John Woo’s first American film in 20 years is not the filmmaker at his peak — but it has its moments, with energetically filmed action enough to distract from a melodramatic tone and sometimes silly concept.

The film is scuppered by its own gimmick.

This comeback movie has a lot of what Woo is famous for, such as operatic gunfights, but it also has something new: there is almost no dialogue over the 104-minute run-time.

The director and his star do the best they can, but both deserve better.