![\"hard-target-original\"](\"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hard-target-original-1.jpg\" "\\"hard-target-original\\"")
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A former merchant marine helps a woman find her long-lost father, uncovering a group of rich, well-armed mercenaries who hunt people for sport.<\/p>\n
Before Hard Target<\/strong>, I would suggest we only had Van Damme the performer. He had his flips, his kicks, and his physique.\u00a0 Now, we have Van Damme the persona.\u00a0 He is clever, cagey, and charming.<\/p>\n A pre-Witchblade<\/strong> Butler does what she can, but this is largely a damsel-in-distress role.\u00a0 Yancy is all eyes and tears.<\/p>\n Henriksen is on fire here… literally, at one point.\u00a0 He pushes the character hard, stealing several scenes and nearly the whole movie.\u00a0 He never quite goes full ham, but remains just on the edge, an evil, evil man, but with a lot of pride and dignity.<\/p>\n The South African actor wouldn’t get another meaty role like this until 1999’s The Mummy<\/strong>.\u00a0 Again, we get an actor who gets it.\u00a0 He plays the role as a clean, stoic version of Chance gone wrong.\u00a0 Dark, short hair and sadistic, but of course, “a professional.”<\/p>\n Well, this is a John Woo film.\u00a0 And as such, women tend to typically spend the duration in the back seat.\u00a0 So even though Yancy Butler’s character of Nat is the driving force of the plot, she spends the film being either a helpless damsel or hiding from danger.\u00a0 The one time in which she draws a weapon and obliterates a foe, she is immediately disarmed by an ally and chastised for her actions.\u00a0 Kasi Lemmons’ character is similarly treated.\u00a0 After being one of the stronger female characters of the era for a third of the movie’s running time, she is dispatched and left dead on the side of the road, with only Nat to mourn her.<\/p>\n But hey, you gotta look at the silver lining.\u00a0 In a movie set in New Orleans, with a main character sporting a mullet and a trenchoat, villainous mercenary characters with vague East European connections, and rich people hunting the poor for sport, you have to hand it to the filmmakers for not including a single scene set in a strip club.\u00a0 Sexism? Yes. Exploitation? Not so much.<\/p>\n 45 bodies drop over the course of the original uncut version, of which Van Damme racks up an impressive 31. WATCH HERE<\/a><\/p>\n One thing I’ve always loved about Hong Kong Action movies is their penchant for never thinking anything is impossible.\u00a0 They’ll have characters ride on top of speeding cars, a gun in each hand, firing at their targets, while driving said cars with their sneakered feet.\u00a0 John Woo rose to fame during this brilliantly wacky place and time.\u00a0 And as such, when he came to the United States, he still had those sensibilities in place when he filmed this amazing sequence:<\/p>\n![\"Cajun](\"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Cajun-Beauty-1.jpg\" "\\"Cajun")
<\/a><\/p>\nJean-Claude Van Damme<\/span> as Chance Boudreaux<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nYancy Butler<\/span> as Natasha ‘Nat’ Binder <\/span><\/h3>\n
THE BAD GUYS:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nLance Henriksen<\/span> as Emil Fouchon<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nArnold Vosloo as Pik van Cleef<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
[THE SEX AND VIOLENCE]<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
EXPLOITATION AND MISOGYNY:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMURDER BY NUMBERS: [45]<\/span><\/h3>\n
[THE BEST OF THE REST]<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
EPIC MOMENT:<\/span><\/h3>\n