Blackjack

Rating:
Summary: not for all
Review: this john woo movie is not for everyone this movie is a movie that you will get the action, stunts & bullets. If thats all you care about, cool, but if you expect great acting like from face/off and chow yun fat movies, you will be disapointed. Its a b movie with an attitude. Its an ok story with less then ok acting. If you concentrate on the action you will be fine, but the bad acting really brings you down

Rating:
Summary: TRUE WOO
Review: This movie is closer to movies John Woo did before he came to Hollywood. I'm talking about Hard Boiled and The Killer. These both had high melodrama and an emotionally troubled hero. Dolph does quite a good job of this and gives a pretty good performance.

Many people criticise Dolph for not being a good actor but when you forget that your watching him you'll realise that he's quite good despite never having any acting lessons. This is the first film in which I've seen him be a sort of father figure. I think he handles dialogue well and tries his best to do as much as he can in the mediocre roles he is offered. He should be in more high-profile movies and should climb out of the DTV hell his career is in. His best film so far is Joshua Tree but Blackjack is good to watch.

John Woo's style is written all over this film. More so than Broken Arrow (in which his style was entirely muted). Color schemes, camera tricks and slow-mo shootouts are all present in this movie. It's a little lacking, and confusing, in the plot department but when your having so much fun it doesn't matter THAT much.

I heard somewhere that there is soon to be a TV series of Blackjack. If there were I think I would enjoy it very much. The only thing stopping this from being a high-profile hit is the fact that it's a TV movie. But don't let that put you off.

The DVD is in Dolby surround and is in fullscreen.

Rating:
Summary: John Woo Keeps The Magic
Review: Two blondes, a wimpy bad guy pitted up against a colossal Dolph Lundgren, and unexplainable motorcyclists...I do detect a John Woo hit here!

Black Jack gives a new name to B-movies with this incredibly ridiculous story of an unstoppable bodyguard who's only enemy is (dun dun DUN!!!) the color white. While battling his fear of milk, playing cards and his girlfriend's silk blouse, he is able to overcome New York city's toughest sniper...who cries at the sight of supermodels and hasn't really shot many people at all.

Dolph also shows his versatility in this film, as he adopts lovable 10-year-old neice, Casey, who displays about as much emotion when her parents are killed as the sole of my shoe does when it squishes a bug. But Lundgren plays well off a sexy, drugged up supermodel who wins his heart as he helps salsa dance her out of a Percodan coma. And we can't forget Dolph's cigar smoking D-cup wearing psychologist who gives housecalls in evening dresses and quotes Confucious, saying "you must face your biggest fears." Yeah, Confucious said that. In Chinese. 2500 years ago.

So really, suspend your disbelief that the police wouldn't be able to stop this incredibly wimpy killer - and that a supermodel with an obsessed fan and a drug habit is anything worthy of special attention - and that the skyline of Toronto REALLY resembles New York City - and that "where the hell do those renegade motorcyclists come from??" And we're talkin' best movie of ALL TIME!!!

Rating:
Summary: BLACKJACK review
Review: What do you get when you mix legendary Hong Kong action director, John Woo with straight-to-video action superhero, Dolph Lundgren? You get a bullet-filled but slightly soft made-for-TV melodrama.

Lundgren is Jack Devlin, a security guard with a "phobia" of the color, white. Stick with me now. After his best friend gets killed, he takes in his young daughter and works the "father figure" angle. Meanwhile, a psychotic assassin is stalking his latest client, a drug-addicted supermodel. Naturally, it wouldn't be a Woo film if all this didn't lead to a whole lot of gun fights, motorcycle chases, and a shoot-out in a milk factory (?).

This isn't exactly John Woo's finest hour but it's not all bad either. Lundgren is pretty wooden in the lead but an appearance by Fred "The Hammer" Williamson makes for a nice touch. Though the video carries an R-rating (for reasons, known only by the MPAA), most of the action is watered down a bit from Woo's usual style. There's no close-ups of bloody bullet wounds to be found here. For die-hard John Woo fans only.