Rating: 
Summary: Truly a Masterpiece
Review: This was an excellent film, another John Woo masterpiece. It has a good plot about how three long time friends struggle & trust each other in a life/death situation. Bullet in the head is truly a wonder piece of art!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing.
Review: Those people familiar with John Woo's work might know what to expect from this movie -- except you won't. This was one of Woo's final Hong Kong films before he went to Hollywood, and it is rivalled only by his masterpiece "Hard Boiled". But while Hard Boiled offered pure action, Bullet in the Head is an entirely different story. It's neither a typical Vietnam film, nor is it a typical HK action flick -- instead it's a shattering drama about friendship and brotherhood violently destroyed. In the past, to friends who aren't familiar with Woo's work, I've described his films as "chick flicks for guys" -- which is accurate. Woo invokes feelings of fraternity and male friendship like female-oriented movies tend to do for the opposite gender. In Woo's world, violence (even theatric, unrealistic violence) is one of the few ways the male can express his emotions, even if the violence is forced on him by the circumstances. When one friend betrays another -- as happens in this film -- the consequences are staggering. At this point, late in the film, Woo produces the most dramatic scenes ever seen in any of his films. This is my favorite Woo film ever -- and for good reason.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic John Woo With A Twist
Review: To say "Bullet In The Head" is just another one of Woo's gun-slinging, bullet-dodging feel-good action movies would be to discredit the director's much more ambitious undertaking on this project. No doubt "Bullet" delivers the usual action thrill ride to satisfy the average fan of this genre, but a closer look will tell you that Woo is also attempting a serious discourse here on the socio-political upheavals in 1960's Asia, and more importantly, an examination of human nature in relation to war and violence.
The story takes place in Hong Kong in the 1960's. Three young men (played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jacky Cheung, and Waise Lee) with distinct personalities, but all from the same poor working class neighborhood, decide to embark on a Chinese mafia-sponsored smuggling scheme to Vietnam. They arrive at their destination, only to find that the chaos and violence on the streets of Saigon isn't much different from that of the world that they had known back in Hong Kong. Soon they are making enemies with the mafia, and are hunted by the South Vietnamese military. Ultimately, their friendship is called into question as they consume themselves in a deadly melee bound by survival, greed and vengeance.
All of Woo's classic themes are on display in this movie --- namely the themes of fraternity, vengeance, and the tragic hero. However, the portrait of Asia in the 1960's as a historical backdrop to the story proves to be more than incidental. The period was an era of great social and political turmoil in Asia, as it was in most of the other parts of the world. Hong Kong was deeply divided between the royalists and the anti-imperialist student movement spurted by the new communist regime in Mainland China (Woo himself has actually said that he had taken inspiration from the political unrest from the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests in China in making this movie), whereas Vietnam saw itself torn apart by a bloody civil war that knew no bounds to its horrific toll on its own people. Woo, although probably bogged with the usual problems that plagues Hong Kong cinema, namely a low budget and production values, manages to capture the chaos and distress of his generation --- there are plenty of realistic scenes of student protesters clashing with the police on the streets of Hong Kong, and guerilla warfare in the muddy jungles of Vietnam. Woo first exposes the corruptive South Vietnamese regime, and the ruthlessness that it employs in treating the revolutionaries, however, the audience soon sees the communist rebels in the mountains, whose bloodthirsty and sadistic ways mirror the very regime that they are trying to overthrow. Caught in the crossfire are the lives of innocent civilians, who become sacrifices to a war where there's really no rights and wrongs, and where human beings are merely pawns in the quest for power and fortunes. One actually begins to wonder whether or not the director is asserting an anti-war message in this movie.
