Jean Claude Van Damme
and John Woo went Hollywood pro in “Hard Target,” a grisly, loud, and corny 1990s
action blast that takes on the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” with a GOP
spin. You know the original: Men are hunted as sport by other men with guns. Here,
the hunted are New Orleans poor and homeless, while the hunters are rich white
CEO types with a kill dreams and a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” by the bedside. The
poor are leeches on society right? Republican cheer! Sorry. Could not resist. The
plot kicks off with a young woman (Yancy Butler) searching for her vet pop who
turns up a corpse from such a hunt. With police useless, she hires a drifter –- that’s Van Damme –- to catch the killers. Luckily this guy has crazy martial
arts skills to fight all wrongdoers who mean her harm. Woo’s style -- doves,
fireworks, ballet jumps with guns -– is plentiful and spectacular. But the
slo-mo shots of Van Damme tossing around his filthy swamp boy mullet as if he
were in a trailer park shampoo commercial just cringes, and brings unintended
laughs. Quibbles aside, “Target” is remains Van Damme’s sharpest American
effort. B+
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