"Hard Boiled" (aka "Lat sau san taam") is indeed the embodiment of the pinnacle of director John Woo's career and it is definitely one of the movies that helped define the action genre of the 1990s for the Hong Kong cinema.While realisms takes a backseat throughout the course of "Hard Boiled", then the action and adrenaline takes the lead, and those things do carry the movie quite well. Everything in the movie is so outrageous that realisms has no chance of bidding in with anything. Bullet count? Don't even bother, because that is non-existing here. So every single handgun and rifle has infinite ammo, well right until it becomes a pivotal scene for the storyline, then suddenly there is no more ammo.The movie starts out in a high pace and it doesn't really slow down. So that was a great accomplishment on behalf of director John Woo.The storyline, while it is not the most complex of storylines and plot ever to have been constructed, is actually entertaining and does have some nice turns to it. Was it predictable? It most certainly was. But it is the type of storyline that picks you up and carry you along for a great action-packed thrill ride.One of the more impressive things about "Hard Boiled" aside from the amazing action sequences, was the cast. They had Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung and Anthony Wong together in this movie; three of the major names in Hong Kong cinema."Hard Boiled" is actually a rather violent movie if you take a step back and look at it from an aesthetic viewpoint. There is a lot of violence in the movie and a lot of innocent bystanders do get gunned down throughout the course of the movie. But doesn't that sort of add some perverse sense of realism as well, because psychotic people would actually succumb to such wanton random violence and bloodshed.I have watched "Hard Boiled" many times, and return to it every now and again solely because of the impressive action and the ultra fast pace that there is to the movie. And "Hard Boiled" was actually one of the reasons why I have such a profound and deep love for the Hong Kong cinema.

Hard Boiled is my number 1 favorite Hong Kong John Woo action film that I love to death! I absolutely love this movie to death I love it. It is one of my personal favorite movies. Hard Boiled (1992) is literally John Woo's best Hong Kong action film ever made of all time! The movie is a hard-core action, I have ever seen. It is actually the best Hong Kong action film for me. It belongs right up there with Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) the best action classic film of all time. Chow Yun-Fat, toothpick in mouth, a gun in each hand. That's all of the plot you need to know. In fact, this is THE best pure action epic ever filmed. This is my film, my personal favorite Hong Kong action film of all time."Give the guy a gun and he's superman, give him two and he's God."Not even Jackie Chan can mess with this film or beat it. The only Jackie Chan film that is close to this film is Police Story. In my opinion Hard Boiled is John Woo's best HK action movie from the 90's and a true masterpiece along with Hard Target (1993) his first American movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the main role. Chow Yun-Fat stars as Tequila, a cop hell-bent on bringing down the gun smugglers responsible for his partner's death. He teams up with an undercover cop Tony Leung whose secret identity as a Triad hit man hangs on thread.Hard Boiled is my favorite John Woo's HK action movies. This action movie with twists around, The Hong Kong Cinema Hard Boiled has everything in it, no CGI, the stunts are real, the explosions are bigger and the plot of the film is amazing you can get in to the story without guessing what is going to happened and what the plot is about. The warehouse scenes and a shooting a motorcycles in an explosions from Tequila is my favorite scenes in the movie. Sometimes to me it come for this movie is similar to Miami Vice when Tony Leung was undercover cop on a boat he remind me on Sonny Crockett, but the shout outs in this film are awesome. Just Miami Vice TV series where more about drug cartels, this is arms dealer weapons about triads. The stunts are real and very dangerous. There was a hospital siege which was actually Die Hard in a hospital. Hard Boiled is a classic action film from Hong Kong, they don't make movies like this anymore. Phillip Chan is also in this film which I forgot to mention in my review Philip Chan was also in Van Damme's Bloodsport. You have a great action sequences in the tea house, where the guns are hitting in the bird cage, he shoots a dozen guys and saves a baby, the hospital sequences are real. The first time I saw this film I had no idea that how great film it is, the greatest movie of all time in the cinema. John Woo is also as a bartender in this film. The hospital sequences for me is real, the action is real. The best Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo movie ever made. Hard Boiled is a 1992 Hong Kong action film written by Barry Wong and directed by John Woo. It stars Chow Yun-fat as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai10/10 I love this movie to death it is my favorite Hong Kong Action film and it is my second favorite film that I love. It is also my number 2 favorite action film.

