6. Hard Target (1993)
Hard Target is Chinese director John Woos first entry in Hollywood and a fine vehicle for martial arts action star Jean Claude - The Muscles from Brussels - Van Damme. The story tells the tale of a woman who hires a drifter to guide her in the search of her father. But they discover that he was murdered by a group of thugs who hunt homeless people as a form of sport. It is both an interesting update on The Most Dangerous Game and a great satire about the contempt for human life and the power of money. But you don't watch a John Woo movie for its deep storytelling. Instead, you want to enjoy ultra-violent, adrenaline pumping, over-the-top action sequences. And even if Hard Target is not as good as, say, The Killer and Hard Boiled, the film doesn't disappoint in this matter. The whole movie is pure action extravaganza: plenty of improbable stylized gunfights, expendable baddies, impressive stunts and explosions galore. For its release, critics called the film 'the most violent of the summer'. The final showdown in the Mardi Gras graveyard is a spectacular piece of gunplay where bodies pile up non-stop. During one of the most enjoyable moments, Van Damme grabs a gun downwards and shoots a bad guy a dozen times with rapid fire twenty nine times in the unrated version! And while the guy is still standing, he jumps and kicks him in the face. Gotta love the electric guitar in the background as the guy goes down in slow motion like a sack of beans.