As is characteristic with most of Woo's early Hong Kong work, the brilliance of this movie lies not in the plot and its execution, which is at times loose and hasty, but in the way the actors shine through the sincere portrayals of their characters. Tony Leung ("In The Mood For Love") delivers a convincing performance as the conflicted leader of the pack, who faces many internal strives throughout the movie. Waise Lee ("A Better Tomorrow") paints a decent transformation of a man who turns into a monster consumed by greed. The award for most notable performance, however, must go to Jacky Cheung. Cheung ("As Tears Go By"), a Cantonese pop singer by trade in real life, plays a man who is pushed past the edges of his humanity by the insanity of war and sadistic violence, and who goes through the dramatic change from a working class street delinquent to a deranged, cold-blooded assassin who kills for money to fill his morphine addiction. Cheung succeeds in delivering a convincing performance with a sort of unreserved sincerity in his acting. That sincerity, although at times a bit overly earnest in this movie, is genuine throughout. One can not help but feel both pity and indignation for his character as he wrestles madly for the injection syringe, and stares blindly into the eyes of his long-lost friend, Leung, as the latter decides that he must kill his best friend in order to save him from further suffering.
In the end, Woo does not offer a moralistic judgment on his characters or the events surrounding them in this movie, as is true with a lot of his other work. What he is more interested in here is how a human being reacts, and is transformed by the situation that he's forced into. In this case it's three young and ambitious men who had set out to take over the world, but in confronting the realities of war and violence, find that it's the exact opposite that takes place. Also thematic of Woo's work is that the victory of the good in the face of evil is never obvious, even the line between good and evil itself is extremely elusive, and the heroes do not always live. What he seems to be implying here is that violence and virtues are often irrevocably linked, and the survival of the body is determined by the survival of the will.
Rating:
Summary: a beautiful depiction of wartime, without the soldiers
Review: why are people referring to the deer hunter so much in their reviews? i've seen both films and i would rate them both equally. sure, bullet is inspired by deer hunter, alot of movies are inspired by others, i realise the stories come close to eachother but these are people seeing it from another angle. in fact, i think anyone who hasnt seen bullet should watch it first and then rewatch deer hunter, they are both amazing films in their own ways. bullet in the head is a must see, not only for fans of action films or just john woo, but for fans of all films. it's an intense drama about friendship during wartime. please rent or buy this film, and then buy deer hunter and put it on the shelf next to it.
Rating:
Summary: John Woo's masterpiece
Review: With greater stakes and greater action, this violent but emotional film puts all his other movies into context. Unlike the other best of his Hong Kong years (The Killer and Hard-Boiled), this one aspires more to (and resembles) classics like The Wild Bunch, Raging Bull or The Deer Hunter than any actioner like Die Hard. It's near-operatic themes will resonate in your psyche for years after.The basic story: Three friends, one of whom accidently kills someone in a fight, flee from Hong Kong to 1960s war-torn Vietnam with a truckload of blackmarket merchandise to sell and make a fortune. The first day there, however, the merchandise is destroyed in a firefight, and the three friends must fend for themselves. Later captured and held in a Vietnamese prison camp, their friendship is tested by horrific circumstances and painful choices.
Rating:
Summary: the most intense action flick of all time
Review: Without doubt Woo's greatest movie. Perhaps Hard boiled comes close (yes it has more action) but Bullet is in my opinion superior. It conveys more emotional impact. I own the Made in hong kong vhs copy and am quite pleased. here in the UK we can get hold of many action flicks from hong kong, though DVDs are a rarity.
Rating: 
Summary: 18 minutes cut from this VHS and DVD!
Review: Yes its true, unless you saw the movie in its theatrical debut or live in France and happen to own a laserdisc player you have never seen the full version of this film. The full version runs 138 or 135 minutes(depending which ending, there are 2). Its a very different film compared to this hacked up for the rest of the world version. ITS NOT RIGHT! And how about those subtitles? I don't even speak the language and i could have done a better job than that! They even dub Tony Leung in his own language for some beyond strange reason. This DVD is a throw away. Wait and hope until Anchor Bay gets the full print and beefs it up. This is just pathetic.
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