Hard Boiled (Lashou Shentan)

Two and a half stars. Almost okay, but too flawed to make the grade.

The plot is paper-thin, and the acting is wooden, but John Woo shows just why he is considered a master of the action genre. The gun fights are beautifully staged and choreographed, and shot in such a way that turns their extreme violence into a lethal dance of balletic grace. Shame about the rest of the film, though.