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Broken Arrow [Blu-ray] by John Woo
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Blu-ray detailsActor: Christian Slater, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, John Travolta, Samantha Mathis Director: John Woo Brand: Fox Blu-ray: Region Code 0 Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), DTS 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1 Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled Picture Format: 2.35:1 Running Time: 108 minutes Blu-ray Release Date: 2007-02-13 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Blu-ray Reviews of Broken Arrow [Blu-ray]Blu-ray Review: A guilty pleasure Summary: 4 Stars
"Broken Arrow" mixes a lot of Die Hard with a strong dose of the great outdoors to produce a film that is WAY short on logic, but heavy with delicious acting performances. And let's face it, how many movies get to have lines like, "Please DON'T shoot at the nuclear weapons!" LOL
Travolta has a lot of fun with his villain roles, and this is no exception. While he is often over the top, he also has deep moments in this film, as when he kills the annoying partner/financier to the crime and then has a moment of reflection about how it felt to actually kill someone face to face, for the first time. Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis have good chemistry as the pilot and park ranger brought together by circumstance as the only people in the way of the theft of nuclear weapons. Even Howie Long impresses in his role of a special forces member gone to the dark side.
Now, elements of the plot are thin, no doubt about it. As long as you can believe that two people on foot can somehow keep up with helicopters, trucks, and humvees, you won't notice the plot holes. LOL A one star reviewer compared this movie to "Con Air". I'll agree that travel time idiocies do link the two films, but where I detested "Con Air" for just such goofs, for some reason I found them forgivable in this film, as I was much more entertained by just about everyone in the cast. It is unquestionably a mindless sort of entertainment, and it has to be. If you spend too much time thinking about it this plot unravels like a skein of rotten yarn.
But somehow, seeing the lady Park Ranger stand up to a US Army Ranger, and Christian Slater stand up to and overcome the "friend" who had consistently bullied and belittled him pulls this movie out of the valley of silly ... at least for me.
So don't look for depth, meaning, or sensible travel timetables. Just sit back and enjoy the richness of Travolta's villain, the heroes overcoming all odds, and the reams of entertaining macho dialog. ;-)
More Broken Arrow [Blu-ray] reviews: 1
Description of Broken Arrow [Blu-ray]When a B-3 Stealth Bomber crashes in the Utah desert during a top-secret test run, the military quickly moves in to retrieve its two "broken arrows." But the situation spins wildly out of control after one of the pilots reveals the crash to be part of an incredible nuclear extortion plot. John Travolta is Vic Deakins, a bomber pilot who launches a devilish plan to hijack two nuclear missiles for big-time extortion. Vic never sweats, spews out great one-liners, knocks off money men with glee, toys with killing half a million people... he even smokes! If you giggled at his "Ain't it cool" line from the trailer, you're in the right frame of mind for this comedic action film. Never as gritty or semi-realistic--or for that matter as heart-thumping--as the original Die Hard, Broken Arrow still delivers. If Travolta is cast against type, everyone else is by the numbers; Christian Slater as Hale, the earnest copilot looking to foil the plot, Samantha Mathis as the brave park ranger caught in the middle, Frank Whaley as an eager diplomat, Delroy Lindo as a right-minded colonel. As with his previous script (the superior Speed), writer Graham Yost moves everything quickly along as Hale and the ranger try to cut off Deakins's plan over a variety of terrains. We have plane crashes, car chases, a pursuit through an abandoned mine, a helicopter-train shootout, and lots of fighting between boys. Each time Hale finds himself perfectly in place to foil Deakins. You're suppose to laugh at the unbelievable situations. That's where Arrow is deceptive: its tone is right for the laughter compared to the mean-spirited Schwarzenegger and Stallone action films with labored jokes. Hong Kong master director John Woo (The Killer, Hard Target) pulls out all the stops--slow motion of Hale and Deakins's gymnastic gun play, nifty stunts, countdowns to doomsday. Woo may know action, but he needs more guidance in creating unique and stunning special effects. This is action entertainment at its cheesiest. Travolta and Woo later reteamed for Face/Off. --Doug Thomas
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