Review: I remember thinking that this movie was amazing when I first watched it, in the early 90's, because of the great action at the end and the coolness of Chow Yun-Fat but I must admit, it does look a bit dated now. The soundtrack is awful throughout the movie and the gun action seemed a bit messy and over exaggerated. Anyway, this movie is about a Hong Kong cop, Officer "Tequila" Yuen (Chow Yun-Fat), who attempts to arrest a group of gun smugglers in a tea house with his partner, Benny (Bowie Lam). During an epic shootout, Benny is killed and many of the officers are badly wounded so Tequila goes on a mission to kill the gang who ambushed there operation. Whilst seeking revenge for his partner, Tequila sets out to kill the gangster who sent out his henchmen to ambush the deal but Tequila's boss, Pang (Philips Chan) wants the gangster alive so he can testify. While all of that commotion is happening, a high ranking assassin, Alan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), works for a triad boss, Uncle Hoi but when Alan is approached by a rival gang leader, Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong) to join his gang because of his impressive gun skills, Alan turns against Hoi and they plan to raid one of Hoi's warehouses. During the raid, Wongs henchmen kill most of Hoi's workers and he demands Alan to kill Wong who is called to the scene. Because of his loyalty to his new boss, Alan kills Hoi and he's left alone with his thoughts while Wong departs. Tequila watches the whole alteration and he attempts to kill Alan but he runs out of ammo and to his surprise, Alan spares his life. Tequila is then told by Pang, that Alan is an undercover officer so they join forces to take-down Wong, while he still is undercover. Tequila's informant, Foxy (Tung Wei) gets fatally injured by Wongs henchmen and Alan shoots Foxy to show his loyalty to Wong but he knows that the shot wouldn't kill him because he gave him a lighter, which he put in his breast pocket. Foxy then tells Tequila about the whole alteration and Tequila takes Foxy to the nearby hospital because of his fatal wounds. When Wong finds out that Foxy is still alive, he sends his henchmen to the hospital to kill Foxy but Alan and Tequila are there to protect him. Whilst fighting against Wongs henchmen, Tequila and Alan come across a secret passage which leads to Wongs arsenal, which they use to defend themselves. Wong then takes the patients and police officers hostage and after killing many of them, without any remorse, Pang and his officers get involved to try and free some of the babies in the maternity ward. Tequila helps to save the babies and the hostages while Alan goes head to head with Wongs head henchman. Wong then plants bombs around the hospital, so Tequila has to fight against time to save the last baby. When Wong starts to murder some more of the patients, his head henchman decides to turns his gun on Wong because he's against killing innocent people but he runs out of ammo and is killed by Wong on the spot. While the building is exploding, Wong comes out of the hospital, holding Alan at gunpoint and Wong tries to humiliate Tequila in front of all of his fellow officers but Alan isn't having any of it and he puts up a struggle with Wong and shoots himself through the belly, giving Tequila enough time to kill him. Once again, it's another detailed storyline with loads of bullets flying throughout the movie but the whole look and feel of the film was a bit dated. I really liked Chow Yun-Fat's character because of his no fear, one man army attitude but the gun action is a bit far fetched and I personally would have enjoyed it more, if it wasn't 2 hours long. Watchable!Round-Up: This movie was John Woo's last release in his native country before he hit the Western market with Hard Target with Jean Claude Van Damme. Its the last movie that he made with Chow Yun-Fat, after a successful run of movies together, which include A Better Tomorrow I & II, the Killer and Once A Thief and I hope they come together again, before Woo decides to retire. Anyway, the signature gun action from Woo is definitely what made this a hit in the early 90's but I was expecting more the second time around.Budget: $4.5million Worldwide Gross: HK$19.7millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama's starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Chiu Wai Leung, Teresa Mo and Philip Chan. 4/10

We can start the review by stating one fact about this movie: the body count is 307. That is over two bodies a minute.To sum it up, this action film is pound for pound, inch for inch one of the biggest, baddest, most intense, and most insane action movies in the entire spectrum of cinema----not just China but the entire planet. This movie nearly immediately starts off with a bang (Well, a medley of bangs) and then interweaves action sequences with a plot full of betrayal, undercover work and slight double-crossing (Yea, technically there is a plot) before leading up to a finale that ranks up there as among the best you'll ever see.Hard Boiled is 90s action cinema plain and simple: takes no prisoners, the plot comes second, and its main focus is to satisfy the audience by any means necessary. But the biggest difference between this bloody gem and your old-school 90s Michael Bay and James Cameron is that Hard Boiled was far, far riskier in terms of stuntwork and far, far less restricted with rules, regulations, and insurance companies. Not to knock the safe techniques of Hollywood, but the extremely dedicated staff behind this dangerously destructive movie paved the way more stunts, explosions, and utter mayhem that just wouldn't be humanely possible in a film made in the American borders.John Woo (and Chow Yun-Fat) is at his prime here, cut down by age and Hollywood limits shortly after his peak in 1992. Unlike your rapid-fire editing, extreme close-ups, shaky camera-work, and over-abundance of CGI of your modern, easier-to-make action movies, Hard Boiled was layers of stuntwork, lack of trickery, exquisite long shots of just egregious shootouts---and so much action you might feel like having to clean the television set once the credits start rolling. The final showdown alone takes up about half an hour and has more broken glass than a mirror maze overrun by black cats.Physics and continuity are stretched to the limit as the gun fu style of action allows for thousands of bullets to fly out of the hundreds of guns at such an intense and entertaining pace you don't realize how impossible the entire sequence is. Picture high-energy martial arts except instead of punches and kicks you'll see bullets fly at each other and hundreds of near-misses from our heroes and some of the enemies. You are going to see years of action, violence, blood and guts compacted into a two-hour chunk of pure exhilaration.Non-action moviegoers would probably see this as mundane and repetitive, devoid of good dialogue and a deep plot. Action fans will see this as a sweet dream come true as you'll see fights of gunfire in multiple angles, multiple speeds, and plenty of creativity to keep it all engaging--while telling a tale about good cops going up against really bad men. This is John Woo at his best, Chinese cinema at its finest, and a violently beautiful example of what happens when you rely solely on real life stuntwork and good ol' actual explosives. And most impressive that with a $5 million budget it feels like a bigger and better experience than your modern $150-$200 million summer blockbusters.Loud, uncut, and out of control, Hard Boiled is as tough as nails, and deserves your full attention.