Hard Target

Posted in Action by - March 23, 2011

If you change your mind, I’m the first in line
Honey I’m still free
Take a chance on me
If you need me, let me know, gonna be around
If you’ve got no place to go, if you’re feeling down
If you’re all alone when the pretty birds have flown
Honey I’m still free
Take a chance on me
Gonna do my very best and it ain’t no lie
If you put me to the test, if you let me try

Take a chance on me
(That’s all I ask of you honey)
Take a chance on me

Yes that’s right this week Lee and Dan are watching the 1993 John Woo action film Hard Target. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux (see what we did there?!?!… fine whatevs).

It’s a pretty awesome podcast this week so stop gawking at the scary ABBA song lines and listen to the podcast!!

Play

Big thanks to Alex this week for taking part in our Three of the Best! Check out his blog “Do it Anyway”.

Now next week is possibly the first horror film (there must have been another… maybe Jaws) on the podcast, if you listen carefully you can hear Dan shaking in his boots already!! Lee and Dan are checking out From Dusk Till Dawn!!

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This post was written by Lee
Lee is a pop-culturalist who grew up weighing everything’s worth as it related to pop culture references. He is also an aspiring illustrator and lives in Australia with his wife who is perfectly normal and reads books that do not contain robots which Lee finds odd but charming.
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15 Comments

  • MC
    March 23, 2011 at 9:28 am

    I haven’t listened yet, but I just thought I would suggest another movie for a future season based on this same theme: 1994′s Surviving the Game.

    • Dan
      March 23, 2011 at 9:43 am

      Now THAT’S a haircut!

      • shane
        March 23, 2011 at 8:20 pm

        That film has a who’s who of b movie actors!

  • Phil K
    March 23, 2011 at 10:47 am

    I am half way through it, great as always but Dan should start looking over his shoulder for kickboxers after this episode.

    • Lee
      March 25, 2011 at 10:34 pm

      I know right!?!

      Why would you want to upset the kickboxers of all people!?!?!?

  • Phil K
    March 23, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    I would like to think that Hard Target was intentionally made tongue in cheek, as a satire of action films. I saw it at the cinemas and laughed all the way through it. its so ridiculously over the top sure nobody involved in the production would think they were making a serious movie?

    I liked this weeks 3 of the best, Shane Black has done some great films and he was just signed on to direct Iron Man 3 which hopefully means it will be great and better then the last quite average movie. He also wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which starred RDJ and is a fantastic film too.

    Oh and bingo term for 7 is, wait for it…. Lucky for Some!!

  • Ian
    March 23, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    I have a request that I hope you will consider.

    Please take that ‘What would Wonder Woman Do’ book and shred it, burn the remains it and shred the ashes. PLEASE!!!!

    Other than that, thanks for another good roasting of a film that needed it and thanks for the shout out ;-)

    • Dan
      March 23, 2011 at 8:34 pm

      You’ve got two weeks of the book left Ian. Be strong.

      • Ian
        March 24, 2011 at 9:06 am

        I don’t think I can :-(

        I know, I’ll skip that part. That’ll make a shorter postcast with better quality content overall. I’m a genius! ;-)

        • Lee
          March 25, 2011 at 10:35 pm

          This is why you’ll never get ahead in business.

  • shane
    March 23, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    Hard target is comedy genius! im glad you both saw it that way, i was dreading this podcast as van damme’s a cult hero of mine.(yes i would have been one of the guys watching over your shoulder on the train!).He one of the reasons i got into martial arts films and even do a bit myself.I knew you were gonna rip the piss but at least you enjoyed the film why doing it.

    Hard target has so much over the top stuff it can never be taken seriously, i love it.From the beating up the guys at the start,the stupid bad guys.even the old geezer at the end with the bow and arrow kicking ass.The quite man like female lead with her amazing eyebrows. Its just damn fun from start to finish.
    .One of van damme’s best films imo behind the genius that is universal soldier.The punching the snake bit is awesome, it could only be better if he had round house kicked it after punching and ripping off its rattle with his teeth.

    Now im not to happy with the girl/kickboxing thing. I did kickboxing for a number of years,nothing is more satisfiying than round housing someone in the face!! (maybe jumping round housing come to think of it??) Take a look at youtube clips on kickboxing and tell me its for girls!!!

    Shane black has written some really decent films and im interested to see what he can add to iron man 3. (im with dan here iron man 2 isnt as bad as lee says) Kiss kiss bang bang is a quality film where he worked with downey jnr, so if he can rekindle some of that IM3 will be worh the watch.

    • Lee
      March 25, 2011 at 10:39 pm

      It may have sounded like I was agreeing with Dan in the podcast but I am NOT in the kickboxing is girly camp!!!

      Hard Target was surprisingly entertaining which is always a pleasure to discover when checking out some of these older films for the first time.

  • CS
    March 25, 2011 at 10:18 am

    I had forgotten about the punching the snake scene. It makes me want to watch it again just for that one part. I remember Van Damme mentioning in JCVD that he was upset that Woo went on to bigger Hollywood films without acknowledging that Van Damme was the guy who brought him to Hollywood.

    Regardless, the problem with Hard Target is that Woo was trying hard to make his typical style of film, while Van Damme is trying hard his usual style of film. The two styles just do not work. Van Damme encountered the same problem with the director of Double Team (aka the film with Denis Rodman). I would say that Face-Off is the closest John Woo has ever come to replicating his Hong Kong classics such as Hard Boiled and The Killer (both are must sees for action fans).

    • Lee
      March 25, 2011 at 10:41 pm

      The snake scene is worth the price of admission any day. Just watching it over again I’m still struck by the scene, when I first saw it I had to pinch myself, it’s too good to believe!!

      Now I’ve never seen Double Team and thinking about it I really should – it sounds like a classic!

  • Arjan
    March 26, 2011 at 9:41 am

    @ the kickboxing Lee: pics or it didn’t happen.

    You mentioned the ‘double tap’ and referred to the explanation from Zombieland as a second shot to secure the kill. That is partly true. I’m reading ‘Inside Delta force’ at the moment, and the author (one of the first Delta Force guys – he should know) says it’s a second shot on (almost) the same spot to make the wound is so bad you won’t survive it. As they’re aiming for vital parts already… it’s just a 200% securityshot :)
    *Great book btw!*

    You haven’t seen Double team?? Btw..speaking of fight movies..how about Blood sport. I know I’ve seen that one tons of times.

    Btw, semi-warning people for prankcall tricks ‘after’ you’ve performed them is downright evil! It’s impossible to keep track of which podcast you’re recording anyway :P