlock
Review: Not the worst movie I've ever seen--but close. It's just your typical hollywood shlock. Nothing new, but a lot that's terribly, hideously predictable. Oh yeah, nothing believable whatsoever, from the casting to the situations to everything.
Wish I could have my couple of hours back.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Firework Display
Review: John Woo made his name in Hong Kong where he made classic action gangster movies like "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled". Then in the early 1990s he moved west and started making American films. I've not seen all of them but those I have are pretty disappointing compared to the earlier Chinese work. This is no exception. It's certainly better than the terrible "Mission Impossible II" but not a patch on the likes of "Hard Boiled".

Travolta and Slater are Deakins and Hale, two air force ace pilots out for a test flight in a stealth-bomber over Utah with two nukes on board. Only Deakins turns out to be an insane evil baddie out to steal them and blackmail the government. There's a punch-up in the cockpit and the end result is that the 'plane crashes, Deakins and Hale both bale out and the weapons are dropped, disarmed in the desert. Hale soon after landing, teams up with improbably tough park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) and they go after the baddies in an effort to stop Deakins and his associates from nuking Denver. Oh, I should maybe mention, the entire US armed forces are meant to be sort of helping but it's really all left to Hale and Carmichael to do everything.

The story comes in two stages. The first is about Hale and Carmichael trying to thwart Deakin's plan to explode bomb number 1 in the middle of the desert as a warning to the government that he means business. This first stage, which, by itself could add up to a pretty good, rather shorter, action movie, ends with a hugely explosive, high tension climax. But then it's immediately back to the chase to stop the evil Deakin from destroying a city with bomb number 2. There's no time for a rest, here or anywhere else, to let characters and their relationships develop. Indeed this is almost made into a joke when Hale and Carmichael only get round to introducing themselves right at the end of the movie: ever since they met they've been too busy running away from nuclear explosions and chasing trains to have a proper conversation. But this is really the movie's biggest flaw. As it moves from the big climax of stage one straight to the continued high octane action of stage two, I, at any rate was thinking stage one was enough of that stuff for me and I was getting a little bored of chases and fight scenes and helicopters blowing up. I enjoy action movies but such utterly relentless action and virtually nothing else just gets rather tedious after an hour and three quarters. So stage two really just drags things out too long and the climax of stage one would have been better as the climax of the whole film (rolling the credits over the butterflies, much better). None of which is to deny that this is an excellent firework display. John Woo (rather like Deakins) evidently really really likes blowing stuff up and is pretty good at filming stuff blowing up. Mathis is attractive if altogether improbable as the kick ass heroine who seems to have taken some high level special forces training in her spare time and Travolta is tremendous fun as the deranged Deakins.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More like 3 1/2 stars for a good action flick...
Review: Broken Arrow isn't my favorite action movie, but it never fails to be interesting. The plot puts a somewhat original spin on an overused idea, but the two leads (Travolta and Slater) are what keeps the movie entertaining. They may not dive into deep emotional connections with their characters, but they play their roles with an awareness of their target audience. This movie knows it's not a genius and it's not afraid to cover this up with exciting action scenes and cool one-liners.

There are plenty of mistakes though, like at the end when a gunshot wound to Travolta's arm dissapears in the next scene. But if you never saw this movie, and are looking for an action film with some flare and not necessarily a lot of intelligence then you'll almost certainly not hate this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boy was this bad
Review: John Travolta being in the cast should have clued me in on how bad this film was. I unfortunately was fooled by the name John Woo being in the credits as well. "Broken Arrow" is also a military term for a worse case scenario...and thus this film gets a fitting name.

This movie is just plain bad. Bad dialogue, bad script, badly done scenes. There's some woman in the middle of the desert that hangs around Christian Slater for no apparent reason except to get him in trouble. Most of the corny scenes involve her.

Watch as they're in a boat and have to flee as John Travolta and his crew come. The girl trips backward inexplicably, her body laying across the small boat. What does she do? She hides. How does she hide? COVERING HERSELF WITH A BLANKET! And guess what? John and co. don't notice her...

With this film I learned a valuable lesson: A John Woo film with minimal Chinese people in it is a BAD John Woo film.


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