It is all so bizarre that you have to enjoy it and it makes those of us of a certain generation nostalgic for watching VHS rental tapes on a Friday night.

Hard-Boiled is actually Woo's most relaxed and confident film so far, and in many ways a terrific achievement. It offers nothing much new in plot terms... but its details and incidentals are gleefully idiosyncratic.

Woo has elevated the action movie into the realm of art. Infinitely more exciting than a dozen Die Hards, action cinema doesn't come any better than this.

[John Woo] delivers a portrait of violence spinning out of control while keeping the narrative in focus through the chaos. Check out of the narrative and the screen becomes an abstract motion painting, a thing of terrible beauty in its own right.