Word: brokenly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...FLASHBULBS WERE POPPING two weeks ago when Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan showed up at a Hollywood theater for the premiere of Broken Arrow, the new John Travolta film. Make that the new John Woo film, for Hong Kong's No. 1 action auteur directed this $60 million thriller. Chan, whose gonzo melodrama Rumble in the Bronx hits 1,500 screens this week, was at the premiere to wish his home-town colleague well and to personify the friendly invasion of Hollywood by Hong Kong talent. Only one problem: by the time Jackie got inside, all the seats were...
...anything can enlighten Hollywood, it is the box office. Hong Kong films attract audiences worldwide, and Broken Arrow earned a burly $15.6 million its first weekend. Even a myopic mogul can see that the brisk, visceral Hong Kong style of acting and action could be the shot of adrenaline Hollywood needs to shake off its creative funk...
...Broken Arrow, a bomb-ticking chase movie about a daredevil pilot (Travolta) who steals two nuclear weapons, shows how easily the two cinemas can coexist. It flies at the speed of Macho 2 while allowing Woo to unpack his full cinematic arsenal: overhead shots, plenty of steamy atmosphere (Travolta smokes a lot), Cuisinart editing of the action scenes, slow motion to prolong the jitters and, for dialogue scenes that other directors would stand flatfooted and watch, lithe little tracking shots. If film school were fun, Woo would be the nutty professor...
...made his name with such incendiary devices as Bullet in the Head and Hard-Boiled--furious meditations on manhood as a criminal state of grace. Broken Arrow is jokier, less resonant than those dark epics, but it's still a swell night at the movies. The audience gets as pulverizing a workout as the stars do. Or rather, the stars' stunt doubles, who deserve Oscars for best supporting masochism...
...best work of either man, Broken Arrow and Rumble serve as introductions to the spirit of Hong Kong cinema, even as they serve notice to U.S. moviemakers. Think you can do it better? Just watch! Hollywood will watch and, if there's any justice, give Chan and Woo the best seats in the house...