Hard Boiled [DVD] (1992)

I bought this to replace my aged Video Cassette which is now so badly worn you can almost see through it. The DVD Collectors edition is excellent. I was thrown at first as the opening credits suggest its going to be a boxed version of the film, but afterwards it shifts to a full screen. Its an excellent re-mastered copy of what I regard as a classic and still John Woo's best.Now for the film itself. Well I put it on when I received it to just watch the first five minutes to check the quality, which was a stupid thing to do because I was immediately sucked back into this action masterpiece and ended up watching the whole movie. This you must understand is a film I've watched more times than I can remember.I hadn't watched it for some years, but John Woo's direction, the cast, the stunts, plot and just sheer pace and narrative just held me spell bound all over again. This film from 1991 doesn't use any CGI, so its three big action packed, stunt filled scenes are all real, no computers involved, just jaw dropping, bone crunching, explosive action packed cinema at its very best.When John Woo made 'Broken Arrow' apparently John Travolta wasn't convinced he should do the movie with this 'unknown' Chinese director. It took Christian Slater going round to Travolta's house with a copy of Hard Boiled, and made Travolta sit down and watch it to get him to come on board.The cover states 'Its better than a dozen Die Hards', oh yes, its true and in fact when I watch any action movie Hard Boiled is my yardstick, especially as John Woo didn't have access to any CGI, so very rarely does any modern 'action' movie measure up. In fact I've seen so many copy or even steal scenes from Hard Boiled its embarrassing.So, before I ramble on any further, buy it. This is John Woo at the very top of his game, along with Chow Yan Fat, and Tony Leung giving superb performances. Quite frankly the best of the best when it comes to gun toting explosive action.

I`ve never seen this film before and after playing Stranglehold and reading a lot (i mean alot) of reviews for this film i decided to buy it. And guess what....t`was awesome!!!A definate buy if you wanna see some non-stop gun-hoe action

I'm afraid that this edition is the best transfer available at the moment ( 28th May 2015) which is a real shame because at present it's $399.99 from Amazon. Com.I'm sure that you know the film inside out so I'll just give you the tech stuff.126 mins, Cantonese Dolby digital mono, English Dolby digital mono (Dubbed), English subtitles.The special features: Dual layer (It's never looked better).Audio commentary by John Woo,Producer Terence Chan,filmmaker Roger Avery and critic David Kehr.Trailers for 11 of Woo's Hong-Kong films.A student film by Woo called Accidentally.1968,10 mins.A guide to Hong-Kong crime films by David Chute.Notes on Hard Boiled.If you're lucky enough to find this particular version second hand, snap that hand off. At the time of writing there is a Vivendi Visual edition that's affordable but apparently it suffers the same problematic transfer as all the other versions, which is such a shame as I think that this is no less worthy of proper bluray transfer as say Kurosawa, Park Chan -Wook or Scorsese. My own opinion, of course, I'm sure others may disagree.This particular edition has been out of print for ages, so good luck, it's well worth buying.

Action, martial arts, kick butt film. Superb.

Never seen it at the movies, of course! It is the sort of film that can't pass censorships. But it was intriguing - althoug the plot is spiderweb thin. It was amazing - with an ordinary crime story. It was interesting despite all the déjà vu of the kind. The directing and framing are absolutely attractive, hypnotizing, and keep your eyes glued to the screen. No wonder the director had to emigrate to Hollywood. among the "violent" B-movies it has turned out to be a masterpiece. Glad I got it!

Hard Boiled is one of john woos best films ( i think his third best after 1. The Killer 2. Face Off thats my opinion ) with a body count that makes John rambo look like the easter bunny this movie has an amazing cast with some of the greatest action scenes ever filmed if you like action movies then they dont get much better than this.

very good

If you rate your action flicks by the number of deaths then you're in for a treat. Everyone and everything gets shot... even the ones who survive. If you want clever twists and an original storyline, then maybe not so much. Leave realism at the door. This is as generic as you get with extra guns. It does its job and keeps you entertained for the duration but could maybe have been slimmed down a little. Decent enough but nothing to write home about... uh, except in this review.I had no issues with dubbing that others have reported: mine was subtitled, although the ratio wasn't widescreen to allow for these subtitled. Picture was fairly grainy too.

Great film,a full length feature,the dubbing better than most though limited dialogue,as it should be.

Alles bestens!

Die gelieferte DVD hat sowohl die englische als auch die kantonesische Sprachausgabe, was ganz angenehm ist, da die englische Sprachausgabe wirklich nicht besonders überzeugend ist.Den Film an sich fand ich nicht schlecht, hatte aber was anderes erwartet. Als der Film rauskam war die Art des Films wahrscheinlich modern, gegen zeitgenössische Action kommt er meiner Meinung nach jedoch nicht an. Einzig und alleine der Bodycount an unschuldigen Statisten ist hier hervorzuheben, da mir dies in der Form bis jetzt noch nicht untergekommen ist. Die Action ist solide aber auch nichts besonderes und die Handlung ist an seltsamen Momenten kaum zu überbieten. Hier würde ich echt nur eine Empfehlung aussprechen, wenn man sich für die Art von Film interessiert.

日本盤には特典映像が全く入っていないので購入しました。残念な事にジャケットに書かれているのに収録されていない物が3項目もありました。因みに収録されているのは1．ジョン・ウーのインタビュー、2．フィリップ・チャンのインタビュー、3．コク・チョイのインタビュー、4．ベイ・ローガンのコメンタリー、収録されていないのは1．テレンス・チャンのインタビュー、2．ゲームソフトのメイキング、3．予告編集、以上です。画質と音質は日本盤の方がいいかな。画質は最初に出たパイオニア名義のソフトに近いと思います。この頃の香港映画のソフトは日本盤よりも海外盤の方が特典内容が断然いいと言うのはちょっと残念です…。日本のメーカーさん、高いお金取るんだから、もっといい物をお願いします！

Ho voluto prendere tutti i film di Woo con Chow Yun Fat , penso che questi film siano il miglior esempio di cinema girato da Woo prima del periodo americano dove si è omologato a quello dei colleghi occidentali