Director John Woo has a powerful and explosive style that will leave you breathless after watching this extremely violent action flick.The camera is everywhere flying from place to place.And there are people everywhere.All of them firing a gun or two.I have never seen such energy before.The violence in "Hardboiled" is very brutal and well directed.The last half hour of this film,which take place in the hospital is full of inventive action sequences.Chow Yun-Fat is really good as a tough policeman and it's also very nice to see Anthony Wong("Bunman:Human Meat Pies","Dr Lamb","Bullet in the Head")-what a great performance!I like Hong Kong-action films by John Woo.Anyway, if you're tired of Hollywood's action trash,then this one is a must-see.Recommended!

I love Asian films. However, after seeing this film, I have no desire to see any more films like this one. While the film generally has very positive reviews and a very good overall rating of 7.8, this is probably very deceiving, as I ONLY think die-hard ultra-violent/ultra-action loving people would enjoy this type of film and they traditionally flock to John Woo films. The average non-violence junkie has probably never heard of Woo or if they have, have no interest in such extremely graphic and violent fare.

The first twenty or so minutes of the film, I actually enjoyed, though, of course, the film WAS mega-violent. At least there was some style and some sense of purpose to the killing. However, after about 50% of the movie was past, the rest of the film was one long, long, long extended scene of carnage. It was as if you took EVERY Rambo, Die-Hard, Death Wish and Steven Segal movie AS WELL AS THE KOREAN WAR AND WWII and combined them into one movie! There is no possible way to keep count, but the number of good guys, bad guys and assorted innocent bystanders killed in the movie seems like it must top 1000 (and this is NOT an exaggeration). Initially, this had a big impact on me, however, after a while it became downright boring. After all, how many dead people, fake blood and slow-motion death scenes can any NORMAL person take before they either turn off the film, get sick or become bored.

The bottom line is this is a wonderful film if you really could care less about plot and just want 100% carnage. Period. Oh, and the plot device of having all the babies in the middle of the firefight near the end just seemed like a cheap way to build excitement. I mean, think about it, one minute the hero is cuddling a baby and the next he blows away a few bad guys, then he nuzzles the little tyke. Is this meant to be tender or poignant?! Gimme a break. This movie is dumb and I really do wonder about the type of person who wants a steady diet of this. Okay, now feel free to hit me with all your "NOT HELPFUL" comments--I am STILL right about this film!

By the way, although I hated the movie, I really want to get a gun like the heroes had. You know, the semiautomatic pistol that can fire 10, 20 or even 30 times without needing to be reloaded!! And I want to find out where they got the hand grenades that when they blow up, they only injure bad guys--even though the heroes might only be a couple feet away from the blast!!

I was highly anticipating seeing this, one of John Woo's most acclaimed films. Having seen and loved HARD TARGET and FACE/OFF, I had heard about how good this film was, and I literally couldn't wait to see it after all the good words were said. Did it fulfil my expectations in the end? Hell, yes! The police procedural style plot will be familiar to anyone who's a fan of Hong Kong crime thrillers. We get an on-the-edge cop, and his murky world of villains, grasses, and untrustworthy allies. It's a simplistic plot in the extreme, averagely written, nothing much to set it aside from all the others. Chow Yun-Fat is good, yes, but he hardly sets the screen alight.

And then comes the action. Starting off with a tea-house shoot-out, it ranges from massive showdowns in warehouses to the forty-five minute, hospital-set climax. During this time in which my opinion of the film completely changed. The hospital shoot-out has to be one of the best moments ever in an action film, it just goes on and on as criminal after criminal is shot, no, riddled with bullets, glass smashes, and literally loads of people die. Then the building gets set on fire, and babies are being rescued while Chow runs around shooting people with two guns in one of the longest, yet most consistently exciting action sequences ever filmed.

I loved it. I hope, in the course of things, that I can discover more films which equal this kind of spectacle. Since I wrote the above comments I've rewatched HARD-BOILED a number of times and it's grown on me every time, offering perfectly shot action, full of excitement, highly stylised and never letting up on the violence and bloodshed. Tremendous, unsurpassable stuff.